Beyond King’s

Carolyn joined King’s for the Sixth Form from St Mary’s Convent, following in the footsteps of her brother, OV Julian Thake (Cr 65-72).

While at King’s, Carolyn completed her A levels in French, Maths, and Computer Studies, balancing her academic studies with playing the clarinet in the School Orchestra.

On leaving King’s, Carolyn used her skills to start her career in IT, continuing in that sector in a variety of IT Management roles, which included being the Supplier Contracts Manager for a global IT outsourcing organisation. Due to the extensive travelling required in that role, Carolyn decided her final position before taking early retirement would be closer to home, and joined Wesleyan Insurance in Birmingham, before retiring in 2021.

Carolyn had continued playing the clarinet and then concentrated on the saxophone as a semi-professional Jazz and Soul musician throughout her adult life. She is now very happy to call it her profession, most recently playing at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2022. In addition to her music, Carolyn is a volunteer for the Blue Cross animal charity and in what is left of her spare time, she is writing a book about her late mother, Hannah, whose Austrian Jewish heritage led to an incredible story and journey to the UK.

Currently living near Droitwich with her husband, Martyn, Carolyn is keen to re-connect with her fellow OVs!

As we will soon be welcoming the Year of 2014 back to King’s for their Ten Year Reunion, it seemed apt to see where the last decade has taken the then Head of School, OV Dr Corah Lewis (Ch 7-14).

At King’s, Corah made the most of all her opportunities; in addition to her Head of School responsibilities, she was a keen participant in the Choir, LAMDA, and playing for the First Netball Team.

Corah studied Maths, Art, Biology, and Geography for her A-levels and, after Results Day didn’t quite go to plan, she secured a place at the University of Manchester via Clearing. Corah went on to study Psychology and she continued her Netball by playing for the University. She undertook several placements during her degree, including working for a year at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. After graduating with a First Class Degree, Corah became an Assistant Psychologist in the Neuropsychology Team at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Corah secured a place on the Clinical Psychology Doctorate course at the University of Oxford in 2020. Here she worked as a Trainee Clinical Psychologist in a number of teams, including an Autism and ADHD Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team, and a specialist Cleft Team. As well as placement time, Corah undertook three research studies in an area she is passionate about: Health Psychology. Her thesis explored stigma in Facial Palsy, therapy engagement in Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder, and parental decision making in Paediatric Craniofacial conditions.

Her next chapter is a new role in the Children’s Psychological Medicine team at Oxford University Hospitals, where her time is split between the Paediatric Diabetes Team and General Paediatric Team. Corah is also wedding planning, and looks forward to getting married in Worcester Cathedral this summer, back where it all began.

We look forward to seeing Corah and her cohort at their Ten Year Reunion in March!

We were so pleased to see OV Jack Everton (Cr 02-09 and Old St Alban’s) back at King’s recently. Jack has returned to Worcester to join his family’s company, Everton’s Wine Merchants, working with his father, OV Richard Everton (W 78-83 and Old Hawfordian).

Jack was especially keen on sport at King’s, which was reflected in his selection for the First Teams for Rugby, Football and Cricket. His fondest memory is winning the Modus Cup with the 1st XV, during which he scored a try, a personal highlight of the game. Jack was also involved with Young Enterprise and Drama, while studying for his AS-levels in Biology and History, and A-levels in Business Studies, Geography and Sports Science.

On leaving school, Jack embarked on his travels, including visits to France and Spain, before joining the world of work. He settled in London, working at the prestigious Hawksmoor steakhouse restaurant. This engendered his love for the hospitality sector, which instigated a move into the world of hospitality technology and using QR codes to help efficiency therein. A natural next step for Jack was to harness his skills in hospitality and utilise his now well-established network in London and beyond for the benefit of his family’s business.

Jack is the fourth generation at Everton’s Wine Merchants: the company was founded by Margaret Everton in 1918 and with each generation since it has gone through an evolution, which Jack hopes to continue when he takes over the reins from his father in due course. His current focus is to expand the business in the Midlands, in London, and beyond. There are two main “arms” for Everton’s Wine Merchants: wholesale suppliers, including being the sole supplier for Bottles Wine Bar in Worcester; and direct sales via their website for private consumption. The company also does wine tastings and supports events.

