Viewing archives for Alumni

Teenage entrepreneur Akshay Ruparelia returned to the School to pass on to current pupils some of the keys to his success with his online estate agency.

Having raised £500,000 through an initial investment and subsequent crowd-funding, Doorsteps.co.uk emerged in the autumn as the country’s 18th biggest estate agency, with a valuation of £12m.  The story made headlines in a number of national media, with the Daily Mirror citing Akshay’s belief that, at 19, he was the country’s youngest self-made millionaire.

On his visit to QE, Akshay (OE 2009–2016) explained that he had been motivated to start the company by a desire for financial freedom. His parents, a care worker and a teaching assistant, are both deaf, so in addition to the customary demands on a QE boy’s time, he had faced the additional requirements of caring for them.

As a result, he learned ‘vigour and tenacity’, he told the boys, as well as developing empathy and acquiring skills in time-management.

While at School, he proved to himself and to investors that his dreams were viable by selling his first house during his A-level studies. In the end, he decided to defer going to university in order to pursue the opportunity of growing the business.

The road to success was not without its twists and turns, however. Akshay created and scrapped multiple businesses, all of which helped him improve the Doorsteps online offering. His age presented challenges when it came to seeking funding, but he was determined to regard his youth as meaning that he had less ‘baggage’, rather than less credibility.

He outlined a number of important elements in his success:

• • A service focus, inspired by the example of Steve Jobs with Apple

• • A strong work ethic – an attribute he ascribes to the struggles he faced in coping with the dual demands of a QE education and his family

• • A shock factor – like Ryanair, he aimed to attract attention.

“All I put into it was passion, hard work and belief,” said Akshay, adding that he was fortunate to be a grounded person blessed with a good family.

The key lessons he had learned were:

• • Never stop learning

• • Embrace family and friends

• • Don’t fear failure

• • Work hard (something he had learned at QE)

• • Do something you have a passion for

• • Take every opportunity that comes your way, even if it is something you don’t necessarily know how to do: it is better to take the opportunity and learn from it, rather than passing up something that could have changed your life.

In a question-and-answer session with the boys, Akshay enlarged on several of his themes. The deep focus on service, with an aim of combining the customer service appeal of High Street agencies with the cost savings offered by websites, had led to his company now being one of the highest-rated estate agency sites. Late nights and early-morning work had enabled him to start the company by himself.

Reflecting on his time at the School, Akshay wished that he could have been more involved in extra-curricular activities.

Old Elizabethan George ‘The Poet’ Mpanga brought his trademark eloquence and sharp insights to BBC TV’s flagship political discussion programme, Question Time.

George (OE 2002–2009) repeatedly challenged the stance of the Conservative Government on topics including housing, positive discrimination and the Russian government’s suspected involvement in the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The Government was represented on the panel by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. Other guests on the programme were: the Shadow Minister for Labour, Laura Pidcock; chef, restaurateur and Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith, and Roma Agrawal, a chartered structural engineer who has worked on major projects including the Shard. Hosted by David Dimbleby, the programme was filmed at a venue close to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

George, who mostly received enthusiastic applause from the audience, told Dr Fox that the Government’s “measured tone” over the nerve gas poisoning was “actually quite damaging” and that President Putin “does not seem to bat an eyelid”.

On the prospect of a global trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump, George called for Britain to have “an honest conversation with itself about who our friends are”.  He added that “free trade goes both ways”, charging that rich nations too often “siphon off the best of [poorer nations’] resources and talents”.

Responding to a question referring to the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of planning reforms and her comment that young people were “right to be angry about housing”, George was scathing: “It’s another one of her beautiful truisms. Of course, young people are right to be angry about it, but the question is, what is actually going to be done? And promising planning permissions is not tantamount to actually taking control of the situation.”

As the programme came to a close, George spoke in favour of positive discrimination schemes being used in recruitment, stating that they tackled a “deficit or inherent bias in society” by compelling “employers or people in positions of leadership to reassess what their bias is and what they are thinking when making these decisions”.

George read Politics, Psychology and Sociology at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 2013. Since then, he has earned growing fame for his spoken-word work: last year, he performed in front of the Queen at the Commonwealth Day Service in Westminster Abbey and released a two-minute video on hate crime in collaboration with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to coincide with the anniversary of the murder of MP Jo Cox.

A leading figure in the world of legal academia inspired boys interested in pursuing a career in the Law when he returned to the School to give a talk to senior pupils. Old Elizabethan Ishan Kolhatkar (1989-1996) is Deputy Dean of Education Services at BPP, a top private university dedicated to Law, business and other professions.

After studying Law himself at BPP following a degree in Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London, Mr Kolhatkar’s career began at the Bar, before he returned to academia to the Bar Professional Teaching Course (BPTC). In addition to writing content and validation documents for a course to help BPTC students bridge the gap between the BPTC and the pupillage, he teaches advocacy part-time and takes on pro-bono work.

