Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a young charity, set up in 2012, but it is the product of an organisation with a long tradition of public benefit, Lloyd’s Register.
It started with a cup of coffee
Safety has been at the heart of Lloyd’s Register’s work since 1760. In that year, 11 men met in Edward Lloyd’s coffee house to talk about publishing a list of ships, a register to define their quality and safeguard life and property carried on them. In the years since then Lloyd’s Register has applied its expertise across the energy and transportation sectors, helping to make the world a safer place. Lloyd’s Register’s constitution required it to enhance the safety of life and property at sea, on land and in the air. Further, it required the organisation to support public education within the transportation industries, engineering and technological disciplines.
For many years, Lloyd's Register made funds available for this purpose. In 2004, to bring a sharper focus and greater professionalism to its charitable work it set up The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust (LRET) to fund advances in transportation, science, engineering and technology education, training, and research worldwide for the benefit of all. The LRET was wholly funded by Lloyd's Register.
And now the Foundation
We live in a world where the external challenges are becoming greater and require us to operate more efficiently and effectively. Lloyd’s Register recognised that its governance structure needed to evolve to optimise its commercial operations which, in turn, fuel the charitable output of Lloyd’s Register.
On 2 July 2012, Lloyd's Register converted its status from an industrial and provident society to a company limited by shares, called Lloyd's Register Group Limited. The shares in Lloyd's Register Group Limited are owned by a the new parent, Lloyd's Register Foundation, a registered charity. Importantly, the objectives and mission of the Foundation remain the same as those of Lloyd's Register previously, to protect life and property and to advance transport and engineering education and research ... because life matters.