Jack credits his time at King’s, with a close-knit year group and good relationships with his teachers, for teaching him the benefits of forging relationships and nurturing them, a very useful skillset for building a business network and having happy customers. He also keeps in regular contact with many of his friends from the School, both in London and Worcester, and considers them friends for life.

The Everton family is keen to keep the strong connection with King’s going and will be offering OVs a discount on wine purchased through their website, so do “watch this space” for further details in due course. Readers may also be able to sample some of the Everton Wine Merchant stock at an OV event in the future!

It was wonderful to hear from OV Alex Borchardt (Cl 79-88), founder and managing director of Family Law Alternatives Ltd.

Alex’s company assists fathers and mothers in the UK, USA, Mexico, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia who have been restricted from remaining as a part of their children’s lives. He is also chair of the Plymouth branch of Families Need Families, and UK Ambassador for the Fathers and Families Coalition of America, which includes delivering annual presentations in Los Angeles, as well as being involved in the International Council on Shared Parenting.

Alex credits his time in the Debating Society at King’s for becoming an eloquent and able public speaker, with the skills to get his point across in many different circumstances. In addition to Debating, Alex took full advantage of the co-curricular activities available, especially the musical offering: he was involved with the Keys Society, Choir, Orchestra, and the more exclusive Chamber Orchestra, playing the ‘cello. His creative nature was further indulged with running the Photographic Society, as well learning the art of video production as part of General Studies whilst in the Sixth Form (where they made a film about teenage pregnancy), and flexing his grey matter in the Chess Club. Ensuring a good balance, Alex was also a dedicated member of the Boat Club, thoroughly enjoyed Climbing Club (especially trips to challenging rock faces around the country) and has great and enduring memories of his time in the RAF Section of the CCF.

From an academic perspective, Alex studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry for A-level. It was Alex’s Physics teacher, John Roslington (Hon OV) who nurtured his love for the subject, which led to it being his chosen degree at Exeter University.

Prior to attending Exeter, Alex spent a Gap Year in Austria, where he worked for an import / export firm whilst attaining a German Diploma from the University of Vienna.

His studies concluded, Alex went into the world of work, starting as a Senior Consultant for the REL Consultancy Group, specialising in Working Capital Management with an international remit for clients including Philips, IBM and Honeywell, working in the UK, Germany, and South Africa. Alex’s career then saw him join Winterton Rudd International, based in Johannesburg, as a director, assisting clients including Primedia and Omnimedia with strategy and improving customer relationship management. The next step for Alex was to relocate to London to become a project manager and e-business specialist in the Risk Management Division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Following a particularly challenging divorce and suffering many years in the Family Courts battling to see his son (who ended up following the footsteps of Alex’s father, retired Pershore GP and Worcester Royal Infirmary paediatrician Felix Borchardt, by qualifying as a doctor this year), Alex became painfully aware that in contested court hearings, whilst trying to agree on parenting arrangements, it is all too often the unfairness of the archaic and bureaucratic family court system that is more the problem than the parents themselves, hindering parties in reaching amicable settlements. Countless children lose out on happy and settled childhoods, while the only winners are the overpriced lawyers, and it was clear to Alex that he had to be part of working towards a fairer future, where we will hopefully no longer have a million children in the UK who do not have a relationship with their father, and over 90,000 growing up in the Care System.

Realising that this is one of the most serious problems in human society, one that will not be going away any time soon, and finding a higher purpose in life that he felt he could not ignore, Alex embarked on a completely new direction with his career path. As a result, he entered the world of family law advocacy and has spent the past eighteen years assisting parents represent themselves as Litigant In Person in Family Court and, where possible, helping them to stay out of the invariably adversarial legal system, resolving their difficulties instead through mediation, encouraging all parties to prioritise the best interests of the children rather than fighting with each other unnecessarily. During this time, Alex worked for the charity Families Need Fathers, initially as their National Helpline co-ordinator, then Assistant Chief Executive and later Acting Chief Executive.

Alex has also spent this time campaigning for a fairer and less complicated family law system, often in Westminster, working with politicians and representatives of the judiciary in striving for a better system all round, taking inspiration from more progressive countries such as Sweden, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Thankfully, reform is taking place, albeit very slowly.

