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After seven years in a senior role for the global advertising agency behind Nike’s ‘Just do it’ tagline, US-based Nilesh Ashra is now blazing a trail with his own innovation consultancy. 

Named in Ad Age’s 40 under 40 list in 2016, he has been profiled in the print edition of Fast Company, the influential American business magazine. He is a high-profile speaker who has appeared at events including SXSW (the annual conglomeration of jointly organised film, interactive media and music festivals and conferences in Texas), Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and numerous other conferences. And he has won several industry accolades, a winner of Webby, Cannes, Fast Company and D&AD (Design & Art Direction) awards.  

Nilesh (OE 1995–2002) launched his consultancy, Pragmatic Futurism, in January last year. “My consulting work involves helping companies face the future of technology, work, and business,” he says. “We give our clients new ideas, new strategies; we create prototypes, and redesign their internal processes – all to help them face the future in a more optimistic way.” 

His interest in technology was apparent early – he started coding at the age of 11 – and after QE, he took a degree in Artificial Intelligence at UMIST (now part of the University of Manchester).  

On graduating, Nilesh says he was “interested in working in a ‘non-traditional’ technology space. That led me to a digital creative studio called Poke, in London.” 

In his four-and-a-half years with Poke, there was, he says, “barely a corner of modern, open-source-stack web development that I didn’t have the opportunity to work on. 

“From there, I was headhunted by the iconic Wieden+Kennedy.” Not only had W+K famously produced Just do it for Nike, they also created all of Nike’s TV commercials.  

He began his seven years with W+K, based in Portland, Oregon, as Creative Technology Lead and was later promoted to Director of Creative Technology. In creative industry circles, Nilesh is best known as the founder of W+K Lodge – the agency’s technology-focused division. One example of the Lodge’s work was the 2017 launch of Nike’s new retail experience that combined video-game-style motion capture and projection mapping to reduce the time needed to customise shoe graphics from eight weeks to less than two hours. This was short enough for it to be done on demand and in-store.  

“My professional obsession has been the profound and positive impact that emerging technology can have on culture and on businesses alike. After many years in the spotlight at W+K, I am now committed to my young family, and to humbly helping my clients thrive in their careers.” 

Nilesh is married and has one daughter aged six months and another who is four. “I have found myself very settled in Portland. It is mostly a liberal, relaxed, and positive community of creative people. 

“I’m an avid surfer, and have surfed all over the world,” he adds. 

 

Frankie Vu (OE) has secured a role as a presenter of the iconic children’s television show, HOW, while also enjoying a new job with Facebook, working in virtual reality.

ITV have revived the educational programme, with Frankie (Francis) among the team of four presenters. HOW originally ran from 1966 to 1981 and was then re-launched in 1990 as How 2.

“I have very fond memories of the children’s television I grew up with in the 90s and 00s, and a handful of those shows were memorable enough that they still find their way into nostalgic conversations with my peers,” said Frankie (OE 2000–2008). “How 2 was one of those shows, and when I received the news that I would be part of the new presenting line-up, it took weeks to really process the heritage that I would be contributing to.

“Before the audition process, I was unaware that How had been a successful series from the 1960s through to the 80s, and that How 2 had run for a further 16 years from 1990 to 2006. So to be a part of such an iconic format, and to be reviving a show with so much history, is a real honour.”

Produced by Terrific Television, the new series is being shown on CITV and simulcast on ITV; it is also available on ITV Hub. The team also includes veteran HOW presenter Fred Dinenage MBE, who has been a TV presenter for 56 years and was a presenter on both the original series and How 2.

Frankie, a freelance presenter who has worked for broadcasters including the Disney Channel and CBBC, has also been working for Facebook since the start of this year.

“I work in virtual reality (VR) for Facebook ‘by day’. I’ve juggled this with presenting by using annual leave days to film, as and when necessary.

