I first met Neal in around 1997, the day I started at ICL. I am not sure how long he had been in the Sun Division then but it cannot have been that long. I remember bumping into him in the BP garage on my second day. Wearing his crisp white shirt, tie, and designer glasses, the first impression he gave was of a very professional and quietly warm individual.

Over the following fifteen years for me but twenty years and more for others, Neal turned out to be much more than that, a cornerstone of the organisations we all worked in together, one of the family, a friend and a pivotal character to us all. 

The man with the skills and demeanour for the most complex and difficult customers, Neal will be forever remembered by so many people for his warm heart, his laugh and his uniquely dry wit and sense of humour. He was one of a kind, a common denominator in so many special times and the architect of so many of the laughs that we all shared together over so many years. There will only ever be one Neal Lewis.

Even in the sadness of his passing I cannot help but raise a smile for the man that we will all miss greatly and whom we have all been blessed to have known.

Rest in peace Neal. We will miss you and raise a glass to you.

All the best my friend.

Matt.