Having found his calling, Alex then founded Family Law Alternatives Ltd, which he currently runs.

After working in many countries throughout his career and still spending a considerable amount of his time travelling, Alex has happily settled back in Exeter, where he attended university over thirty years ago, and regularly visits Worcestershire, as his parents are still in the family home in Fladbury, where they have been for 50 years.

Alex made many great lifelong friends at King’s, with whom he is still in contact. He is always pleased to return to see the School as it is today, finding the continued evolution of King’s invigorating.

It is the start of a new school year, and we’re back with our Beyond King’s feature! On this occasion, OV Essi Sadeghi (Cr 88-95), Vice President and Director of Investment Solutions for T. Rowe Price, steps into the spotlight.

While at King’s, Essi studied Maths, Further Maths, French and History for A-levels. Balancing the academic with the wider life of the School, Essi was also very involved in many co-curricular activities, including Drama, the Chamber Choir, the Keys Society and representing King’s in Fencing.

On leaving King’s, Essi headed to the University of Exeter, where she received a BA degree in French and Russian.

Following university, Essi was recruited by Deloitte as an Assistant Manager, where she stayed for four years. In 2003, she moved to Lockton UK, working in their Corporate Risk Solutions Department as an Account Executive. Her next role was as Assistant Vice President for Private Equity at Marsh McLennan, where she remained until she moved to Kentucky in the USA in 2007 to take up the post of Managing Director, Workplace Investing, for Fidelity Institutional Asset Management. Essi was with this company for a decade, moving first to Massachusetts and then to Rhode Island, reaching the position of Portfolio Strategist. This led into Essi’s next, and current role with T. Rowe Price.

T. Rowe Price is an asset management firm with its headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Essi is an investment strategist, helping institutions manage their investment programmes across the capital structure. The work involves being able to consult on the macro-economic environment to help inform investment decisions related to her clients’ multi-asset class exposures, based on forward projected market views.

As a “side-gig”, Essi is also a company director for Rebel Energy in the UK (a renewable energy start-up company), where she sits as one of the board directors. Essi uses her skills to help provide strategic direction to the company’s growth, as they build their client base and scale up the complexity of their operations and the households they serve.

Essi is a strong advocate for local LGBTQ+ youth in the US, keen to support and help those who need it, having herself transitioned (male to female). She is looking to sponsor some internships at Rebel Energy company with a specific focus on LGBTQ+ youth to promote opportunity for an otherwise underserved part of the community.

And finally, while not involved in her entrepreneurial passions, she spends her spare time raising her three children, Oliver (14), Silvia (11), and Samuel (9), and staying active. She is a keen swimmer and hiker and last year completed her first 50k ultramarathon!

Edward Kemp (H 74-83) was born in Oxford and grew up in Worcester, Yorkshire and Chichester. He joined the King’s School in 1972 as a Cathedral Chorister and was awarded a King’s Scholarship in 1978. He was a School and House Monitor, as well as rowing for the School, playing bassoon in the orchestra and wind band and, unsurprisingly, was involved with numerous school drama productions. He also trained with the National Youth Theatre.

He gained a place from King’s to read English Language and Literature at New College Oxford, and was awarded an Exhibition in his second year there.

Edward wrote his first full-length play, The Iron and the Oak¸ at the age of 15. It was staged at King’s and went on to further productions in Chichester and Oxford, winning “Most Promising Playwright” in the first Texaco/National Youth Theatre playwriting competition. Two more plays, Counterparts and A Proper Place both won prizes in this competition, the latter being staged by the National Youth Theatre.

Following university, Edward worked for the National Youth Theatre, Anthony Quayle’s Compass Theatre (where he founded the education and community wing) and Chichester, where he assisted Sir Peter Hall.

