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Old Elizabethan Farshad Dabeshkoy is now the Commercial Director for one of the world’s largest advertising exchanges – second only to Google – with a role that sees him regularly travelling across the Middle East.

He meets with clients which include some of the biggest companies in their sectors, consulting on their business objectives and, in some cases, on progressing to IPO (Initial Public Offering, or stock market flotation).

And Farshad (OE 1997–2005) has a Master’s in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University London as well as a degree in Business Management – Marketing from the University of Westminster.

Yet he was by no means always considered a high-flyer. In fact, asked to characterise the message arising from his life and career so far, he says: “I feel the ‘theme’ would be that you may not be the most academic person in the class – but with the right attitude, commitment and values, success is a guaranteed outcome.

“One of the key points during my time at QE was a very honest and uncomfortable meeting with my then-Head of Year, Mr [Liam] Hargadon.” Dissatisfied with his academic performance, Mr Hargadon said he planned to call Farshad’s parents in to the School.

It was, as Farshad recalls, an inauspicious thing to hear on a Monday morning, but it gave him the chance to show his mettle. “Whilst in this meeting, I pitched various ways I could get him to change his (already made-up) mind – and after 30 minutes we had agreed on a contract to be drawn up between the two of us whereby I would guarantee an improvement in grades… in return for Mr Hargadon not contacting my parents.

“I believe this was my first proper pitch and first official ‘close’ of a deal. To put it simply, this is a foundation in the role I fulfil today – but ‘Mr Hargadon’ has been replaced with global airlines, retailers and the biggest brands in the world!”

Another thing that Farshad acquired during his time at QE – in addition to his enduring nickname, Fash – was financial acumen. “I remember getting a detention for buying ‘penny sweets’ from the newsagent on the way to school, and trying to sell them for 2p. Simple case of supply versus demand: you can tell I was always thinking about profits!”

Like many schoolboys, he did not always appreciate the reasons for the rules that were in place. “It’s only now, as the father of a nearly four-year-old, that I understand and fully appreciate the value in being prompt (I had endless ‘bad notes’ for being late), or finishing homework on time, or not having your tie undone, or shirt untucked. One big lesson I learnt was not wearing too much hair-gel: as you’ll see from my picture it didn’t work out too well for me (!)”

Farshad says his current career owes much to the “creative tendencies” he demonstrated when growing up . “I was always more interested in Art, Music and Design. A major hobby of mine was always music production – I was working in recording studies and, from a young age, signing licensing deals with record labels both in Europe and in the Middle East.

“As a risk-averse individual, as time went on I felt more and more uncomfortable with the irregular income from music, and whilst studying Marketing at university, I decided that marketing and advertising were a much safer bet. I decided to give 100% to it, which led me to doing an internship at an online advertising network. It was one of the first of its kind: digital advertising wasn’t taken very seriously then, and more traditional mediums were holding by far the lion’s share of the market.”

After a year, the company offered him a permanent position, which involved his studying and working at the same time. “A lot of late evenings, but with the support of my wife (who I’ve known since I was at QE) raising our son, a one-year old at the time, I went on to also complete a Master’s degree, again by working all day – with university study all night!

After progressing through a couple of advertising and media-sector jobs, 2017 finds Farshad based in Dubai, employed by the Nasdaq-listed Criteo. He works with some of the largest retailers, airlines, online travel agencies and e-commerce platforms in the world, which gives him the opportunity to experience cities not only in the Middle East and Turkey, but as far afield as South Africa and Russia.

“I still feel there is a lot more to achieve and my commitment and motivation for further success is only stronger than before,” Farshad concludes. “Integrity and striving for greatness” have been key pillars not only in his own accomplishments, he says, but also in the success “that many of my friends from QE have gone on to experience”.

So while his own time at School was not without its hiccoughs, he says: “I have since been forever grateful for my parents’ decision to support and push me to attend and study at QE Boys – and here I have given just a few of the reasons that I would choose QE for my own son, too.”

International oilman and Old Elizabethan Jason Breslaw is continuing to forge his business reputation after moving to Chicago.

Former School Captain Jason (OE 1994–2001), who now leads BP’s distillate trading origination business across the Americas, was a headline attraction at a major industry event in October – the 37th Argus Fuel Oil and Feedstock Summit – in Miami, Florida. Oil pricing analyst Stefka Wechsler identified him as one of the event’s “high-powered speakers”.

