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A spirit of adventure pervades Professor Richard Brealey’s life. A distinguished financial economist with an impressive CV that features senior appointments in business, the Bank of England and academia, Prof ‘Dick’ Brealey (OE 1946 – 1954) has nonetheless eschewed any idea of a career plan.

“Some people have a clear goal in life; others go where the wind takes them. I fall in the latter camp,” he explains. This spirit is also, perhaps, demonstrated in his love of outdoor activities, including rowing, climbing, skiing and riding his horse.

Professor Brealey went to Exeter College, Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy & Economics. “On leaving college I joined the investment department of a Canadian insurance company, partly because they offered immediate responsibilities and partly because they promised me a year working in Canada. Visiting companies as an investment analyst and later managing the UK equity portfolio was great fun, but towards the end of my time there I became interested in some of the exciting new theories about portfolio management.”

To pursue this interest and try to apply these theories, Dick got a job in the United States. “My three years in the States involved getting to know many of the academics working in the area and, when I got an offer from the newly established London Business School (LBS) to join their finance faculty, I became an academic myself.” Apart from a secondment as a special adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England, he has stayed at LBS ever since.

He believes he has been lucky throughout his adult life: “I was lucky to join LBS during the golden age of financial economics. I was lucky to help build a classy finance faculty and to team up with a friend from MIT to write a textbook that 30 years later is still the most widely used finance text [Principles of Corporate Finance, with S C Myers and F Allen, 10th ed, 2010]. During my time at LBS I have had plenty of opportunities to travel, and to consult and provide expert testimony in many countries.”

Now Emeritus Professor of Finance at LBS, he holds positions including: Director of the Swiss Helvetia Fund and deputy chairman of the Balancing and Settlement Code Panel; Associate Editor, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance; Advisory Editor, Economic Notes and member of the Advisory Board of International Finance. His career has included visiting appointments at the University of California (Berkeley), University of British Columbia, University of Hawaii and Australian Graduate School of Management.

“My wife, who would probably once have been horrified at the thought of marrying a professor, is now reconciled and grateful that, although I may be forgetful, at least I do not have a wispy beard,” he concludes.

Tom Aggar (OE 1995-2002) achieved Paralympic gold as a GB adaptive rower. Just three years after an accident that left him paralysed, Tom won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

A graduate of the University of Warwick who played rugby for the university’s First XV, he suffered the non-sport-related accident in 2005. In the following year he started rowing as part of a rehabilitation programme, and soon demonstrated great talent in the sport.

In 2007, at the World Rowing Championships in Munich, he won the gold medal in the 1000m men’s single scull, beating two-time world champion Dominic Monypenny, of Australia, and setting a new world record.

He then went on to win the World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year title from the sport’s international governing body in both 2009 and 2010. And in January 2010 he also became the International Rowing Federation’s first Adaptive Rower of the Year, in recognition of his achievements on the water.

In 2011, he won gold at the World Rowing Championships in Slovenia to secure his fourth Championships title. (The following year’s championships were held in August 2012 and were limited to non-Olympic events.)

His unbroken record of victories against international opposition finally came to an end at the London Paralympics in 2012, when he came fourth in the ASM 1x (single sculls) category at Eton Dorney.

2013 was a mixed season for Tom. At the second World Cup in Eton Dorney he won comfortably to secure the gold medal, but he was unable to repeat that performance at the World Rowing Championships in Chunhju, Korea, where he finished fourth, just outside the medals. But in 2014, he achieved a return to form, producing some outstanding performances. At the second World Cup in Aiguebelette, France, he won a gold medal. He went on to win a silver medal at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.

Lucian Grainge, who was at the School in the 1970s, heads Universal Music Group – the world’s biggest record company.

Lucian, who was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Universal in March 2011, has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential people in the global music industry. He has worked with a roster of artists such as Amy Winehouse, U2, Duffy, Girls Aloud and Eminem.

In September 2012, Universal Music Group won approval from the EU to acquire EMI Recording Ltd, bringing a number of artists into the music giant’s fold – including the Beatles. EMI’s labels included Virgin – with a back catalogue including The Human League and the Spice Girls, as well as current artists Emeli Sande and Professor Green – and Capitol Records, which is home to the recordings of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and the Beach Boys. However, the European agreement, which followed approval from regulators in the US and Japan, required Universal to divest several top artists, including Coldplay, David Bowie and Blur.

Awarded the CBE for services to the creative industries in the 2010 New Year’s Honours, he was then made an Officer of France’s Order of Arts and Letters the following year. He received the French honour at a ceremony in California, where he is based, from France’s then culture minister, Frédéric Mitterand.

Lucian Grainge is known both for fostering digital partnerships and for taking a tough stance on illegal file-sharing.

His own eye for retail is said to go back to his childhood, when he would study which records customers chose in his father’s TV, radio and record shop.

Former QE pupil Alex Halliday made his first forays into online business while still at the School – and now he has become, at 25, the youngest CEO of a company listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Alex, who left QE after his A-levels in 2003, has created SocialGO.com, which allows groups and organisations to create their own social networks and even makes it possible for them to make money from these networks.

He set up the company in 2007 with Dominic Wheatley, the founder of Eidos, a company well known for games such as Football Manager and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. SocialGO launched its premium services in 2009 and has recently raised $2.2million to fund version 2 of its platform.