From 1991-6, Edward was Staff Director at the Royal National Theatre, working with, amongst others, Nicholas Hytner, Richard Eyre, Phyllida Lloyd, Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett, and Tom Stoppard. Since then, he has created plays for the National, RSC, Chichester, Complicite, Young Vic, and BBC Radio, and written over a dozen opera libretti (including for the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne). With the choreographer Cathy Marston, he has written over 20 ballet scenarios, including recently The Suit for Ballet Black, Mrs Robinson in San Francisco, Of Mice and Men in Chicago, Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Montreal, My Brilliant Career in Brisbane, and The Cellist, a ballet about Jacqueline Du Pré, at the Royal Opera House and in Zurich, as well as a screenplay for Disney +. From 2008-2021 he was Director and Chief Executive of RADA, directing, teaching and running the Academy; during this time he was also Principal of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. He is now Chief Executive of the Royal Literary Fund, the UK’s oldest literary charity.

OV John Sear’s (Ch 72-82 and King’s St Alban’s) interest in science was literally ignited during his first ever Chemistry lesson at King’s: zinc filings heated with sulphur over a Bunsen Burner, followed by aluminium powder and iodine produced a spectacle of fireworks and purple smoke which was unforgettable.

When not in the lab, John was very sports-oriented while at school, playing and part of the school teams for Football, Rugby and Tennis.

Having achieved four good grades at A Level, John joined Imperial College, London to study Biochemistry, where he was also Captain of the Tennis Team.

John’s subsequent career has led to over 30 years of project management experience, delivering multi-million-dollar transformational projects for businesses in a variety of sectors including superannuation / wealth management, manufacturing, utilities, insurance, gaming and telecommunications, and the public sector. This includes working with international organisations such as Price Waterhouse, BNP Paribas Security Services, Macquarie Bank, JP Morgan, Bankers Trust, and many Private and Public Sector organisations in Australia.

During his career, John moved from the UK to Australia, where he settled in Sydney with his family.

Having gained a great deal of experience in big Blue-Chip companies in recent years, John provides digital transformation delivery services to organisations through his own company. His most recent role was Program Director for NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, where he has been delivering digital transformation projects for the State Government to allow citizens to interact more with government departments via online solutions.

Currently he is more involved in voluntary work focussing on environment and underwater ecological systems. John curates an online project run by the Australian Museum that is hosted on a global citizen science platform called iNaturalist. He is also an Ambassador for CoralWatch, an organisation that promotes awareness of the importance of coral reefs and uses citizen science to monitor coral health. John has developed an identification guide for fish and corals in Sydney and commenced data capture for corals there following two recent bleaching events.

The love of travel that brought John to Australia has not diminished over the years and, from trips to Turkey and South America whilst at university, a love of the road less travelled has seen him mountain-biking in Madagascar, solo trekking many times in New Zealand, several times in Papua New Guinean jungles, two months traversing Borneo, and many other trips to Pacific islands, usually for SCUBA diving holidays to satisfy his passion for underwater photography.

Recently back in the UK for his 40-Year Reunion, John was also at the inaugural OV Overseas Reunion in Sydney. It was through this latter event that John realised he was living only 400m down the road from OV Peter Watson (S 38-41) and they are now in touch!

OV Alexandra Phillips (Cl 93-00) has just been appointed as the new Head of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department of Worcestershire law firm, mfg Solicitors, leading a 13-strong team. This seemed an opportune time to reflect on her time at King’s and how her journey since then has lead to this latest promotion.

Alex was boarder at King’s, easing into the boarding life having spent the term prior to joining King’s with Mrs Appleby, one of the School’s French teachers, while her father finished his last posting with the Army. Moving to boarding school, in England, having lived the majority of her life in Germany and Cyprus was bit of a culture shock, but this was short-lived, thanks to the warm welcome she received from the School. Alex has particularly fond memories of Second Master (at the time) Tim Hickson (Hon OV), who championed and supported her initial progress at King’s.

Although not naturally academic, Alex’s teachers recognised her potential and King’s taught her that, with a lot of hard work, determination and the right support, you can achieve anything to which you set your mind.

Alex joined the Rowing Club as soon she was able to and made lifelong friends as a result. In her final year, she was appointed Deputy Head of Boats, to help represent and look after the girls’ crews. Alex recalls some great memories of travelling on the minibus to regattas most Saturdays, eating jelly babies and singing along to songs played by DJ Sterckx (their coach’s nickname) to get them race-ready!