“After spending the best part of ten years messing around in front of cameras, I decided to get a ‘proper’ job, where I spend my days in the virtual world, desperately avoiding the perils and responsibilities of real life. Jokes aside, VR is a rapidly growing part of the tech industry, and over the past few years, I’ve witnessed huge development in the capabilities of the hardware, as well as the current and potential uses of VR.”

Beyond its most obvious application in gaming, VR is now also being used for fitness, surgical training, sports rehabilitation, corporate meetings and tourism, amongst other industries, Frankie points out. “My own role involves overseeing the training and development of Product Experience Specialists, who are tasked with delivering memorable first-time VR experiences, both in-person and now remotely.

“Managing my schedule has been challenging at times, but the gratitude I feel for being able to do what I love massively outweighs any negativity.”

On leaving QE, Frankie studied English Language & Communication at King’s College London. After attending a talk on careers in the media in his final year, he was invited to screen-test for Disney, and secured his first TV contract at the end of the summer.

A sports enthusiast – he won the UK football freestyle championship while still at QE in 2006 – he was a host for the fencing and taekwondo events at the London Olympics and for the wheelchair fencing at the 2012 Paralympic Games, as well as for other live sporting events, including rugby, football and NFL.

“If I could glean any lessons from my own journey, and from this year in general, I would say that we can never know what lies ahead, so it doesn’t serve any purpose to worry too much about the distant future.

“My advice would be to focus on what you love doing, work hard – and don’t give up. Many of us will spend 50 years of our lives in the world of work, so it’s worth trying to figure out what really motivates you – and if that changes somewhere down the line, that’s fine too. The job I’m doing at Facebook didn’t exist a few years ago, and when I was at QE, I had no idea I’d be presenting TV shows – so focus on the things you can control and everything else will fall into place.”

Frankie adds: “I’m still in regular (socially distanced) contact with lots of friends from QE, and I live within walking distance of two my closest friends from Underne house, Robert Michel and Anil Douglas.”

• Frankie can be reached at:
  Instagram: @frankiepresents
  Twitter: @theFrankieVu

 

For any QE sixth-formers frustrated and perplexed because they haven’t yet got a career path all mapped out, Kushal Savla has a few words of encouragement.

“My advice is: just follow your passion in terms of choosing your uni course, and you’ll figure the rest out later.

“I think especially at QE you almost expect yourself to know what you want to do with your career before you even finish your A-Levels. But it took me two years after graduating to figure out what I want to do – and I couldn’t be happier with my decision!”

Today Kushal (OE 2005–2012) is a London-based Senior Sales Operations Associate with Diligent Corporation, a US multinational that provides a secure software platform used by the boards of companies and other organisations for collaborating and sharing information. “What does that fancy job title mean? I’m a data analyst who works with sales and commercial teams. I build data models, analyse our sales and marketing data, and build reports and dashboards for our leadership teams.”

After leaving QE, Kushal studied Economics with German at the University of Nottingham, where he gained a Distinction for his spoken German. He was a student on the European Union’s Erasmus scheme and spent his Erasmus year working at Bosch in Stuttgart, Germany. “It sounds like a cliché, but at the time it really was the best year of my life. I was fully immersed in a whole new culture, I made new friends who I am still in contact with, and, of course, the Erasmus grant meant I was able to enjoy the entire year travelling around Germany and Europe.”

Even after graduating, he still had no idea what career path he wanted to follow. “All I knew was that keeping up and maintaining my German was really important to me. After searching and searching, the main roles on offer were in sales, so I thought I’d try it out to see if I liked it.”

This job, which he took up in September 2016, was with his current employer, Diligent. “I really enjoyed using my German every day on the phone and I was also promoted to Team Leader. But in my heart, I knew that in the long term it wasn’t for me, and I wanted to do something more data and numbers-oriented.”

Diligent later took over a German competitor in Munich. “I almost landed a position as a data analyst there, but that fell through. Then I looked back at my company, started talking to the right people – and after a few months got that perfect position I was after.

