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The seeds of Neil Madhvani’s later career success were sown while he was still at QE, where, remarkably, he launched a string of technology businesses.

Neil (OE 1992 – 1999), who got married last year, is currently enjoying life in Singapore as a technology systems manager for the global investment bank, UBS.

He was ‘tech-savvy’ from an early age, attending Northwood Computer Tutorial Centre (now Ryde College) between 1990 and 1992, where he completed a GCSE in Computing at the age of 10 and an A-level in Computer Science at 11.

Neil recalls how he set up his first business, Starlight Technologies, at QE when he was just 14 or 15: “I realised that personal computers at that time were expensive, so it was easier to customise them using different parts and then sell them to customers at a profit.” Marketing by word of mouth alone, he ran the business successfully for five or six years.

By the time he reached the Lower Sixth, Neil was ready for an additional entrepreneurial adventure. This time it was the burgeoning mobile phone market that caught his eye. Before the days when pay-as-you-go became common, Neil identified this as a gap in the market. Together with a friend, he sold ‘pre-prepared’ mobile phones, arranging contracts with Orange so that the customer didn’t have to. Neil initially combined this with his duties as a Prefect and School Lieutenant, not to mention his A-level studies: he gained straight As in Mathematics, Physics, Economics and German. He remembers his time at QE fondly and says that he “got a lot of support from Eamonn Harris and John Marincowitz”.

This business expanded so that Neil was able to open a shop in Potters Bar, which he and his friend ran for six years. They even managed to set up and run another business – an internet firm supplying mobile phones called Time2Talk.

In 1999, Neil took a gap year and worked for Logica, the technology company. The following year, still running the businesses he had started at School, he took up a place at Imperial College to read Information Systems Engineering. After graduating in 2004, he joined UBS in London. For the next few years, he enjoyed travelling all over the world during his holidays, especially to the Far East.

In 2007, the bank offered him a position in Singapore, which he gladly accepted. As he says on his own website, http://neil.be/ :  “I loved visiting South East Asia so much that in August 2007 I decided to move to the region.  Being based in Singapore makes it so much easier to explore beautiful and culturally diverse destinations regularly!”

Neil uses social media to keep in touch with friends, including fellow QE alumni, all around the world. An enthusiast of underground and metro public transport systems, he also enjoys photography and listening to music (from electronic, ambient and trance to jazz and classical) as well as running, cycling and hiking.

The School is always delighted to hear from our former pupils, whether they would like to get involved in QE events such as the recent Dinner Debate reported on here, or simply have news to share about themselves or former classmates.

To get in touch with our Alumni Office, please contact alumni@qebarnet.co.uk.

The Elizabethan Union’s and Old Elizabethans’ 47^th Annual Dinner Debate was a well supported evening. It featured a debate around the proposition ‘This House believes that hosting the Olympics will be an expensive waste of effort’.

Captain of School Nigethan Sathiyalingam proposed the Visitors, Promit Anwar (2002-2009) and Tommy Peto (2003-2010), who spoke in favour of the motion and carried the debate.

Their Elizabethan Union opponents were Sixth-Formers Alex Davis and Pravin Swarmy, who were proposed by Eric Houston, former Second Master and teacher of English (1976-2010). Sixth-Former Rohan Sathyanand was Chairman.

“This was a thoroughly enjoyable event with good food, stimulating company and a high standard of debate,” said the Headmaster. “It was good to welcome back Promit and Tommy. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to meet with former colleagues and other friends of the School. They included Eric Houston, David Jones (retired English teacher who was the master in charge of debating before my colleague Nisha Mayer took on this role) and guests of my predecessor, Eamonn Harris (Headmaster 1984-1999).”

The Sixth Form Voluntary Service Programme at QE has become an important factor in enabling the School to fulfil its commitment to make a serious contribution to society and “to produce young men who are confident, able and responsible”.

Every pupil in Year 12 is expected to devote 40 hours during the year (or one hour per week) to volunteering.

Boys find their own placements: usually, their choices either relate to an individual’s planned career or make a contribution to his community.

The School receives very positive feedback from employers who participate in the programme. For their part, pupils benefit tremendously from the opportunity to work alongside people from different walks of life, thereby enhancing their social skills and, in many cases, gaining skills and knowledge that will prove useful to them in their future career.

Below are some case studies from current Sixth-Formers on their volunteering placements, collated by Sixth-Former Alex Davis. The photographs of the volunteers in action were taken by Alex’s classmate, Henry Yang.

Matthew Chew, acts as a Teaching Assistant at Brunswick Park Primary School and Nursery. He works with small groups of children in Year 2, varying from groups of seven to one-to-one, helping them with improving numeracy skills.

What are the benefits for you?

• Gaining leadership, teaching and communication skills with children
• Satisfaction of helping children learn

What do your employer and colleagues get out of it?

• Reduces the burden for teachers
• Allows children to get more individual help with difficult concepts

Why do you think volunteering is important?
“Volunteering not only helps to model future career aspirations, but it also allows us to give back to society. By teaching children, I’m able to pass on information that I have picked up along the way.”