Following King’s, Alex went on to study Geography and American Studies at Swansea University; she chose Geography because it was a favourite subject at school and American Studies for something new and different. She had always had an interest in the law, and shared student accommodation with three law students, which heightened this.

After graduation, Alex took a year out to travel the world, work and consider her options before deciding to do the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at UWE Bristol. Since then, Alex has never looked back and, after completing her Legal Practice Course (LPC) and riding out the 2007/08 recession, Alex joined mfg Solicitors in 2010 as a paralegal in its Family Department. As a result of her work, Alex was offered a training contract and qualified into the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department in 2013. One year later, she was named Young Solicitor of the Year by the Worcestershire Law Society. In 2017, Alex was appointed as one of the youngest ever presidents of the Society and that same year she climbed Kilimanjaro with another Law Society committee member, raising £20,000.00 to support a new maternity bereavement suite at Worcestershire Royal. She remains an active member of the group, which promotes and supports lawyers across the county. Alex became a senior associate in 2020, a partner one year later, progressing to her latest appointment as Head of Department this year.

Alex has maintained a close friendship with a great group of friends made at School, who still get together at least three times a year.

Alex notes how she made a lifetime of memories at King’s and learnt life lessons that she can honestly say got her where she is today, in particular the importance of having and showing respect to everyone you come across both personally and professionally, .

OV Lizzy Bennett (Ch 08-10) has had a particularly interesting career path which has led to her new role at CVC Capital Partners, following great success and enjoyment as a Senior Equity Operational Risk Analyst for Vanguard’s Investment Management Group (IMG).

After completing A Levels in Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Design & Technology at King’s, Lizzy pursued qualifications and a career in teaching, gaining an initial First-Class Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Birmingham, and then completing the funded Postgraduate Teacher Status course at the University of Worcester. Lizzy started out as a teacher and Early Years Manager for sixty 2–4-year-olds at the British School in Amsterdam for two years.

This is when Lizzy’s career focus started to shift, and she joined the consultancy firm, Renoir Consulting Ltd, as an International Management Consultant. She worked on projects in Dubai, and Cebu in The Philippines, where in her spare time alongside travelling, Lizzy taught herself coding and gained additional project management qualifications. Despite thoroughly enjoying the consulting, family reasons arose and Lizzy felt it important return to the UK. She went back into education, and was awarded a scholarship to study a Master’s in Investment Risk and Finance at University of Westminster, which she achieved a high distinction grade for in 2019.

Alongside her studying, Lizzy additionally worked part-time as a contracted developer at Vanguard Asset Management. Following the completion of her Master’s, she was hired onto Vanguard’s London trading floor to work in the Risk Management Group. Lizzy enjoyed progressing her Risk Management career at Vanguard and building up a valuable collection of skills and knowledge of the financial markets and trading procedures, especially for equity trading.

Lizzy continued to develop and use coding in her role, an almost essential skill for any students interested in pursuing a career in the financial sector. She was nominated for Vanguard’s Global Innovation Award after she designed and built a bespoke technological solution to identify potential global operational trading faults/errors, helping Vanguard save millions. Lizzy was also selected for Vanguard’s internal programme for talented mid-career women, and has led front-office efforts such as the global Trade Execution Management System review, been a European Business Continuity co-ordinator, and Cyber Security Risk lead for IMG.

Lizzy joins CVC Capital Partners in March, currently Europe’s top Private Equity firm, and one of the world’s biggest that is still fiercely private. It is an exciting opportunity where Lizzy is looking forward to working with CVC’s risk director to build and implement risk frameworks, developing technological solutions, and creating procedural efficiencies to advance Risk Management in Private Equity. This new role is, however, is JP Morgan’s Investment Bank’s loss, a firm who were equally keen to tempt Lizzy away from Vanguard.

Lizzy added, “Looking back, it’s funny to realise how my creativity and determination to develop and build started when I was physically creating in the DT room at King’s, and winning the DT awards in both Lower and Upper Sixth. I would like say thank you to my old DT teachers, especially Chris Wilson (Hon OV), who spurred me on!”

Lizzy also sits on the Employability Advisory Board of the University of Westminster as her way of giving back and helping the next generation of finance graduates. Lizzy is similarly supporting current King’s students who are interested in Finance as a career, for which the students are very grateful.