Beyond King’s

We are delighted to feature Harriet Lacey (Br 93-04) as this week’s OV of the Week. Harriet is now one of our amazing teachers here at King’s. As a pupil, Harriet was a monitor and enjoyed taking part in the Himalayan Club and Young Enterprise. Harriet studied Physics AS Level and Biology, Chemistry and Maths A Levels and achieved As in all.

Harriet went on to study Veterinary Science at the University of Bristol, graduating with distinction and took on her first job as a small animal vet in Lincolnshire. She next moved to Newmarket and continued to work as a small animal vet and then, after a few years in practice, Harriet started work as a Veterinary Business Advisor for the veterinary pharmaceutical company Vetoquinol. As part of this role Harriet provided advice and education to vets, nurses, farmers and the general public.

Afterwards, Harriet left the veterinary profession and worked in business for a few years before retraining as a Science Teacher at the University of Worcester in 2019/20. Harriet enjoyed her time at King’s so much she has returned as a Biology teacher to inspire the next generation of budding scientists.

At King’s, Sam played for both the 1st Rugby and 1st Football teams and also took part in Young Enterprise. Sam studied Art, Business Studies, Physical Education and Maths Mechanics at A-level.

After King’s, Sam took a year out to travel in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and Europe, before applying through clearing to study Animation at University of West of England. Sam quickly realised that the course would be restrictive for him so moved to London to explore the world of freelance. For the following year, without the luxury of being able to be picky, Sam took on any work he could get, resulting in covering a broad spectrum of ‘design’ including web design, graphic design, illustration and 3D design.

In the search for a stable income, Sam applied for a permanent Interior Designer role. For the next 3 years, Sam managed residential projects in Clapham as well as producing 3D renderings and designing bespoke storage systems. During this time, Sam was also invited by Nike to design a new shoe inspired by his time in London.

In September 2019, Sam started a new role as the Graphic Designer for the GDST (Girls’ Day School Trust). This has involved producing various publications and assets for national advertising campaigns, and supporting the individual schools with a broad range of outputs, from designing scholar journals to producing virtual open days.

In June this year, Sam and fellow OV Emilie Lynch Williams (K 06-13) launched Florence + Blank, a creative platform promoting independent artists and makers. The platform offers a curated range of handmade homewares and artwork, faithfully relating the story behind the craft, both in the journey of the creator and the artistic process underpinning the product.

Nerys joined King’s in the Sixth Form and as a pupil Nerys was involved with D of E and track. Nerys studied English, Economics and Maths at A Level. After King’s, Nerys did a Law degree at Kingston University, took off for a year of travelling, worked for a marketing company in London, travelled a bit more, got married, finished Law school and completed her articles in one of the South West’s leading firms of solicitors in Exeter.

In 1996, Nerys and her husband emigrated to the US and during their early years there, they built up a commercial property business and Nerys’ time was spent managing the many issues that arose – the legal background and the capacity to multitask was always useful.

Yoga always held a fascination for Nerys and when the opportunity to do a teacher training arose, she grasped it thinking that it would be a great way to do more yoga. After friends started asking Nerys to teach them, she started with a couple of classes, and it grew from there. Nerys specializes in a style of Resistance Stretch which works well for increasing range of mobility and relieving aches and pains. Nerys partnered with another yoga teaching friend to open a studio 13 years ago.

Due to the pandemic the majority of their classes are now held on Zoom. Nerys says, “It’s kept our community together, and we’ve had the added bonus of being joined by people from across the country and the world!”

Edward joined King’s School, having previously been a pupil at King’s St Alban’s. He was a King’s Scholar (latterly Senior Scholar), prefect, monitor and Head of Bright House. He was involved in many extra-curricular activities while at King’s including CCF (rising to the rank of Company Sergeant), Young Enterprise, Drama, The King’s Herald, Chess, shooting, football, cross-country and debating, for which he won a number of prizes.

After taking A Levels in Geography, French, Maths and Further Maths, Edward won a place at Dowling College, Cambridge to study Law, where he was also elected President of the Cambridge Union Society. He was awarded a Thouron Fellowship to study at the University of Pennsylvania on a special certificate programme at the Wharton Business School, gaining a Master of Laws from the Law School. On his return to the UK Edward took up the Middle Temple’s Queen Mother Scholarship at Bar School in London before continuing his pupillage at XXIV Old Buildings, where he is still employed.

Edward was appointed a Barrister in 2006 and has acted in a number of high-profile cases. In 2016 he was named Chancery Junior of the year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards. In 2018 he was appointed Queens Counsel, the youngest QC in the country at the time. He has been shortlisted again for a Chambers Bar Award in 2020 as a QC.