Rohan Sathyanand helps with the running of a Cancer Reseach UK charity shop. This includes dealing with the shop Floor, checking use-by dates of the products and taking charge of the media section.

What are the benefits for you?

• Working with a range of interesting people; developing team-building skills
• Feeling of giving back to society

What do your employer and colleagues get out of it?

• The shop would not able to function without volunteers
• I introduced a restructured pricing strategy for media-related items to increase revenue for the charity

Why do you think volunteering is important?
“Volunteering goes one step further than simply donating. I initially moved to the UK with my family in 2004 and visited charity shops often when I was younger. Now, I am in a position to be able to help others who are in a similar situation.”

Vignesh Gopalan helps run Arts and Crafts classes at St Joseph’s Pastoral Centre, an adult learning disability centre. Adults receive one-to-one help with activities such as painting and pottery.

What are the benefits for you?

• Satisfaction of giving people opportunities they would otherwise not have
• Building relationships and having fun

What do your employer and colleagues get out of it?

• St Joseph’s are often short of volunteers
• Adults with difficulties get someone to talk to, which allows them to be expressive and creative

Why do you think volunteering is important?
“Our responsibility is to help others as we are in a fortunate position to be able to.  This charity is really very unusual as it goes beyond simply raising funds, actively bringing adults in.”

Jeremy Wong helps with the general running of Chipping Barnet Day Centre for the Elderly, as well as entertaining the elderly through board games, such as Scrabble, draughts and chess.

What are the benefits for you?

• Gaining medical work experience in geriatrics
• Developing communication skills with patients

What do your employer and colleagues get out of it?

• Day centre works more efficiently
• Elderly appreciate that people give up their free time to entertain and help them

Why do you think volunteering is important?
“There is very little money in institutions like elderly day care centres, and they can only continue to function successfully through the work of volunteers. It is also important to commit oneself to tasks whereby there is no personal reward directly.”

The Spring Term has seen instances of progress and achievement on a number of fronts at Queen Elizabeth’s School. These have included the success of our Year 13 boys in obtaining offers from Russell Group universities across a wide range of academic disciplines. Twenty-six pupils have gained places at Cambridge and Oxford, with those looking to study Economics, Engineering, Law and Natural Sciences faring particularly well.

In addition, 17 were placed in the ‘Cambridge Winter Pool’, meaning that they only narrowly missed out on securing a place at the university. Such success is the result of consistent hard work over a period of many months and of the support of others, including staff, parents and Old Elizabethans.

At our recent Senior Awards, I was pleased to welcome as our Guest of Honour Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, who has risen from a relatively modest background to become Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. He grew up on an estate in Cardiff from where he went on to the Welsh National School of Medicine before eventually rising to become Chief Executive of the UK’s Medical Research Council. In his speech, Sir Leszek celebrated academic excellence and cautioned against a utilitarian approach to education. For my part, I would re-iterate that our boys need not be concerned if their genuine academic interests do not lie within a discipline that immediately links to a specific profession. They should have the confidence to embrace the privilege that we enjoy in the UK of being able to pursue our genuine academic interests at the world’s leading universities. A challenging intellectual experience leads to a wide range of career opportunities and is attractive to prospective employers.

Given the recent controversy in the Press around the appointment of Professor Les Ebdon as Head of the Office for Fair Access, it is perhaps appropriate for me at this juncture to make clear my stance on university entrance: I firmly endorse the view that universities should select students purely on the grounds of academic merit, and regardless of their social or ethnic background.

A similarly meritocratic position on admissions has, of course, underpinned QE’s success. This will be further enhanced by our new Admissions Code, under which all pupils will be selected on the basis of academic merit through the entrance examination. Although this change involves the removal of the small number of places reserved for musicians who qualified for the second round of academic testing, the Governors and I are committed to Music remaining a strength.

I continue to be encouraged by the eager participation in Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s events, such as this term’s Chinese Extravaganza, and also by the generous giving to our Covenant Fund, which makes possible developments such as our current building project. I am delighted to confirm that the first phase of this is now complete. We are currently negotiating the next phase, which will provide a two-storey extension, new refectory and full-size library. It is necessary to pause construction for the examination season, but I hope work will start again soon. May I invite former pupils to support the excellent work of FQE by attending our Founder’s Day Fete on Saturday 16th June, which this year is on the theme of the Olympics?

One of the memorable events of this term was the visit of our Paralympian old boy, Tom Aggar (1995-2002), for the Sixth Form Luncheon. We will be following his progress keenly at London 2012. We are looking to develop our links with our old boys of all generations.

Another recent highlight was the School Play, All the World’s a Stage. This was both ambitious in its scope and impressive in its execution: our Co-ordinator of Drama, Elaine White, should be congratulated on a very successful production. It is my intention that drama should be a significant aspect of School life at QE.

