Beyond King’s

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’.

Our former pupil this week is Neil Lonergan (S 91-02) who was a keen sportsman while at King’s, playing rugby and captaining the First V basketball team. In addition to this, Neil also helped coach the junior basketball team and acted as a mentor for Lower Fourth pupils. Neil continues to use these interpersonal skills as he now works in the telecommunications industry. After working for BT as a consultant for eight years, Neil decided to start his own company, Linimex Ltd, in 2012.

In the five years since it was launched, the company has grown to become the largest in its specialism in the UK telecommunications industry, delivering services to businesses in more than twenty-eight countries across four continents and winning multiple industry awards along the way. Neil is one of King’s Bursary Ambassadors and he features as part of our new Bursary Appeal. Neil says, ‘King’s gave me an educational foundation coupled with the confidence and belief in myself to dream bigger, which is something that I have found invaluable in both my personal and professional life.’

This week was a busy week for girls’ sports with several hockey fixtures and a netball tournament. Our former pupil this week is Nicky Wilkinson (K 03-08) who was captain of both the First VII and First XI teams while here and led the hockey team to become County Champions for the first time. After leaving King’s Nicky went to Loughborough University and studied Information Management and Business Studies. During her course Nicky did an industrial placement working at National Grid; from that placement year she gained sponsorship, in the form of a financial bursary, from National Grid for her final year of university and a place on their graduate scheme. Nicky joined National Grid in September 2012 and since then has worked in various roles.

In 2017, National Grid sold their gas distribution business which was bought and renamed Cadent Gas; Nicky moved with the separation and was promoted to her current role, London Emergency Network Manager. In this new role, Nicky manages a team of twenty staff and two hundred and fifty engineers and is responsible for the emergency gas service for North London. Nicky says, ‘I am the first female to ever take on this role but it’s one I’m really enjoying, and am certainly learning from all the challenges that come with working in what is known as a very male-dominated industry.’

We are staying close to home this week with our very own King’s Estates Manager Adam Winter (Cl 84-94) as this week’s former pupil. Adam was involved in lots of activities while a pupil here including D of E, The 3 Peaks Challenge and CCF. After King’s, Adam studied Land Management and Development at The University of Reading before working for 12 years at The Leadership Trust where he was Operations Director. He then co-founded White Orca Information Management where he was a Director for 4 years before joining the King’s School in 2015 managing the estates and buildings at all three schools in the Foundation. Adam lives locally with his partner Lisa and their daughter Molly who is a pupil at King’s Hawford School.