Writing on his own blog, Alex recalls that when he was only 13 he began building ‘fan sites’ for TV shows, pop stars and other people with a fan base. “It started as a hobby, but once the traffic started to flow, I became involved in selling ads and monetising these networks. The business grew and by 2000, we where serving nearly 30m page views a month and selling ads through agencies like Valueclick, Engage and Doubleclick and we were building an interesting business… This came to an abrupt halt in 2000 when ad rates went from a ridiculous $12 CPM [cost per mille, or per thousand, views] to (a rather more justifiable) $0.60. Suffice to say that business was no longer viable…boo hoo, back to school work!”

Notwithstanding this setback, Alex’s interest in the internet continued unabated and after completing his A-levels at QE, he spent six months in Dubai developing a news website. At the same time he started to develop the prototype of the social networking technology that became version 1 of SocialGO’s product.

The Shoreditch-based company now provides software as a service which allows groups to create, manage and control their own private social networks and provides the members of these networks with the ability to communicate with like-minded people in a controlled and secure environment. SocialGO derives its revenues from subscription premiums paid by network owners and from selling value-added services. If they choose, SocialGO’s customers – the network owners – can, in turn, make money from their networks in a variety of ways: by charging members for access to the entire network; by creating premium areas of the network that are restricted to paying members, and by hosting advertisements.

In a recent article published on Proactiveinvestors.co.uk, former Daily Mail City Editor Ian Lyall noted that in the course of his interview with Dominic Wheatley, the SocialGO chairman repeatedly likened Alex Halliday to Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg – the billionaire subject of the recent blockbuster film, The Social Network.

John Marincowitz, Headmaster at QE since 1999, retires at the end of this academic year. Under Dr Marincowitz’s tenure, QE has further strengthened its reputation, achieving a fifth successive ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted and often topping national league tables for academic achievement.

The following tribute was written for the Summer Term issue of the School’s printed termly newsletter.

Towards the end of the School Chronicle, which is read annually on Founder’s Day, it is recorded that “in the year 1999, John Marincowitz, Doctor of Philosophy of London University, succeeded as the 39th Headmaster”. It is a statement which is entirely accurate, yet does nothing to convey the contribution of a man who has served the School with such distinction, not least because it picks up the story some fourteen years into John’s career at Queen Elizabeth’s.

Arriving in 1985, John was given a temporary contract as a teacher of History. His love of his subject is apparent to all who know him, and he set about instilling that same passion into his pupils, engaging them in historical and political debate, encouraging them to read widely and evaluate the differing views of prominent historians, teaching them to question rather than accept, and equipping them with the ability to construct their own argument and present it with conviction. His knowledge and enthusiasm earned him respect and affection in equal measure from his pupils, many of whom were inspired to continue their study of History at university and beyond.

John’s qualities of leadership and management were also quickly recognised in his appointment as Head of Year in the middle school, where pupils in need of support found a sympathetic listener with a genuine concern for their welfare and progress. Pupils in need of correction found a clear and uncompromising response which ensured that a second dose was rarely, if ever, necessary. This appointment gave John membership of “Cabinet”, the senior management team of the School, and an opportunity to influence direction and development. The strong desire to see ever-increasing levels of achievement, confidence and responsibility amongst the pupils made John the obvious choice when the post of Head of Sixth Form became vacant. Under his leadership the sixth form grew in numbers and in quality, with John taking a personal interest in the development of each and every pupil. The development of the teaching staff was also, of course, central to the progress of the School, and John led the first successful bid to gain Investors in People status in 1996.

Appointed as Headmaster in 1999, John set about taking the School “from excellence to eminence”, recognising the quality of the establishment he had inherited from Eamonn Harris, but recognising also the potential to take the School to new heights. At the start of his headship, and at the start of each academic year which followed, John placed before the staff a quotation which perhaps gives the best insight into the philosophy which has underpinned the progress of the School throughout the years of his leadership: “No matter how much you systemise it, education is terribly personal. It is to do with elusive and very important human qualities.” Boys at the School achieve spectacular results, but their personal development, the opportunities for them to indulge their interests, the word of praise in a corridor from a member of staff who has noted their achievement, the careful guidance which sets them on the appropriate path as they move on from Queen Elizabeth’s, all of these rank equally in the School which John has led. Staff have benefited from this approach to the same extent, each given the sense of a genuine and personal interest in their development and huge appreciation for the contributions they have made. It is a testament to John’s remarkable leadership skills that such a convivial atmosphere pervades the School, whilst demands and expectations remain at the highest possible level and improvements continue year on year. In addition to a determination to create the best possible educational experience, John has been tireless in pursuing the objective of translating the generous donations of parents and supporters into the finest facilities for boys and staff to work in; the Martin swimming pool and the Shearly Hall stand as fitting tributes to his success. It is, though, the successes of the generations of pupils who have passed through the School during John’s 26 years at Queen Elizabeth’s and who return regularly to thank him for all that he and the School have done for them, in which John himself takes the most pride and the most pleasure.

The School Chronicle concludes thus: “And so the efforts and generosity of many: the Governors, Trustees, parents, teachers, boys and old boys, all have made the School renowned and all have made the School to flourish – may it always flourish.” Amongst the illustrious predecessors who have made the School renowned and made the School to flourish, John Marincowitz has most surely earned his place – and in so doing he has earned our profound gratitude.