“I feel very fortunate and lucky to be in the position I am. Things have fallen into place now and I am learning a lot on the job. There is also lots of opportunity to travel to the US, which is something I really appreciate. (Of course, this was all pre-Covid.)”

He still uses German in his job. Like his fellow Nottingham alumnus, Tony Norman (also featured in this issue of Alumni News) Kushal, has been in touch this term with QE’s Head of Languages, Nora Schlatte. And he points out that none of this – getting a job he loves, with all the perks and opportunities for travel that it provides – would have happened had he not studied German. “Learning language is still dear to me: I used it as an entry point into my career and it has guided so much of that career to date!”

• Kushal is pictured: top, in New York; above right, with friends in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, and, above left, at the Munich Oktoberfest.

 

QE’s latest Young Enterprise team have got off to a good start in their bid to build a successful business selling sustainable and accessible mobile phone accessories.

The InDex team, drawn from Year 10, will be aiming to establish a solid online presence since, with none of the normal Young Enterprise trade fairs taking place this year because of Covid-19, they will have to rely heavily on internet sales.

Young Enterprise (YE) is a national schools competition lasting the whole academic year. Teams are judged on their product, company, sales and marketing, with prizes awarded across several categories. It is likely that judging will take place in May 2021.

QE’s YE Co-ordinator Alex Czirok-Carman said: “The boys have started very strongly; I am impressed by their diligence and how they have adapted to the new way Young Enterprise is being run, with the increased importance of the competition’s online aspects adding a new dimension to the project this year, as previously most sales and judging were done live.”

Mr Czirok-Carman, a History teacher, added that the boys are aiming to create a product that has both a unique selling point and a significant purpose. They are already working well as a team, dividing up roles and designing the product, he said, meeting weekly to discuss their progress.

Their range will include eco-friendly and ‘dexterity-friendly’ phone cases, as well as eco-friendly pop sockets. (Pop sockets are collapsible buttons or knobs stuck to the backs of mobile phones or tablets.)

Ugan Pretheshan, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, explained the environmental and ethical factors underpinning their approach: “Nearly everyone, no matter where you are in the world, uses a smartphone.

“There are such rapid advancements that people don’t always stop and think about how we can make this product suitable for everyone, as well as thinking about our carbon footprint and making the world a more sustainable place.

“We stand for Inclusive Dexterity and we aim to help everyone, acting inclusively, as well as helping people with their dexterity.”

Among the team’s first accomplishments was the design of a logo for InDex. Sai Sivakumar is shown above working on some initial drawings of the logo. Ugan is seen, top, presenting the product design to his peers.

In retrospect, Jamie Wolfson’s move to a different company and a new sector could hardly have come at a more difficult time.

With the coronavirus pandemic raging worldwide, he found himself having to get to grips with his new job entirely online, liaising from Hong Kong across international time zones with colleagues he had never met.

“I joined in March in the midst of Covid, working from home – and Hong Kong apartments are very small; ours is 650 sq ft – and we had a two-year-old baby, too. The first three or four months were challenging, to say the least.

“I had to be quite resilient during that period, as most people did. The last three or four months have been more enjoyable. We are back in the office.”

Jamie (OE 1999–2006) had moved from Ernst & Young to global insurance provider Chubb, with a role as IFRS17 Project Lead for Chubb Life, a life insurer with operations in 23 countries. IFRS17 is, he explains, an international financial reporting standard that needs to be implemented by 2023, predominantly by larger insurers, representing quite a major change for them. “I am working mainly with the global Chief Financial Officer, and also the Chief Information Officer.”

“Before I took this role, my background was more digital transformation, across the insurance value chain working with the c-suite [executive-level managers within a company, such as the CEO, CFO etc].

