Pippa Bartolotti's Real 'Business Career'

Examining Pippa Bartolotti's claims of a 'successful' business career, setting up companies, but taking early retirement after a few years within the WelshGovernment's business department

According to Pippa Bartolotti   "By 1991 I had managed two of my own companies, made the shift into electronics, become CEO of Encrypta Electronics, and moved down to Wales from where my own children could experience the joys of a country life. Directorships of other companies followed. In 1997 I accepted a position with the Welsh Development Agency working to grow indigenous businesses; from there I moved to the Welsh Assembly Government working on business consultancy. Disillusioned with the slow pace and chronic wastage in civil service, I took early retirement to explore the world I did not know"

PB "I first worked in the Glastonbury sheepskin industry in 1973-5, then the fashion business in the West End of London 1975-1986". These early efforts spawned a company Hayward Fashions, which was presumably set up by her ex-husband Mark Hayward (who is written out of her own accounts). This company did not survive into the internet age.

PB's statement for the Green Party election 2012 contained:

"I then started Encrypta Electronics (employing 25 people and sub contracting to AB Electronics among other local businesses) and moved to South Wales with my young family.'

Yet it was Mark Hayward and his father who founded the two electronics companies, Encrypta (1985) and Enigma (1986), so PB's business career may not have started till the 1990s.

According to Companies House website PB was not in Encrypta's start-up, but joined both companies in 1992, as director/manager of Encrypta and as company secretary of Enigma. The accounts show that in the time she was manager of Encrypta (till June '97) no accounts were filed. Also, up to Enigma's dissolution in 2003, she filed accounts only in two years (2001, 2002).

Encrypta went bankrupt in 2003, closing with £147k owed to creditors. Encrypta had sold a 50% interest to a subsidiary of the Malaysian company Abric Berhad in 1999 (for £363k), with Philippa Jane Bartolotti-Hayward named as beneficiary*.

PB's company record shows she also joined Toucan Systems (manufacturing 'other electrical equipment') as Director for 2 years, from 2001-2003. No accounts were filed in that period. Since the 2003 clear-out of the boardroom, Toucan has traded successfully and filed regular accounts.

As she states, PB was employed part-time from 1997 by the WDA and then the Welsh Government, working within the South East Wales Business Services team.  Her ‘disillusion’ leading to her taking ‘early retirement’ appeared to coincide with the 2003 closure of the electronics companies and her ejection from Toucan's board (Mark Hayward also quit as president). Her break-up with Mark Hayward may have played a role. Mark moved to Sales and Marketing Director of Unisto Electronic Seals (parent company Unisto Switzerland), apparently taking with him Simon Fiera (Technical Director) and Encrypta's patents for electronic security seals. PB would have got some financial settlement.

PB did continue with one company La'viva, registered to her home address in 1997 with one other Director.

While it closed in 2008-9, La'viva traded only during years 2000-2002 with total declared profit of £5000; of course its advantage for claiming office/car expenses and other tax avoidance could have been worth more.

Though she retired from active companies in 2003 to “explore the world”, talking about visiting Cuba and India, PB did disclose she’s of Jewish stock and had spent some years in Israel in this period [2]. Those years of her life till she emerged in South Wales in 2009 are shrouded in mystery. One clue is the special treatment accorded to her on the Palestine-aid mission, when all were arrested at BenGurion airport [3]. PB alone was ushered through the passport control for Israeli citizens by security agents; hence questions about her possessing an Israeli passport, which she has denied. A second clue lies in her company supplies of military equipment and its links with AWE Aldermaston [4], over which she has to be secretive. Another clue is her representing Encrypta at the June 2004 US Cargo Security conference in Las Vegas, with prominent military participation [6]. A fourth clue is that PB states elsewhere [5] she ceased “working for money” at age 55, ie. 2008. This allows her 4 to 5 years working in Israel, overlapping with exploration of India (Oct. 2006) and Cuba (Nov. 2007, April 2008). The unclarity and inconsistent dates of this period suggest that PB had something to hide.

Encrypta's Link with AB Connectors and Thales arms manufacturers

PB picked out AB Connectors as a significant sub-contractor in her statement above. AB Connectors is an Abercynon company which moved in 1996 into manufacture of military electronic components. They were in the news in October 2012, when their owners TT Electronics announced up to 45 redundancies out of their 193 employees [7]. This states AB Components “manufacture complex electronic connectors and systems for aerospace, defence and rail projects”.

