Viewing archives for Alumni

Klimt’s Magic Garden, a virtual reality experience created by filmmaker and academic Dr Frederick Baker, proved so popular in the artist’s Austrian homeland that its run was extended by nearly six months.

The experience, which eventually ran from February until early October in Vienna’s MAK (Museum of Applied Arts), is also now being staged at a leading arts centre in Brussels.

Timed to coincide with the centenary of the Gustav Klimt’s death this year, Klimt’s Magic Garden is a virtual reality tour for which Fred (OE 1976–1983) was inspired by the series of three mosaics that the Art Nouveau doyen created for the Stoclet Palace, also in Brussels. To produce the experience, Fred used high-resolution digital photographic material to create a rich, shimmering virtual paradise.

Born in Salzburg but brought up in London, Fred studied Anthropology and Archaeology at St John’s College, Cambridge, Tübingen and Sheffield universities and went on to gain a PhD from Cambridge in 2009. He now lives in Vienna and London.

Fred was a Producer Director for the BBC, working for the corporation from 1994 to 2006. He is the owner of the Austrian film company, Filmbäckerei, and a College Research Association at the Centre for Film and Screen Media, Wolfson College, Cambridge.

He returned to St John’s in 2014 to create a hugely atmospheric screening of the film classic The Third Man, which became the first film ever to be mapped on to the college’s Bridge of Sighs.

A specialist in Austrian cinema, he has published extensively on The Third Man – the Carol Reed-directed film starring Orson Welles, which was set in Vienna and used a screenplay by Graham Greene, who had also written it as a novella. As well as examining the film for his doctorate, Fred made a 90-minute documentary about its making, entitled Shadowing The Third Man.

He is also the founder of Cambridge’s annual international research symposium, Picturing Austrian Cinema, and has lectured at universities in Weimar and Berlin as well as at Middlesex University. The winner of numerous awards at film festivals from Cannes to Hollywood, Fred has made acclaimed documentaries on subjects including Stalin and Rebuilding the Reichstag (about the reconstruction of the German parliament building overseen by the architect, Norman Foster).

• Klimt’s Magic Garden, which is experienced using virtual reality headsets, runs at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (also known as BOZAR) in Brussels until 20th January 2019. A sample of the experience is available on YouTube.

Akshay Ruparelia’s fast-expanding online estate agency launched a second crowdfunding round this week – and smashed its £400,000 target within seconds of the offer going live.

Doorsteps.co.uk has gone from strength to strength since its launch almost two years ago: by the end of 2017, it had listed more than 3,000 properties, or nearly 1% of the UK market.

Akshay (OE 2009–2016) made national headlines last year after the first fundraising, with the young entrepreneur’s age attracting journalists’ admiration. Now, as Chief Operating Officer and joint founder, he is fronting the fundraising drive, which will pay for more staff and additional investment in technology as the company grows.

“We are absolutely delighted to have hit 140% of the target within less than 30 seconds of going live,” said Akshay. “We will continue to overfund, allowing more aggressive expansion and a clearer path to becoming No.1 Estate Agent in Britain, so there is still an opportunity for Old Elizabethans to make an investment.”

In a promotional video on the Crowdcube crowdfunding site, Akshay explains the company’s core approach of offering its customers low prices, good service and a simple process. He also outlined Doorsteps’ philosophy of achieving growth through recommendation, rather than heavy spending on advertising. “Our online reviews just get better and better,” he adds.

“Our target for this year is 2% of the UK and I am pleased to say we are on course for just that – but we need to hire more account managers, more customer service agents and employ just a little bit of technology to help us cope with the level of demand, hence this fundraising.” Equity of 3.26% was offered for the £400,000 sought through crowdfunding.

Akshay revealed a little of the estate agency’s future plans. “We want to continue the Doorsteps way and offer even more services to make the house-buying and selling process even easier. Sadly, I cannot reveal all because we know that our competitors are watching, but I can say that we recently launched Doorsteps Conveyancing and Mortgages to make the process seamless.

“Last July we were in the top 50 estate agents in Britain; today we are in the top ten. Trust us again and help us to finish the job: let’s get to Number 1!” he tells potential investors.

• The fundraising continues on Crowdcube for another 28 days. Akshay is happy for alumni to contact him directly on [email protected]

Bilal Harry Khan is fast becoming a leading voice on issues of social justice, race and masculinity.

In recent months, Bilal has featured in a number of BBC news and current affairs programmes and has launched a successful podcast with fellow Cambridge graduates, all ‘black and mixed-race guys’, looking at life, diversity and the challenges faced after graduation.

One episode of the podcast this month featured an interview with Stormzy, following the artist’s decision to sponsor scholarships at the university for black students.

Bilal (OE 2003–2010), who works as a facilitator running diversity and inclusion training workshops with corporate clients, is due to visit the School this term to deliver a talk to Year 11 on Masculinity in Britain. He turned freelance in August: “I will be looking to develop my portfolio of work as a facilitator in the coming years.”