“I had been at EY for my whole career. Having been a graduate entering one of the Big Four, when it came to my ninth year, I felt like I was in a bit of a bubble. I just thought I needed a fresh challenge – I was in my comfort zone. I also wanted to build up some more insurance-specific experience, and had previously worked with Chubb as a client.

“You have always got to challenge yourself, because then you will keep learning, and there are already things I have learned here. In this day and age, no one can afford to stop trying to push themselves and ‘upskill’ themselves because the environment keeps changing so quickly. It’s important to push yourself out of your comfort zone.”

He adds that with his senior-level contacts at EY, returning there in the future remains a possibility, if he wishes.

Jamie met his wife, Maria, when they were both on the EY graduate scheme in August 2011. “We worked together for three-and-a-half years in London and then in Hong Kong. We moved in January 2015, and the time has flown by. I cannot really understand where the last six years have gone.

“We are very happy here. We don’t have plans to leave anytime soon,” he says, adding that after seven years, they will have the right to permanent residence, meaning they could live and work in Hong Kong without needing a work visa.

He plays 11-a-side football with the Hong Kong Football Club, which involves Tuesday night training and games on Sundays, and contributes to a lively social life. Jamie is trying to get back into tennis and also plays golf, although access to the latter in Hong Kong is difficult.

He has, of course, reflected on the implications of the democracy protests in Hong Kong. These were at their peak for a few months last year.

“Although I was never caught up in it, there were a lot of protests and occasions when the police fired tear gas; it was a strange period to say the least. How the western media portrayed it made it appear worse than it was though – picking up videos of extreme cases. For a lot of people here, I don’t think our lives have been impacted too much. On the odd occasion, we had to work from home.

“One rally last year got over 1m people [but] since May or June this year, with the new national security law, the protests have completely gone, completely subsided. It’s really quelled any dissidence to the government, to be honest, rightly or wrongly.”

There is also the commercial aspect of relations with mainland China to be considered. “In the life insurance industry, we are talking about how we do more business with China. Chubb has a joint venture there and recently took a larger stake. People are not under any illusion: China will become a key headline to profitability, so people are embracing that fact.”

But Jamie says that he does, of course, talk about “basic rights” with his friends and says that if he saw his “day-to-day life changing for the worse”, he would then consider if he had a future in Hong Kong.

Jamie maintains strong friendships with people from his year group, including Anand Dattani, Nick Wallis, Sam Murray, Sam Granger, Dominic St George, Kumar Hindocha and Neil Yogananther. His first cousin, Mark Wolfson, is also an Elizabethan who lives in Hong Kong. “My closest friends are still my mates from the School. They all came to my wedding.

“I have really happy memories of School and I look back at it very fondly.” He especially enjoyed the Sixth Form, relishing the opportunities to spend his days studying subjects he had chosen and the fact that “the teachers didn’t treat us like kids anymore – because we weren’t”.

Among the happy memories are Geography field trips to Swanage in Dorset and “the 18-hour coach trip” to the town of Mende in Languedoc, France.

Jamie, who went on to read Geography at Nottingham, follows Headmaster Neil Enright on LinkedIn, who, he says, taught him Geography for two or three years. “It’s made me quite happy to see how he has risen in the School, but also it’s pleasing to see how well the School has done even since I left: it fills me with a lot of pride.”

Circumstances permitting, he hopes his young son, Isaac, will in a few years’ time follow in his footsteps and become an Elizabethan himself.

And does Jamie have any advice for younger Elizabethans entering their careers? “When I started at EY, I was convinced I wanted to stay and become a Partner and have some sort of global leadership role.

“I am still very ambitious, but I think my priorities, what makes me happy, have changed. They are now more focused on doing something I enjoy and am passionate about and that allows me to spend time with the family and doing sport. Money and titles – for me, that’s not what is important.

He adds: “If you can find a passion, it’s less like work, and you put in more time and more effort, which will likely be more successful. Looking back myself, I think the key is about finding that passion – and you may have do a few different things first before you find it.”