As a pupil at King’s, Anna was a Monitor and was involved in a huge range of activities including playing for the 1st Hockey and Netball teams, as well as representing Worcestershire as the county team captain. She was also involved in athletics, rounders & swimming and the King’s Literary Society and Young Enterprise.

After King’s, Anna studied English Literature at the University of Leeds and then a further Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at Birmingham City University. Anna has since worked for major broadcasters including the BBC, where she started in local radio working at BBC Hereford & Worcester, and went on to work all over the country. She spent time working as a TV reporter for BBC Look North in Leeds and then spent almost for years covering national news for BBC 5live radio in Salford.

Anna now works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Sydney, having moved down under at the start of 2019. Her responsibilities include writing, and reading live news bulletins to a national audience & producing news programmes. She spends her time off running or at the gorgeous Aussie beaches surfing.

This week we are delighted to feature OV Leanne Sheen (W 99-06) as our OV of the Week. Leanne was a Monitor at King’s and also took part in debating, Young Enterprise and worked on the school newspaper, the King’s Herald.

Leanne went to Cambridge to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Girton College before completing the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at The University of Law. A few years later, Leanne undertook a Master of Laws (LLM) in Banking and Finance Law at the University of London while working full-time in practice.

Leanne has spent many years working for international firm, Allen and Overy LLP, where she started as a trainee in 2013. She is now a Senior Associate in their banking practice and enjoys working alongside colleagues and clients from all over the world. She is currently based in London but previously spent over three years working in their Frankfurt office.

More recently, Leanne has been seconded to Goldman Sachs where she works in their investment banking division, negotiating and structuring loans used to finance various types of real estate across EMEA such as hotels, windfarms, student and residential accommodation and logistic/office buildings. Leanne really enjoys the non-legal side of her work. She mentors under the REACH (Race Equality and Celebrating Heritage) scheme and is a training supervisor when in the Allen & Overy office. Social mobility and access to the legal profession is particularly important to her – Leanne was a recipient of a bursary when at King’s.

At work, Leanne interviews as part of the graduate recruitment process, which focuses on example scenarios for candidates to work through and their potential rather than prior legal experience. Leanne is also a Trustee of the King’s School Worcester Development Trust.

This week we are delighted to feature OV Christian Harris (Cl 86-91) as our former pupil of the week.

As a pupil, Christian was involved in music and drama. Christian went to University of Southampton to study Philosophy.

After University, Christian started working in marketing and business roles including CEO at Gorillabox, Vice President Northern Europe at Deezer and as Head of Digital Entertainment at Three.

Since June 2020, Christian started as Managing Director of strategic marketing consultancy, Sticky Content.

We are delighted to feature OV Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Nigel Roughton (Cr 85-90) as our OV of the Week. At King’s, Nigel was a member of the Boat Club, a Prefect and his interest in the Army began as a CCF cadet. He enjoyed Drama and appeared in many productions at Kings, including the first major production in the John Moore Theatre which was built during his time as a pupil.

Nigel went on to the University of the West of England where he studied Humanities and joined Bristol UOTC (University Officer Training Corps) before teaching for a year at Prep School in Surrey (of which the Headmaster was a former Hawford Lodge (King’s Hawford) teacher). He entered Sandhurst in 1994 and was Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1995, serving for over 21 years.

Highlights of Nigel’s Army career include serving as Aide de Camp to an Army Board 4* General, 6 operational tours including Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan and his time as a Battery Commander where he was privileged to lead his soldiers on operations and to Command HM The Queen’s Guard at Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle. He then completed a number of Staff Appointments including at the Ministry of Defence and serving as Chief of Staff at the Joint Ground Based Air Defence Headquarters.

Fittingly, for a military career that began in the CCF, Nigel’s final engagement in uniform was when he returned to King’s as our Remembrance Speaker in November 2015 before retiring from the Army the following week! Nigel then started a new career in Business Development working initially for a small business and latterly for Thales, a global Defence and Technology company, where he has been able to draw upon his extensive military experience and is the Head, Ground Based Air Defence. Nigel is married with 3 energetic children and a Labrador and now lives in South Buckinghamshire.

This week we are featuring OV Lucy Spring (Cl 03-10) as our former pupil of the week. At King’s, Lucy was Head of Chappel House and played on the 1st Hockey and Tennis teams.

Lucy went to the University of Manchester to study International Management which included a year abroad in Hong Kong at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on a Scholarship of Excellence awarded by the British Council.

After graduating, Lucy started her career as a Recruitment Consultant for Michael Page in London. She then took a three month break to travel across South America prior to joining Accenture as part of the Analyst Consulting Group – a program built to support and guide recent graduates / those new to consulting during their first 12-18 months at the firm.

Last September Lucy transferred to Toronto, Canada with Accenture, where she is a part of Accenture Interactive. Her role is focused on leading large-scale digital transformations for a range of clients, with the ultimate goal being to create seamless end-to-end customer experiences.