We are currently working towards the School’s Strategic Development Plan to cover the period 2012-2016. The results of a recent survey conducted among our parents as part of the consultation over the plan were immensely encouraging and also gave us some interesting things to consider. Inter alia, these include a consensus that we should continue to invest in the development of technology in the School. September will see the launch of our new Technology Course for Key Stage 3 – one of a number of curricular changes that we are making as we take advantage of the freedom afforded us by our status as an Academy. Education Secretary Michael Gove’s recent decision to abolish the current national ICT curriculum marks a widespread recognition that the teaching of computing should be more creative and challenging. Replacing the previous ICT and DT courses, our new course will provide greater academic stimulation. From September, Latin will be re-introduced to the curriculum at QE, building on the success of our extra-curricular Latin. All the new Year 7 boys will begin a three-year course in the language. Our Science Department is currently preparing those in Year 10 for the respected Edexcel IGCSE, while boys currently in Year 9 and below will also be preparing for the IGCSE Mathematics qualification.

My best wishes to all our former pupils for a pleasant Easter holiday.

Neil Enright

This term’s major theatrical production marked another step in the renaissance of drama at Queen Elizabeth’s School. Entitled All the World’s a Stage, the play was written at the School and was based around Jaques’ famous Seven Ages of Man speech from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

It featured scenes with familiar titles, such as Oh! What a Lovely War, Just William, and The Importance of Being Earnest. “In order to bring these scenes together, we used the long history of Queen Elizabeth’s School to weave an imaginary debate between past students about which scene best represents one of the Ages of Man,” explained Co-ordinator of Drama, Elaine White. “The initial project and ideas came from me, but as we rehearsed, the boys came up with both improvised and scripted scenes.”

The connection with the School’s history was further emphasised by the projection of photographs of previous headmasters during the production itself and by a special presentation during the interval featuring photographs of old boys in QE drama productions of the past.

The current Headmaster, Neil Enright, congratulated Mrs White, her colleagues and the boys on their efforts. He added: “There is a long tradition of an annual play at the School and I am delighted that we have been able to strengthen this in the past couple of years. Last year’s production of The Tempest was a significant development, and I feel confident that All the World’s a Stage marked another step forward for drama at QE, not least because it was the first play to be staged in the Shearly Hall.”

I write this having recently bidden farewell to our Year 13 leavers and having also enjoyed meeting many Old Elizabethans at the 2012 Founder’s Day Fete organised by the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s.

More than ever, I am sensible of the great contribution made to the wellbeing of the School by the wider Elizabethan community, including alumni of all generations, parents and other supporters.

Founder’s Day amply demonstrates that contribution. This year, our guest speaker at the service, Piers Martin, Director and CEO of British Fencing, gave an illuminating address in which he discussed the British Olympic fencing team and the steadfast dedication necessary to succeed at Olympic level. Piers was a QE pupil from 1987 to 1994, while his father, Barrie Martin, is Chairman of the Governing Body. On a personal note, I enjoyed my first opportunity as Headmaster to preside over the traditional Roll Call and give the reading of the School Chronicle on Stapylton Field. We were also pleased to be able to revive an old QE tradition – the playing of a Founder’s Day cricket match between the School First XI and an old boys’ team.

Other highlights of the term have included a number of events through which the School celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Our Kings and Queens Concert was a memorable success, as was the special Jubilee-themed lunch in a bunting-decked Refectory. It was good to welcome back QE old boy Claude Francois Muhuza (2001-2008) as guest speaker at Junior Awards.

I have also been encouraged recently by the early success of the Old Elizabethans Business Club, which is very ably led by Michael Galluci (OE 1981-88). Launched in January last year on the LinkedIn social media platform, the club has attracted a good number of members. Its aims include providing opportunities for old boys across the world to get to know each other, share business advice and news, to get together at various functions and to support the School.

Earlier this term, I relished the opportunity to meet some older alumni when I attended the popular Forty Society Luncheon Club, which, as most of you will doubtless know, is for those who left the School 40 or more years ago. Included in the society’s ranks are a number of Old Elizabethans who took part in one of the more remarkable events in the School’s history which took place 50 years ago this summer: the 1962 QE expedition to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Such links with our past are tremendously important, as are the regular visits to the School by our old boys. We see our alumni as a significant element in the future development of Queen Elizabeth’s School. This is set out in our four-year plan, entitled School Priorities for Development 2012-2016, which has just been fully endorsed by the School’s Governing Body.

We are, of course, looking forward to the Olympics. Tom Aggar (OE 1995-2002), has become quite a familiar face at QE and I will be cheering him on in the rowing as he aims to repeat his gold-winning performance of the Beijing Paralympics. I will also watch with keen interest the performance of Piers Martin’s fencers.

Finally, I am delighted to be able to bring you positive news regarding our buildings. Firstly, the new Food Technology suite is now complete and is currently being tested before we bring it into full use in September this year. Secondly, the Trustees recently gave their formal assent to the next phase, which will involve the creation of our new Library and Dining Hall. Work began recently and the new facilities are scheduled to be ready for use in September 2013.

May I wish you all an enjoyable summer.

Neil Enright