Earlier in the year, Bilal was a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, also speaking about masculinity.

And this month, he was interviewed by the BBC’s Global Gender & Identity Correspondent, Megha Mohan. In the article, he related the challenges of living in the UK with a name that is unfamiliar to many – including one occasion when he visited a school (not QE) and a teacher introduced him in assembly as ‘Harry’ even though he had been repeatedly emailing the teacher and signing himself off as ‘Bilal’. The teacher later told him that ‘Bilal’ would have been “difficult” for the children, although in fact many of them had come up to him after his talk and said his name perfectly.

In his parting shot in the article, Bilal made a plea: “Children in the UK should be able to grow up loving and being proud of their names. You can play a part in that by learning to pronounce them properly. It is not that hard. If you can say ‘Tchaikovsky’, you can pronounce our names.”

He was interviewed on the BBC World Service about his mixed-race heritage in the run-up to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The royal bride had spoken of her confusion as a child when asked to describe her race and of the enduring impact of her mixed-race background during her acting career.

Bilal told presenter Nora Kim of his own experiences as a person from a mixed-race background. His father is Kenyan of South Asian heritage and his mother is Jamaican from a mixed-race (East Asian and black Caribbean) heritage.

He recalled a time when he was out with some of his QE schoolmates: “Most of my friends were Asian. Someone’s girlfriend said ‘Oh, you are the black friend.’” This conversation caused him to reflect at the time that “my identity is based on how other people perceive me”.

When used in the UK, the term ‘mixed-race’ is generally presumed to mean a combination of white and ‘something else’, he said, yet that did not describe him or many other people. “Perhaps we need to change the definition to include people like myself, like my mum,” he said.

After leaving QE, Bilal read Theology at Cambridge. While there, he met the three friends with whom he launched the Over the Bridge podcast in March this year.

Since graduating, he has worked as a youth engagement officer in Barnet and then, for more than four years, for WE, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation working globally with young people and families.

George the Poet is enlivening TV screens this autumn with appearances in both the public and private spheres.

George Mpanga (OE 2002–2009), a keen advocate of social justice, investigated how and why the capital’s poor residents are losing out as council homes disappear in the first of this month’s Inside Out London programmes on BBC1. He also stars in a new commercial reflecting on the wonder of Planet Earth and the transitory nature of human life.

The half-hour primetime BBC programme presented by George looked at the effects of the widespread loss of council homes as many London councils redevelop their estates, often forcing residents – “families like mine,” said George – to move out of their communities.

He highlighted the policies behind the problem and spoke to a number of residents affected by it. The programme included interviews with people involved in active resistance to the redevelopments, while also exploring some more community-friendly alternatives.

In his closing remarks, George concluded: “Redevelopment does not have to end this way, with former tenants displaced, neighbourhoods gentrified. Redevelopment can actually empower communities, but for that to happen, we need to ensure this beautiful city does not lock out the very people who make it what it is.”

The programme is available on the BBC iPlayer until 9th October.

In O2’s new advertising campaign, George performs a poem for a TV commercial entitled Breathe It All In which celebrates our existence and the planet we live on.

During the 90-second advertisement, George reflects on both the wonder and the transience of human life: “Life is a miracle. Out of all the planets and all the solar systems, ours was the one to support our whole existence. Ours is abundant in sustenance. Not too close or far from the Sun, just enough distance. Ours are the lungs that can make use of oxygen. Breathe it in and get high on life like an intoxicant. We’re all interconnected, everything that happens, all things that affect it. We’re born alone, but we walk into collectives and every experience falls into perspective when you see that this planet is yours to explore. See, we leave our mark and the people we affect, the memories we make when we speak and we connect, the feelings we share, the secrets we pretend, the strength and the weakness we project. Our time here is like a drop in the ocean. Ups, downs and a lot of emotion, but you’re still here to see the morning. Life’s for the taking. Breathe it all in.”

The background music in the advert is the 2015 track Loud Places by English electronic music producer Jamie xx, with vocals from Romy Madly Croft. An excerpt from another Jamie xx track, Hold Tight, features in the Inside Out London current affairs documentary.

George took up a place at King’s College, Cambridge, to read Politics, Psychology and Sociology after his A-levels. His first poetry collection, Search Party, was published in 2015. He has since gained a high profile, performing: before the Queen in Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Day; at the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup, and to a worldwide television audience as part of the coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding earlier this year.

Over the past couple of years, Jonathan Gunaseelan has done innovative fundraising for UNICEF, taught children in Tanzania, Cardiff and London and helped develop a water filtration system for first-nation Canadians.

All these opportunities, and others besides, have come about through Warwick University, where Jonathan (OE 2008–2015) is now completing his Civil Engineering degree.

“Warwick has provided me with an incredible platform to excel in both engineering and general life. Being the university with the highest number of societies for students to get involved with, you’re always busy and always meeting new people!