A year after graduating from Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences in 2004, Jason began working for BP as a Freight Trading Analyst and has successfully worked his way up in the multinational company ever since. For the first 12 years, he was based in London, although his responsibilities ranged far and wide, from involvement with BP’s terminal in the southern Turkish port of Mersin to leading the development of new distillate trading business across Europe, Africa and Russia.

Jason got married in Mill Hill in July 2015 and he and his spouse moved to the US in May 2016. As to the future, he hopes to start a family when he returns from Chicago. “I intend to keep working at my career within BP and to continue travelling both for business and pleasure. I’ll be prioritising time with my friends and family whenever I get the opportunity, and staying true to my north London roots .

“I have so many fond memories from my days at QE! The dreaded cross-country runs through the ‘elephant dip’, as we used to refer to it (the typically very muddy section behind Third Field, where more than a few Green Flash trainers have no doubt been lost) – I never imagined I’d take up running as a hobby in later life: it’s mainly to keep the extra pounds off that living in America can so easily see gained.

“One of my proudest achievements was breaking the fundraising record for the FQE summer fete when I was School Captain back in 2000, between the raffle ticket sales and the fete itself. Boy, we worked hard for that, but of course none of us as hard as Diane Mason [Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s stalwart] – what a trooper!

“It was also a pleasure seeing the School evolve, from having some first-year classes in Portakabins (to the right of where the Sixth Form block now stands), to the addition of the new Science labs in the late 1990s, to the building of the Sixth Form block and the covering of the area between the English classrooms (what was the rose garden) – and since then of course, the upgrading of the pool and many more upgrades. The BBC computers from 1994/5 are well and truly gone!”

Jason was joint best man at Arash Aframian’s (also OE 1994-2001) wedding this summer. “Arash was, and remains, one of my closest friends and is now a successful orthopaedic surgeon in the UK.”

Another friend from School, Gavin Levy, re-entered Jason’s life when he bought the house next door to him in Mill Hill. “It was great re-kindling that friendship and getting to know his wife before we moved to the US.”

Pictured here is Jason:

• • In Kuwait City at a refinery deep dive with the country’s national oil company.

• • In Sydney attending ABCANZ (a military fuels conference between the American, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealander navies) at the request of the UK MOD, where he represented the industry as a marine fuels quality and market expert.

• • In a recent picture taken at his downtown Chicago apartment balcony, as used in the Miami conference marketing materials.

Hemang Hirani has been offered a job with an investment bank – but is keeping his options open after a period that has seen him involved in volunteering ventures ranging from mentoring pupils at under-performing London schools to supporting poor cancer patients in Mumbai.

Hemang (OE 2008–2015), who was Senior Vice Captain at QE, is currently in the third year of his Geography degree at the LSE.

He spent the summer of 2017 as an intern in UBS’s Collateral and Margin Management Team, performing so well that he has been offered a place to return to the team on the bank’s 2018 Graduate Training Programme (GTP) in London. Hemang says: “I am still keeping my options open and considering undertaking further study, particularly in urban geography/spatial economics – two areas I have come to gain a strong interest in over the course of my undergraduate degree.”

His spell at UBS represents quite a contrast to the time he spent the previous summer with Impact Guru. This newly-founded organisation, akin to the UK’s JustGiving, describes itself as a “donation-based crowdfunding platform for Indians across the world to give back to their country”. Hemang spent just under two months in Mumbai as an intern for Impact Guru, during which his focus was on raising awareness about the plight of cancer sufferers and on actively running fu ndraising campaigns for patients, many of whom came from poor backgrounds. It involved him meeting several businesses to present them with proposals for sponsorship.

In a blog post for Impact Guru, Hemang recounted his experience of meeting cancer patients at the Tata Memorial Hospital in the Parel district of the city. There he found the families of poor patients struggling to cope with bureaucratic requirements (“Although I was able to understand what they were trying to say, my limited Hindi could not do them justice,”) and met cancer victims from outlying areas who automatically lose their right to accommodation after four to six weeks, regardless of the severity of their condition. “…Rather than helping, this exacerbates the state of many of the patients who are prone to so many other diseases from their poor living conditions – which only adds to the vicious cycle of deteriorating health.

“The reality of the situation was shocking. Coming from London, it was something I’d never experienced before in my life… these patients shouldn’t have to undergo such pain and suffering whilst tackling a life-threatening disease!”

On the positive side, Hemang’s visit did allow him to meet and network with a range of people and interns from all over the world, including the US, China, Philippines and the UAE.