He spoke to the boys of the importance of asking questions, of mastering detail and of seeing the “bigger picture”. “Asking questions is the best way of learning,” he said. “Be the ‘brave one’ and ask questions in a learning environment. You will gain from it and so will the room, but you’ll also be the one directing where the discussion goes.”

He explained that being able to see the bigger picture is what sets the best apart. “You might be an expert in a narrow part of the law, but you need to be able to understand how things fit together, and understand the overall process.”

He told the boys that he himself had been attracted to Law because he loved talking and he advised them to practice the art: “Seek out people with different opinions; be willing to debate in the knowledge that they might not change their minds. Keep focussed on the issues – don’t just resort to shouting.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Ishan was an inspiring and engaging guest. The boys undoubtedly gain from the opportunity to hear from leaders in their fields. He touched on many of the themes germane to our boys: inquisitiveness and curiosity, intelligent debate, the development of a rounded personality and a desire to contribute to the wider community.”

In addition to his teaching role, Mr Kolhatkar is an External Examiner in advanced criminal litigation for The Bar Standards Board. This work takes in a number of BPTC providers, including City Law School, Cardiff University and Manchester Metropolitan University. His role is to ensure that assessments are properly set and marked in accordance with the intended learning outcomes of the module and the BPTC as a whole. He also speaks regularly at Middle Temple students’ events, on topics such as examination technique on the BPTC. (Middle Court is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers.) In his spare time, Mr Kolhatkar writes a blog for aspiring lawyers.

Year 13 pupil Dhruv Kanabar attended the talk and said: “Mr Kolhatkar provided a detailed insight into becoming a successful and effective advocate. It was particularly useful to hear his views on looking at the Law in the context of a bigger picture and how different elements are inherently linked.”

A QE old boy treated three current pupils to a rare behind-the-scenes tour of Buckingham Palace – and gave them an insight into careers on offer there.

Christopher Sandamas (OE 1978-1983) is Chief Clerk to the Palace and offered the opportunity for three boys and a member of staff to find out more about the inner workings of ‘Buck House’.

“We thought the best way to choose three pupils was to run an essay competition,” said teacher Sarah Westcott who accompanied the boys on the visit. “They all had to write about what it means to be British.” Year 8 boys Hector Cooper and Zakariya Shah, and Ivin Jose, of Year 7, were the winners. Their essays covered a broad range of experience, including growing up in France, how the traditions of British life are interwoven with the increasingly technological world, and an evaluation of the tolerance and multiculturalism experienced in modern Britain.

“After we cleared the security checks at the Palace gates, we had tea in Christopher’s office, where he outlined the duties of the Private Secretary’s office and his role as Chief Clerk,” said Dr Westcott.

“We were given an extensive tour of the Palace, including state rooms and some areas not usually open to visitors. We received the impression very much of a ‘working palace’, where functions of various types – be they investitures, garden parties or state visits – occur on a regular basis.”

The party was also given a ‘back stairs’ view of the Palace – meeting the numerous people who support the Queen in her duties, from handling correspondence with Heads of State or members of the public and acting as intermediaries with various departments of Government to organising her extensive engagements list.

The boys were given an insight into careers within the Palace organisation and the skills necessary for such roles. “The key message of how important it is to study what you enjoy came through loud and clear,” added Dr Westcott. “Many of the staff we met had backgrounds in the arts, particularly History and Politics with experience in research.”

The tour concluded with lunch in the staff dining room, where Christopher was keen to hear about the boys’ current experiences at QE, and to share his own memories. He was interested to hear about the boys’ preconceptions about Palace employees and was amused by Hector Cooper’s comments on how “normal and pleasant” the people working at the palace are.

“I think we were all amazed at the number of people working behind the scenes to support the Royal Household’s work and how welcoming they were when asked to tell us about their roles. It was a wonderful experience and we are all grateful to Christopher for giving us this rare opportunity,” concluded Dr Westcott.

Old Elizabethan Demis Hasabbis, a world-leading artificial intelligence expert, is now using AI to speed up the development of new drugs which may help in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease, he told Kirsty Young when he appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs.

His company, DeepMind, was bought by Google for a reported £400m in 2014 – and Demis said his motivation in selling was to enable the business to step up its work.

“For me, it was nothing to do with the money – in fact, our investors mostly didn’t want to sell even though it was a lot of money – it’s because I was convinced that by joining forces with Google, we could accelerate the success of the mission.” Demis explained that he was able to employ more expert researchers, thanks to Google’s injection of cash.

In March 2016, DeepMind hit the headlines when its programme, AlphaGo, beat a world champion player of the game, Go. DeepMind, of which he is CEO, is now using variants of those algorithms in its medical research into how proteins fold into a 3d structure. The 3d structure determines how the protein is going to act in the body, and faulty folding may be responsible for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. “If you could take an amino acid sequence and just tell straightaway how the 3d structure is going to look just from that, then you would accelerate drug design by five or ten years.”

Demis said the “most exciting breakthrough” in which DeepMind is currently involved is bringing together two two types of AI: deep learning, which uses neural networks to mimic what the brain does, and reinforcement learning, which is about using a model of the world to make decisions. “These two systems together, which is our big innovation, gives you in some sense the rudimentary beginnings of a full intelligence.”

