Beyond King’s

It is the final week of the school year and the Pre-U Art Exhibition is currently on display in the Sir Terry Frost Gallery & Art School Studios, featuring fantastic work that the Upper Sixth pupils have created. OV Richard Gill (Cl 87-92) always had a keen interest in art whilst at King’s winning the school art prize in his final year; he was also a member of the rowing 1st IV and 2nd XV rugby teams. Following school, Richard went on to study Art Foundation at Cheltenham College of Art and then studied at the prestigious Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.

Richard is now an artist based in Worcestershire and is represented at several Galleries around London and the Midlands, with collectors of his work all over the world. He specialises in larger paintings expertly capturing the movement of horses, dancers and skiers and often using gold and silver leaf in his compositions. Richard’s children are following in his footsteps and he is now a current senior school parent.

This week the OV Professions Group was launched and our former pupil this week is Andrew Underwood (S 77-88) who has initiated this programme with the King’s Foundation Development & Alumni Relations office. Andrew hosted this first session at his company’s Mayfair office, which focused on those working in Audit, Advisory, Tax and Pensions.  At school, Andrew was very proactive, captaining the 1st XI cricket and 2nd XV rugby teams and he was also a school monitor and Head of School House. On leaving school, Andrew went to South Bank University to study Business Management before starting his Operations Consulting career with Ernst & Young in 1998. He moved to KPMG in 2006 where he is now a Partner and leads KPMG’s UK Supply Chain team and is a member of KPMG’s Global Operations Leadership team. Andrew is also a trustee of the King’s School Development Trust and has just been appointed as a governor at King’s School.

This week the Fourth Form have been busy preparing and delivering fantastic performances of ‘The Railway Children’. Our former pupil this week is Jennifer Suggitt (Co 91-93) who threw herself into drama activities during her time at King’s helping to teach, act and was an active member of the Cinema Club. After King’s Jennifer attended Royal Holloway College, University of London and studied English Language and Literature.

Jennifer worked for BskyB as Affinity Brand Marketing Manager and then as Corporate Relations Manager for Historic Royal Places – where she set up the Corporate Fundraising function –  before becoming Head of Corporate Relations at the British Museum where she has been for 11 years.  Major successes for Jennifer as part of her current role include securing exhibition sponsorships with Morgan Stanley for The First Emperor exhibition in 2007, which attracted 850,000 visitors and the recent American Dream exhibition in 2017. Both went on to win industry awards including the Arts & Culture award at the 2018 Sponsorship Awards.

This week sees the Lower Fourth embarking on Geography Field trips. OV Roger Bivand (Cl 61-68) is returning for the years of 67-69 OV reunion this Saturday, and showed some aptitude for Geography whilst at King’s. On leaving King’s, Roger gained an Exhibition and studied Geography at the University of Cambridge and then completed a PhD at London School of Economics and a post-doctoral habilitation degree at Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna?, Poland, all in Geography. A-level project fieldwork in Norway and marrying a Pole appear to have had geographical consequences too. Following academic positions in Pozna? and Bodø, Norway, Roger became a Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, Norway in 1996 and is still working there.  Roger specialises in statistical software development for spatial and geographical data, using the R Language, and he is an ordinary member of the R Foundation. As well as being much in demand to lead PhD courses in applied spatial data analysis, Roger is also editor of several journals, including the ‘Journal of Statistical Software’ and ‘The R Journal’. He gave a keynote the European R Users Meeting in Budapest in May this year.

Pupils are encouraged to help others and to get involved with charities and this week the L4 and U4 girls are running the Race for Life. Our former pupil this week is Sean Ryan (Ch 70-77) who now works in the charity industry. While at King’s, Sean was a very proactive student and was involved in a range of activities from Captain of Cross-country to Chairman of the Worcester Schools Debating Society. Sean went on to read Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford University and since then has worked for the Sunday Times as Foreign Editor for 16 years and then as Associate Editor for nearly 3 years. Since 2016 Sean has been Director of Media at Save the Children, overseeing news, public relations and digital media, and the Global Media Unit.

With all the fine weather recently it is a perfect time for sporting events and this week we have got cricket, athletics and rowing all taking place. Our OV this week is Liz Havard (K 92-99) who now works in the sports industry with her own Pilates and sports therapy business. At King’s, Liz was a talented sportswoman playing for the 1st XI and even represented England in Rowing at a junior level. Liz graduated from Reading University in 2003 and went on to train as a Sports Massage Therapist in 2007, she then completed her Pilates training with The Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates Institute.

She has worked at The Droitwich BMI Hospital, Worcester Warriors, The British Army and has also worked with The Tongan National Squad during the Churchill Cup. Liz set up The Farm Studio in May 2017 with a vision to create a unique space that offers clients specialist pilates and soft tissue treatments to address their training, lifestyle or rehab needs. Liz now has 2 sports massage therapists, a nutritional therapist and an APPI Pilates instructor working alongside her at The Farm Studio.

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.