Beyond King’s

Last Saturday King’s pupils competed in the Shrewsbury Regatta and we were delighted that the Senior Girls won the quad and the pair. Sean Kearon (Ca 64-69) is an OV who spent a lot of his time at King’s on the river, being Captain of Boats and he also played rugby for the 1st XV.  He was in the CCF RAF section where he won a flying scholarship. He was Head of Castle House and a school monitor.  Sean managed to get a place at Trinity College Dublin, despite leaving school with less than impressive A level results, on account of his dyslexia (and self-confessed lack of application!).  At Dublin he gained a seat in the Senior Eight, however he left after a year and, although he failed with his RAF aircrew selection, Sean went on to work for Rolls Royce on Aero engines.  Later in his career he spent some 30 years working for IBM, in ten very different but exciting roles, latterly as the Director for IBM Business Partners.  Sean remains in touch with many of his King’s friends and is returning to school in June as part of a reunion of ‘67/’68/’69 leavers.

The OV reunion dinner took place last Saturday and we welcomed back to school over 100 OVs and former members of staff over the course of the weekend.  One OV who attended the dinner with friends who left King’s 30 years ago, was Keith Carnegie (H 86-88). Keith joined King’s from a school in Zimbabwe for sixth form and was quickly recognised as being someone of ‘quiet authority’, being appointed Head of Hostel House and subsequently a School monitor.  Keith sat on many school committees, as well as being involved in public debates and school dramatic productions.  On leaving school, Keith went on to read Law at Bristol University.  He joined Bovis Homes in 1999 as a Regional Legal Director from private practice.  Keith has held a number of senior roles within the company, including Regional Managing Director, Division Chairman and Chief Operating Officer and he now holds the position as Bovis’s Executive Director.

This week the GCSE Art Examinations are happening in School and one OV who can definitely empathise with our pupils is Kenji Lim (Os 89-99) who is studying for an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. At King’s, Kenji studied Art at GCSE and A level, during which time the Art department trips to St Ives were particularly influential, exposing him to working artists and their studios. As well as an interest in art, Kenji played Basketball at King’s before going on to study at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University. Whilst there he was shortlisted for the Becks Futures Student Prize for Film and Video (2002) at the ICA, London.

After university, Kenji spent time living and working in the US and Canada which helped inspire his work. Kenji is now a freelance artist and illustrator exhibiting around the world and works in a wide range of media including painting, drawing, installation, text and video.

Senior Sports Day took place at King’s this Wednesday and an OV who would have taken an active part is James Annis (Br 93-01), who was a keen athlete as well as a rugby player. James was also actively involved with drama, both in and out of school.

He went on to study Marketing, Advertising and PR at Birmingham City University and has since pursued a career in marketing, holding senior roles in a number of companies, including working as Account Director for Nike Football, and more recently Business Development Director at digital innovation agency, AKQA. James now works for Apple Inc, specifically on Beats by Dr. Dre as Brand Manager for the UK. He still keeps in close contact with many of his friends from King’s; indeed, all of James’s ushers at his recent wedding were OVs.

We are back after the Easter holidays and the theatre team have been busy replacing all the theatre seats over the past two weeks ready for performances during the summer term. Our former pupil this week is Danielle Foster (Co 82-84) who would have enjoyed performing in the theatre as during her time at King’s Danielle was very involved in drama. Danielle was also involved in an array of other activities including debating and Duke of Edinburgh award. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Durham and since graduating has worked in Marketing, Corporate ID, PR, Corporate Events, Procurement, Transcreation and Language Teaching. Danielle settled in Spain in 1991 where she worked for the Bacardi Group for 23 years in Marketing, PR and finally as A&P Procurement Manager for Iberia. Now she works as a freelance Language & Marketing Consultant and Event Organizer in Barcelona, creating & producing private & corporate events, including theatrical treasure hunts. She teaches English and Spanish to pupils of all ages and runs voluntary English activity workshops for local children. Danielle speaks Spanish, Catalan, French, German & Italian.

This week pupils are going on the French Exchange to Cysoing and Gernech in the Lille area. This will be a fantastic opportunity for pupils to practise their language skills, which is something our former pupil of the week David Atkinson (W 79-86) would have done whilst at King’s, during exchange trips to Vichy and also whilst studying at Grenoble University during his degree.

While at King’s, David played soccer and took part in the Duke of Edinburgh award and following school he went to read Languages, Economics and Politics at Kingston University. David has worked in various senior business roles including Senior Account Executive at Carlson Marketing Group and Board Director of Billington Cartmell. He is now a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of creative agency Space which has been running for 14 years and has worked with big brands including Nivea, Sky and UEFA. Recently they have won Marketing Agencies Association UK ‘Best International Award’ for the second year running.

This Saturday is the Superball Netball King’s vs RGS at Worcester Arena so it is very fitting that our former pupil this week not only played for the 1st VII team while at King’s, helping them to the U19 National Schools Finals, but now works as a sports journalist for the BBC. At King’s, Louise Gwilliam (K 03-10) was also Head of Kittermaster House and involved in hockey and athletics. Louise went on to read French and History of Art at University College London, where alongside her studies, she began as a runner on BBC Radio 5 live’s 606 football phone-in and worked her way up to a producer.

Louise has undertaken a number of roles since leaving University including reporting on the 2015 Rugby World Cup and working as a content producer and talent assistant for Tongue Tied Media. Louise joined BBC Sport as a full-time broadcast journalist in 2017 and now works across the BBC Sport website, driving their rugby and women’s sport coverage. Louise is keen to encourage more females into the industry and is a passionate member of the network Women in Football.

This week saw the entire Upper Remove take part in a Careers Speed Dating session. Pupils met parents, OVs and other friends of the school to find out about their different professions, in the hope that they may find their career match. We were delighted that so many OVs gave up their time to take part in the event, and included in their number was OV Matt Jones (W 90-97). While at King’s, Matt enjoyed working backstage on drama productions, took part in Himalayan Club and was a House Prefect.

On leaving King’s, Matt graduated from the University of Birmingham with a first class degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering with Management. He joined Land Rover as a graduate engineer in 2002, and since then has embarked upon a successful career working for Jaguar Land Rover as Director of Future Technology, and then again for JLR in Portland, Oregon where he led the start-up of an Open Software Technology Centre and the JLR Technology Incubator. Matt is much in demand as a speaker at international conferences and exhibitions, was judged TU-Automotive Influencer of the Year 2015 and in 2016 was named in the Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list. Since August 2017, Matt has been Senior Vice President at Virgin Hyperloop One, based in Los Angeles. Virgin Hyperloop are the leading company working to commercialise hyperloop systems, moving passengers and cargo at airline speeds at a fraction of the cost of air travel.

We were delighted this week to welcome international economist & financial author Ranga Chand as the newest member of the Barnabas Group. While at school, Ranga was a House Monitor, CCF cadet and played Hockey, Basketball and Badminton.

On leaving King’s, Ranga went to the University of Toronto where he studied Economics. He has held senior positions with Canada’s Department of Finance and served as a director of the Conference Board of Canada before joining a major stock brokerage firm. He has also taught economics at the University of Waterloo and has represented Canada at numerous economic forums, including the OECD in Paris and the United Nations.

Between 2000 and 2003 he hosted popular television show “Talking Mutual Funds with Ranga Chand” which aired weekly on Canada’s Report on Business Television (ROBTV) for three years and reached over 4.3 million viewers nationwide. Ranga has also published a number of books, including ‘Best of the Best Mutual Funds’ and ‘Getting Started With Mutual Funds’.