Over the past two years, Hemang has also been consistently involved wi th the LSE’s Widening Participation team. “We are a chosen group of around 30 voluntary mentors who take out 2-3 hours weekly to meet students at various under-performing secondary schools in London. It has been really interesting, particularly as QE was quite the opposite, where we all tended to perform very well and had a clear drive to go to university and study further – something I noticed is very different for many of these students.”

Separately from this, Hemang has been assiduous in giving his time to help QE’s Sixth-Form geographers prepare for university entrance since he left the School himself.

Most recently, after his summer internship at UBS, he enjoyed a backpacking trip to Japan with a few friends, taking in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Nara and Arashiyama.

And he adds: “I am still in touch with various OEs and we make a great effort to meet, particularly when the others are back in London. Despite us wanting to plan a trip together last summer, given various commitments and internships undertaken by a lot of us, we have decided to postpone this till the coming summer. Initial ideas have included a South America trekking trip and a rail trip across Northern India and Nepal.”

Forty-six Old Elizabethans, parents and other representatives drawn from a broad range of professions gave QE boys and their parents expert help in planning their futures at the School’s 2017 Careers Convention.

A major Year 11 event, it seeks both to pr ovide detailed information about career paths that boys and their parents are already considering and to encourage them to consider fresh options as well.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a thoroughly successful evening. We had a very large number of guests, and conversations with a number of boys since the convention suggest that they found it very useful, particularly enjoying meeting our many visiting OEs.

“A significant number of our boys will undoubtedly become lawyers or medics, and the stalls hosting representatives of these professions were certainly busy. However, our leavers, in fact, follow very diverse career options, so I was equally pleased to welcome visitors from the creative industries and the public sector, to name just two.

“My thanks go to all of the guests who gave up their time to assist the next generation and to my colleagues for organising such a large event.”

The Careers Convention was based in the Shearly Hall, where most of the representatives were based for the evening and were available for conversations with the Year 11 boys and their parents.

They were grouped into the following areas:

• • Banking and Finance
  • Built Environment
  • Creative Arts and Media
  • Engineering
  • Law
  • Medicine
  • Professional Services
  • Public Sector
  • Science
  • Miscellaneous

There were also eight 20-minute talks given in nearby classrooms on topics ranging from Dentistry and Life in the City to Study Abroad.

The evening had begun with an opportunity for the OEs and other guests to meet each other for wine and canapés in the School’s Café 1573 prior to the arrival of the boys and their parents.

With good numbers in attendance, excellent food and memorable speeches, this year’s formal dinner for alumni was by common consent one of the best in recent memory, according to the Headmaster.

Guest of honour Robert Rinder (OE 1989–1994) brought both TV glamour and the sharp insights of an experienced international barrister to the 122nd annual dinner of The Old Elizabethans Association, while alumni spanning the generations enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with each other and make new friends.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a terrific evening. The attendance represented an increase on previous years and Rob delivered an address that was not only characteristically entertaining but also rather profound.

“It was excellent to see so many of our ten-year leavers (those who started their final year in 2007) back with us. They helped make it a truly memorable occasion.”

Formed in 1886 as an informal dining club, the association took on its present form in the 1920s. Its current President is Ken Cooper (OE 1942-50).

In his speech, Rob Rinder reflected on what he has taken from the School, while thanking QE for the “gift” it had bequeathed to him. He especially thanked his Headmaster Eamonn Harris, who was in attendance, together with my immediate predecessor, John Marincowitz.

He praised QE’s burgeoning alumni network, urging that it should be nurtured and utilised: all old boys should get involved to help pay back the “debt” that each owed to the School, he said. QE had, after all, provided them with a “public school education” for free!

Some recalled that when Rob appeared on BBC TV’s Room 101, the pet hate he had consigned to the basement torture chamber as the worst thing in the world was “school reunions”.  The Headmaster remarked: “I trust that his experience at the dinner – his first-ever reunion event at our School – went some way to changing his mind about this!”

In his own speech, Mr Enright took considerable pleasure in highlighting the fact that the academic year thus far has been notable for the large number of alumni reconnecting with the School, many coming to visit for the first time since leaving. &l dquo;They have uniformly offered support to the boys by volunteering advice, interview practice, work experience placements or sponsorship.

“It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm and engagement of our old boys; it is something we hope will only continue to grow as we pursue our aim of building a strong and active network of alumni, focused on supporting each other and, crucially, the boys currently at the School,” said Mr Enright.