Demis was at QE from 1988–1990. He had a period of home schooling, and paid tribute to his “bohemian” parents, from whom he learned that “you don’t have to be constricted by social norms”. During these early years, Demis played chess and was at one time the world’s second highest-ranked player of his age, but says he had an epiphany at a large chess tournament in Liechtenstein when he realised that all the brainpower in evidence there could be put to better use for the benefit of humanity.

He took his A-levels aged 16 at Christ’s College in Finchley and won a place at Cambridge, but since he was too young to take it up, he began his initial career in computer gaming by working for the British company, Bullfrog Productions, after winning a competition which had a job there as its prize. Arriving the day after his examinations, he was too young to be legally employed, so was paid in cash. He was the lead programmer and co-designer of the highly successful Theme Park game.

When he eventually went to Cambridge, where he took a double first in the Computer Science Tripos at Queens’ College, he partied hard and had “an amazing three years”. He went on to take a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience where he deliberately chose to study topics where AI had failed so far: memory and imagination.

Demis, who celebrated his fortieth birthday in July 2016, fell in love with computing from an early age, buying a Spectrum ZX with his chess winnings. “I have always felt…that computers can be this kind of magical device that can extend the power of the mind – I think AI is the end point of that.”

Demis, who is himself a father and is married to a scientist involved in Alzheimer’s research, impressed Kirsty Young with his warmth, openness, thoughtfulness and lack of condescension, so she asked him if he had any advice for parents of very clever children. He replied: “I think what I would do is encourage them to explore heavily when they are young and really get a wide range of experiences, so encourage deepness and expertise in things, but not at the expense of everything else. Life is so rich; you should partake in all of it. I think the kind of skills I would teach children today are the ability to learn, rather than a specific thing that you are learning. One of the first things you should learn about…is about yoursel f; how do you work best, what do you want, what are your dreams, what are you excited about?

“It’s important to be very broad in your upbringing so that you are used to understanding different points of view…and learning how to deal with that sort of disagreement in a constructive way.”

The rules of Desert Island Discs allow interviewees to pick one book (besides the Bible and works of Shakespeare) and one luxury item. Demis choose Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – “it’s such a beautiful world he created” – and a solar-powered chess computer.

As usual for the programme, he chose eight pieces of music, naming as his favourite, Vangelis’ Tears in Rain, which was part of the soundtrack to the film, Blade Runner. “I could mull over those lines, I think – they are beautiful poetry – for a very long time.”

The other music was: Watermark, by Nicky Ryan, Roma Shane Ryan and Eith Ni-Bhraonain; Justified and Ancient, by Tammy Wynette with The KLF; The Narcotic Suite; Skylined, by The Prodigy; The Garden is Becoming a Robe Room, by the modern classical composer, Michael Nyman; Who Wants to Live Forever, by Queen; Motherboard, by Daft Punk, and First Step by Hans Zimmer.

Having built a successful career in geology, Nicholas Holgate is now devoting himself to spreading the word about the subject among the rising generations.

Since April 2016, Nicholas (OE 1995–2002) has been volunteering as a STEM Ambassador, working with schools, colleges and employers to encourage young people to enjoy and pursue the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Four months later, he became a member of the Young Professionals Committee of PESGB – the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain – for which he co-ordinates the society’s Young Professionals Mentoring Scheme.

And during the 2016 Autumn Term, Nicholas returned to QE as one of 15 old boys who gave an overview of their careers at QE’s annual Careers Convention, which is for Year 11 boys and their parents.

His fascination for geology first took root while he was studying it as part of his Geography GCSE. “Whilst I was studying for my A-levels, I discussed this interest with a number of teachers, who helped me identify ways of exploring the discipline further outside of QE. I took it upon myself, with help from others, to go to local geological societies to explore more about the subject.”

He paid tribute to teacher Malcolm Russell (Head of Chemistry and Head of Science): “Without his guidance and support, I would not be where I am today, and I owe Dr Russell in particular a huge debt of gratitude for everything that he did.”

After leaving School, Nicholas went to Bristol University, where he took an MSci in Geology, graduating in 2006. He also served as secretary to the university’s Geological Society.

He then worked for a coal-mining company based in Australia for a year, before taking an internship with Statoil in Norway. In 2009, Nicholas returned to education to study for a PhD at Imperial College London, which he completed four years later.

Since April 2014, he has been with Shell and is currently working as a London-based Exploration Geoscientist with the energy giant’s Global New Ventures operation. His work for Shell involves conducting exploration through regional geological and geophysical studies to identify new petroleum-bearing territory and guide future investment.

He explained that it is partly because of the support he received from QE teachers and partly because of the efforts he had to make as a teenager to find out about geology beyond the School walls that he is now so keen to help young professionals and students discover more about the discipline and its attendant career options. “I try to highlight and publicise the subject when I can, just in case there is a budding geologist who is fascinated by the subject and wants to know how to get into it as a profession.”