In fact, AB Components are sub-contractors to Thales UK, which is a leading arms company, both in non-nuclear armaments and in nuclear weapons [8]. The Welsh deputy First Minister in 2010 welcomed Thales's new centre in Llangennech near Llanelli, where they were equipping ‘Warthog’ tracked military vehicles destined for Afghanistan with over £150m worth of communications systems, specialist counter-measure equipment and extra protective armour http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/8690060.stm.

The Minister stated “The significant contract awarded to AB Connectors is excellent news as it has already created 40 new jobs and opens the door for potentially more business."

Toucan's link with Thales

PB described this in an email to Penny KEMP and Wales Green Party Council 10 July 2012:

“Toucan design man-machine interfaces ... In my time the company made one replacement keyboard for Thales. Toucan was the only company with the expertise to do the job... equipment in a reactor environment”.

This is strange, not only because Thales is a military weapons supplier - UK’s second largest defence electronics supplier - so the equipment could have been for nuclear weapons but not a reactor. It's also strange because Toucan Systems lists Thales as a long-running supplier http://www.toucan-systems.co.uk/about.

Encrypta's Link with Atomic Weapons (Research)Establishment, Aldermaston

Encrypta's business is

supplying security locking devices for civilian uses and military equipment. Encrypta “collaborat(ed) with AWE (Aldermaston)… to address one of the most challenging sealing and tagging problems in the world." [4]

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Questions to P. Bartolotti

In 2012 (20 November) PB was asked at Cardiff UNA meeting if she as former Director & Manager, could disclose more about Encrypta’s sub-contract with AB Electronics/Components? Did their contract continue after Encrypta went bankrupt in 2003? She was also asked about Toucan Systems, because she'd written http://pippabartolotti.com/post/24630957703/about-pippa#comment-578907613

“Toucan design man-machine interfaces - the main business was in catering and hospital equipment. In my time (2001-3) the company made one replacement keyboard for Thales. You might think it would have been better to let a nuclear establishment carry on with faulty equipment, but as Toucan was the only company with the expertise to to the job, we erred on the side of safety.”

PB gave the same “one keyboard” story to the Green Party folowing a request from their Press Office to explain connections with Thales, during the leadership election campaign In July-Sept 2012 (see above). PB was asked too at the 20^th November meeting if Toucan might also be a past or current supplier of military components – she feigned not to know.

A Warthog tank in the Desert, as supplied for
Afghanistan, fitted out by Thales UK in Wales

[1] The conditional Sale and Purchase Agreement dated 13 July 1999 between Mark Osborne Hayward, Philippa Jane Bartolotti-Hayward, Gilbert Hayward, Maisie Hayward and Abric Worldwide Sdn Bhd in respect of the acquisition of 4,000 ordinary shares of £1 each in Encrypta Electronics Ltd (“ Encrypta”) for a cash consideration of £84,000 (equivalent to approximately RM512,400) and thereafter the subscription of 2,000 ordinary shares of £1 each for a cash consideration of £279,141 (equivalent to approximately RM1,700,000) and 859 new irredeemable convertible preference shares for a cash consideration of £859 (equivalent to approximately RM5,200); which aggregate to 6,000 ordinary shares of £1 each representing 50% equity interest in Encrypta

[2] link 

[3] greenparty.org.uk/news/14-07-2011-israeli-detention.html

[4] Atomic weapons establishment consults with Encrypta electronics on arms control technologies
Sep 6, 2002 – By Encrypta Staff Writer

[5] http://beta.soulscode.com/march-25-31-2009-the-great-peace/ : "Pippa has run successful businesses ranging from fashion design to electronics. At 55, she decided to stop working for money. She now dedicates her life to promoting understanding and mutual respect between peoples. She is writing her fourth book, and lives in Wales with her family and a Tibetan monk.”

[6] National Cargo Security Council's Annual Conference & Exhibition (12-16 June 2004, Las Vegas) http://www.sfmx.org/fyi/webdocs/lasvegasconf.pdf. 
PB represented Encrypta with Mark Hayward and Simon Fereira for UNISTO/Encrypta according to the Exhibitors' programme. Speakers included: US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Colonel Oliver North, General Denis Jackson, who headed up US military logistics in both Afghanistan, and Iraq US Army Colonel James J. Tomoney (Director of Security, Warnaco) on The Psychology of the Islamic Fundamentalist.
[7] (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/cynon-valley/2012/10/18/quarter-of-staff-at-ab-connectors-abercynon-face-the-axe-91466-32043981/)

[8] The March 2012 'Vision of Humanity' report: http://www.visionofhumanity.org/info-center/financing-nuclear-weapons/ gives Thales, Serco etc heading a list of the top 20 nuclear weapons producers.