“Being a part of a campus university was something I was sceptical about before joining Warwick. But it’s like living in a little bubble where you know so many of the people, you get close with everyone very quickly!”

He recently returned to the UK after an exchange year in Canada, where he studied at Western University in Ontario. “Canada was incredible to say the least; a proper leap out of my comfort zone and a test of independence! I undertook several group projects, perhaps the most interesting being the development of a water filtration system for first-nation communities. Another project was a pavement design, as well a truss structure.

“Beyond academics, I was heavily involved with UNICEF and organised a fundraising initiative called FAST24 (a sponsored fast), which became a huge success.” There is now even talk of it becoming a national UNICEF campaign in Canada, Jonathan reports. “I got the opportunity to talk to the CEO of UNICEF Canada [David Morley, pictured left] and was invited to their annual AGM.”

In addition, he was involved in cultural societies and represented the university in dance performances in Toronto.

Jonathan has also taken part in the Insight Programme, which is part of Government’s Teach First initiative – “another amazing opportunity”.

After an initial week of training, personal development and workshops in London, he and his fellow trainees spent a week in Wales teaching at the Hawthorn High School near Pontypridd. “We got a hands-on approach to teaching and to tackling issues which teachers face every day!”

Between Canada and Teach First, Jonathan spent six weeks in Tanzania as part of Warwick University’s Warwick in Africa programme.

He spent this period at Mtwara Technical Secondary School in the city of Mtwara in the south-east of the country. Like QE, it is a selective school. It was a memorable experience, he says, during which he was struck by the lack of resources. “The painful part was that all the children were so keen to learn but didn’t have books.”

As he enters his fourth year at Warwick, Jonathan is looking forward to serving as a Team Leader, managing a group of undergraduate student helpers working to ensure that new students are happy and comfortable.

Through completing Teach First, and upon completion of its Insight Programme, he has received an offer to take part in the two-year Leadership Development Programme to become a fully qualified teacher.

“As for my longer-term ambitions, I am currently taking one hurdle at a time. I have my dissertation and group project this year, on the development of busways for megacities and the development of a new building worth £500m. I hope to dive further into either of these fields once I graduate, within construction or transportation.”

He maintains close friendships with a number of Old Elizabethans. “It’s amazing how all our lives have gone in different paths yet we always come back together to fill each other in, catch up and have a good laugh! Top tip to current students: forget quantity, and look for those few special friendships you form at QE that will come with you forever!”

Old Elizabethan Piers Martin was part of a relay team that successfully swam the English Channel and raised more than £6,000 for Autism East Midlands.

Yet, even though the team were eminently suited to the challenge – Piers (OE 1987–1994) is a high-performance sport and business consultant and a former national-level swimming champion, while two of his fellow team-members are water polo coaches – the swim almost didn’t happen.

The authorising organisation – the Channel Swimming and Piloting Association (CSPA) – gives teams such as Piers’ a window of only just over a week, he explains. “After the glorious weather we have had this summer, the winds and swell broke and we spent our window waiting for it to clear. On the last couple of days, the CSPA told us that the weather was getting worse and we would have to look for a date in September, perhaps even next year.”

Devastated by the disappointment after more than a year of training to swim the 21 miles to France, the team packed their bags and left Dover.

A reprieve came unexpectedly. “As we arrived home we got a call for a small window, but it was going to be rough.” The ‘window’ started at 11pm, which meant the team faced the additional challenge of swimming at night.

“We returned to Dover and went for it. And rough it was. We started the swim at midnight from Shakespeare Beach, and the initial hours in the dark were against fairly strong swell. The waves did calm a little as the sun rose and we started making good time. Our pilot got us to within metres of Cap Gris Nez and we finished in 13 hours and 3 minutes.”

They had successfully negotiated the world’s busiest shipping route – among ferries, container ships and tankers – swimming against tides and in cold water without wet suits.

The team, comprising Piers, Sarah Dunsbee, Tim Dunsbee, Cara Saunders, Anna Lord and Jack Overtoon, was named Hayley’s Channel Relay Team. “I have known the Dunsbee family for a long time through water polo,” says Piers. “Tim and Sarah are both water polo coaches. One of their twin daughters, Hayley, is severely autistic and lives in a home which is run by Autism East Midlands (a leading autism charity), which is why we swam to raise money for that cause.”

Currently Managing Director of the Podium Performance Group – a consultancy that supports organisations, teams and individuals to develop optimised performance – Piers has also led and advised a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports.

He is the founder of GuruBox, a video-coaching platform that shares ideas and experience in less than a minute, and co-founder of the Sports Influencers (SP.IN) sports business network. Piers is Chair of UK Deaf Sport, a Director/Trustee on several Boards and Performance Advisor to various sports and performance programmes. He is also a member of the Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators for Sports Resolutions UK and the Institute of Directors (IoD) Cheshire Committee.
He is a keynote speaker and guest lecturer and sits on the Sports Advisory Board of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).

Piers has a Masters degree and an MBA from Manchester University and is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology.