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Artificial intelligence entrepreneur Demis Hassabis has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for “services to science and technology”.

The announcement came in the same week as an interview with Demis (OE 1988–1990) by Prince Harry was broadcast on BBC Radio Four’s flagship Today programme, which the prince was guest-editing.

Demis is the co-founder and chief executive of DeepMind, which recently announced that its supercomputer program, AlphaGo, had taught itself to become the world’s best player of the ancient strategy game, Go, without any guidance from human beings.

Responding to news of the CBE, he told the BBC he was “very proud” of his team at DeepMind. “This is recognition of the immense contribution they have already made to the world of science and technology, and I’m excited about the potential for many more breakthroughs and societal benefit in the years ahead,” he said.

DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 for a reported £400 million. Demis told Prince Harry that DeepMind’s workforce has gone from around 100 at that time to more 700 today, adding that there are over 60 nationalities and more than 400 PhDs inside the company.

“It’s really the biggest collection of brainpower anywhere in the world on this topic,” he said. “And it’s happening right here in King’s Cross so I’m very proud of that.”

Topics broached by the prince included the ethical implications of AI and what DeepMind is doing to ensure that the benefits of AI extend to all humanity. He also asked him why he has decided to keep DeepMind in London.

Demis said: “I’m a proud born-and-bred Londoner. I love London and Britain and I think that I have always believed that we have top talent here. We have world-leading universities and it just requires, I think, the ambition and the drive to actually really try and create a deep technology company like Deepmind. And I always felt it could be done in London.

“But I was told at the beginning when we were starting up that we were crazy and that we should go to Silicon Valley and that that was the only place that you could build these types of companies. I think we proved that wrong. Even when we got bought by Google, I insisted that we would stay in London and build the research team here.”

DeepMind has two floors in Google’s London headquarters, as well as smaller offices in California and Canada.

With global competition for AI talent fierce, DeepMind’s hiring frenzy has not come cheap. The company spent £104.8 million on “staff costs and other related costs” last year, according to a document filed with Companies House in October, reported Sam Shead, of American finance and business website, Business Insider.

The website added that DeepMind made a loss of £164 million in total in 2016, a significant increase on the £54 million loss it posted in 2015. However, the company brought in revenue for the first time in 2016, recording a turnover of £40 million. The turnover relates to DeepMind’s projects with Google.

Jonathan Kruger’s plans to use technology to “reinvent” the fashion industry have been drawing attention from investors and journalists alike.

His company, The Drop, started trading only in April this year, but has already secured £250,000 in ‘pre-seed’ funding from venture capitalists Forward Partners and has also featured in the business pages of The Times. Jonathan (OE 2000–2007) expects to secure further investment of around £1.5m soon.

“We launched with a simple website and now we are using the investment we have already received to make it better and better, adding new features as often as twice a week. Next year, with the additional investment, we plan to expand into the US.”

Already, the website allows men to submit their measurements with a photograph and browse a range of styles before ordering made-to-measure suits from £299. They can then have them delivered anywhere in the world in two weeks. The suits are laser-cut and then hand-finished.

But, says Jonathan, that is just the start: “It’s not really a suit business. We are changing the way that clothing is made, discovered and bought and addressing each stage of the process. We looked at what is wrong with the fashion industry and we want to reinvent it, to disrupt the high street and the traditional retail structures.”

The inspiration came from a couple of years he spent working in Shanghai, where he set up a clothing company supplying big retailers. He told The Times journalist of his dismay at the wastage of natural resources and the damage done to human lives by the way the supply chain worked. Retailers would typically order a range six to 12 months in advance, with the clothing produced in very large quantities but in a limited range of styles and in limited sizing.

“We would be manufacturing dresses for $7, selling them for $11 and then they’d turn up in the shops at a few hundred quid. We saw lots of big retailers buying 20,000 of something and then deciding they don’t want it after it’s been produced. As consumers, we pay for this waste with our wallets.”

The Drop commissions a number of high-tech factories in the Far East to make its clothing. “It’s mass personalisation to replace mass production and fast fashion,” said Jonathan. “We only produce what we need, so we are building a fashion business that is not only better for the customer, but better for the world.”

Jonathan, who is The Drop’s chief executive officer, met his co-founder, Stephen Stroud, one-and-a-half years ago. Stephen is a software engineer and is The Drop’s chief technology officer. “We are building a platform which is AI-led: it uses machine learning to understand what you like to wear and how you like things to fit,” says Jonathan. The workforce at The Drop is being expanded as the business grows. “We should be a team of seven in the next couple of months.”

Jonathan took a degree in Politics at Sheffield after leaving QE, graduating in 2010. During his spell in Shanghai from 2010 to 2012, he helped establish and then manage a Chinese sales team for a UK-based trading company.

In the run-up to the end of the autumn term, Jonathan came as a speaker to QE’s Young Entrepreneurs Club in the Main Hall. Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We really enjoyed his excellent presentation and eight key messages for aspiring entrepreneurs.” These were:

1. 1. Don’t play it safe and don’t be afraid to fail;
   2. Always hustle:
   3. Think big and go big;
   4. Success takes time;
   5. Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details;
   6. Don’t let vanity make you lose focus;
   7. When starting out, no job is beneath you;
   8. Be humble enough to ask for help.

Leke Abolade is helping to inspire future generations of black Oxford University students through a new graduate alumni network.

The Oxford Black Alumni Network, which numbers more than 200 members, aims to connect black Oxford graduates from across the generations as well as inspiring current and future alumni “to fight for their causes and achieve common goals”, as its website puts it.

Leke (OE 2004–2011) was among a small group of members who were pictured at its launch – an image reproduced by major media outlets, including the Evening Standard and The Voice.

“The photoshoot was organised by members of the network, myself included, which has been created to highlight the inspiring and varied endeavours of Oxford alumni of black African and Caribbean heritage across fields including entrepreneurship, academia, and careers in the City, Law, media, tech, the arts and sports,” he says.

Naomi Kellman, the network’s co-chair, who took a PPE degree in 2011, told the Evening Standard: “There is still a concern among black students that if they apply, they might be the only one — they might think Oxford is not for ‘people like me’. But we want to show that’s not true. There is a long history of black students at Oxford doing well and being happy.”

After leaving QE, where he had enjoyed rugby with the Second XV, as well as singing in the Chamber Choir and playing with the Senior Strings, Leke went up to St Catherine’s College to read Engineering. In his four years in Oxford, he threw himself fully into student life, belonging to the university’s Amateur Boxing Club as well as its African Caribbean Society, Energy Society and Engineers Without Borders. He was also involved in St Catherine’s rugby, in the college choir and in a musical production, Chutney and Chips.

“Oxford was a fantastic educational experience and I want to ensure that prospective black students can believe this will be true for them as well,” he said.

Since graduating in 2015, he has worked in various roles, including a spell in the Osney Thermo-Fluids Laboratory within Oxford’s engineering faculty. Leke has spent most of 2017 working as a software developer with LexisNexis – a US company that works especially with law firms and other organisations operating in the legal sphere.

He is now carrying the objectives that inspired the formation of the new network into his professional life as well.  “Last year I began a career as a software developer and found myself in an industry that, like Oxford, has problems of under-representation,” he said. His response has been to volunteer as a coach in his spare time for Codebar – a non-profit initiative that runs programming workshops in a safe and collaborative environment to improve career opportunities for under-represented communities in technology.

Old boy Aaron Tan stressed the importance of seizing opportunities as they become available when he spoke to QE’s Entrepreneurs’ Club.

His very varied career has taken him all over the world and into widely differing business sectors. Aaron (OE 1996–2003) recounted his experiences, which range from successfully running his family’s restaurant business to training people in the Far East in presentation skills.

Head of Economics Shamendra Uduwawala said: “His insight as an entrepreneur was extremely beneficial, especially as the talk was run more like a lesson in business, with the use of real-life examples. He spoke of how easy it is to start a business and gave the basics on how to do this and then build upon it. It was very inspiring for the boys.”

After leaving QE in 2003, Aaron went to university in Manchester, where he studied Business with Marketing Specialism.  He then worked briefly in a road reinstatement company, where in his first three months he negotiated the payment of a £120k debt that was owed to the company.

He went on to spend six years with a multinational aerospace and defence company, before leaving to take over the family restaurant due to his mother getting ill. He managed to make a success of this family business.

Since then, Aaron has opened a photography studio and become a part-time lecturer at the University of Greenwich, as well as a presentation skills trainer: he has helped people in the UK, Vietnam and Malaysia. In addition, he is currently collaborating with others on several ventures, ranging from an educational ‘app’ aimed at GCSE students to an image consulting business which he will be starting soon.

The topics covered included valid reasons for starting a business and the attributes an entrepreneur needs to achieve success. “Stay humble and do not just chase money because that alone won’t help you be successful,” Aaron advised the boys.

He borrowed freely from a number of sources of business wisdom and included in his presentation a quotation from Sir Richard Branson, perhaps the country’s most famous entrepreneur: “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”

Mr Uduwawala said: “I think Aaron has lived by that – he has taken on many opportunities and those risks that he has been willing to take have made him very successful.”

Ramesh Paripooranananthan is forging a successful career as a London architect – interspersed with globe-trotting trips to attend the weddings of Old Elizabethans in the Far East!

Ramesh, who uses the surname Pari professionally, works with BB Partnership – a London practice specialising in mid to high-end residential projects. He was recently lead project architect on a £250m-plus mixed-use development in Brent, the largest in the firm’s 25-year history.

He is currently overseeing the construction of two largely subterranean houses in the capital. It is a solution that is being used increasingly in London, especially where space is at a particular premium. The design includes lightwells and courtyards cut into the ground to let light pass down into the spaces underground.

The project is, however, not without its challenges, as Ramesh explained: “This is a much more expensive method of construction; we only investigate this when we have situations where planners will not let us build up. Both houses have already made the architectural press due to the controversy over the application, and I am sure they will also make it again once they are completed.

He adds: “Digging into the ground in central London is always a tricky business as you never know what you will find. I worked on a job a couple of years ago where we found a World War II bunker underneath the offices we were refurbishing!”

Ramesh (OE 1997–2004), who was in Underne House, studied at Central St Martins and then at Nottingham University, where he qualified as a Chartered Architect after eight years’ working and studying. He credits QE for the resilience and perseverance necessary for that period.

He previously featured in Alumni News in 2015 when 12 OEs attended his wedding to Millie, whom he had met at Nottingham. (“There are still just the two of us, but starting a family in the near future is on the agenda, he says. “In the meantime, my hobbies – photography and running – and my nephews – four boys – keep me very busy!”)

Recently, it has been Ramesh’s turn to return the compliment: in November, he travelled with several old boys to Hong Kong for the wedding of his QE contemporary, Dennis Yiu, and then journeyed on to Thailand for the nuptials of Bimal Sualy, from the year below. Both grooms were in Stapylton. “I spoke to Bimal for the first time when we both attended the University of Nottingham and now I am one of his groomsmen – small world!” says Ramesh.

Ramesh is pictured above on the far left with other old boys from his year, left-right, as follows: Bhavin Shah (Stapylton); Paraag Gudka (Pearce); the groom, Dennis; Johan Byran (Stapylton); Kunal Shah (Stapylton); Sandeep Dasgupta (Stapylton) and Rahul Patel (Stapylton).

The second group photo shows, left-right, back row: Warren Balakrishnan (Underne); Rachita Lokubalasuriya (Leicester); Chivaar Gami (Leicester) and Ramesh. In the front row are: Ashish Gohil (Leicester); the groom, Bimal, and Dhanish Mahmood (Leicester). All except Ramesh are from the class of 2005.

Ramesh was among the alumni taking part in this year’s Careers Convention for Year 11 boys and their parents. “I try and give back to the School however I can.”

During the autumn, QE pupils came to his office for mock university interviews. “I was very proud last year to see that the three boys I worked with went on to study architecture at brilliant universities. I think it is fantastic the School is building this network for the students, as this wasn’t in place when I was there. This will only help the student body.”

Boys interested in learning more about the process of applying to Ivy League colleges and other leading American universities were encouraged and inspired by visiting old boy, Ché Applewhaite.

Ché, who left QE last year, is among a growing number of leavers taking up opportunities to study stateside, many of them electing to take advantage of broad-based American Liberal Arts degrees.

Ché is currently taking such a degree at Harvard and visited the School to speak to boys interested in learning more. He gave a presentation which covered Harvard’s extraordinarily broad academic programme, its house system, the financial assistance available and the 400-plus recognised student clubs. He talked about the skills and opportunities furnished by Harvard for their post-graduates. And he explained how to register and prepare for SATs – the standardised US university admissions test.

Head of Year 12 Michael Feven said: “His talk was well attended and received. It was wonderful to welcome Ché back to the School and to learn that he is having such a busy and enjoyable experience at Harvard thus far.

“It is invaluable to hear from OEs like him to provide current boys with a first-hand account of their experiences, to help them formulate their own plans and to inspire them to think about options they might not otherwise have considered.”

Ché referred in his presentation to the structure of courses in the US, whereby one can study a diverse range of options apart from one’s ‘major’. He had considered several options in the US, but Harvard’s Liberal Arts degree, coupled with its reputation in the arts, humanities, economics and politics, proved an irresistible draw.

He was attracted by the opportunities for international study and the option to continue studying French, as well as the extra-curricular activities. Ché has always had a keen interest in politics and current affairs. (While at QE, he was co-founder of the political blog, Whippersnapper, and set up QE’s Forward Thinking Society.) He hopes to reprise this interest at Harvard by getting involved with The Harvard Crimson, the long-established daily student newspaper.

“It is the combination of breadth of curriculum and the extra-curricular opportunities that holds appeal for many of our boys who have a strong interest and ability across numerous disciplines,” added Mr Feven, who organised the visit.

The School is meticulous in offering a wide programme of university preparation. A substantial number of Che’s peers, from the cohort who left last summer, are expected to return for the annual Universities Convention in March, where Year 12 students will have the opportunity to learn about different universities and course options from those who have taken them up this year.

QE also offers a dedicated course for those interested in American colleges. This includes an information evening and weekly sessions in the Autumn Term, as well as assistance from Old Elizabethans and from the US interns from the University of Connecticut who come on an exchange programme to QE each autumn.