Established Korean TV and radio host Peter Bint (OE 1994–2001) is always proud to tell his audiences about his alma mater.

And this term, his loyalty was instrumental in bringing about the arrival of a 60-strong TV crew to film an episode of Korean Lunch Tray – a popular show made by South Korean broadcaster, JTBC.

“Whenever I mention how old my secondary school was and that it takes its name from Queen Elizabeth the First, not the Second, it gets a lot of gasps of surprise,” he says. Some have even made mention of Harry Potter and Hogwarts when they learn just how old the School is!

“The reason I support QE in the way I do and speak about it glowingly is because I truly feel a debt of gratitude for my time there. The education system in Korea is very different to the UK, much more similar to the US system, but with added private institutes called ‘hagwons’ where almost all children go for extra tuition to supplement school teaching. When I talk about everything I needed being provided by QE in terms of learning and extra-curricular activities, the parents here are incredibly envious and I realise more now just how lucky I was.”

The programme, in which Peter appears, involves a team of Korean celebrities visiting leading educational institutions around the world, comparing the food culture and educational offer with that of South Korea. The programme-makers recorded a normal QE lunchtime in the Dining Hall on one day, and then on the next, following a 5am start, they filmed a special Korean-themed lunch produced by a team led by celebrity chef Lee Yeon-bok. During their two-day visit, for which a fee was paid to the School, the crew also called in on a Latin lesson, as well as robotics and water polo sessions.

The Headmaster says: “It was fascinating, and somehow very appropriate, that in our 450^th anniversary year we should be involved in a cultural exchange with one of the world’s most modern cultures. Our pupils and staff were interviewed as they learned about Korean food and culture, while the Korean celebrities gained insight into what it was like to be at one of the UK’s leading schools. It was a hugely popular event with the boys, to the extent that the visiting team did eventually run out of authentic Korean food!”

Peter said he was excited to be presented with the opportunity to film at QE: “To finally get a chance to show what a wonderful school QE is on screen was surreal. The filming itself went better than I could have imagined, too, in terms of the other cast and staff being impressed by the school – its teaching, facilities and, most of all, polite and incredibly intelligent pupils.

“I have some very vivid memories of my days at QE, including my first day with Mr Thomas in Stapylton with all of my new classmates decked out in our blue ties – bar one friend, Zillur Rahmann, who unfortunately came with the yellow of Leicester. My first cross-country run and elephant pit experience was ‘memorable’ too, as were the arduous rugby training sessions and Saturday matches, but these all instilled a grit in me that persists until today. The joy of receiving my GCSE grades and subsequent slight disappointment of my A-levels both stick out in the memory for different reasons, but in both instances made me appreciate QE. The former made me realise just how good the education experience on offer was, while the latter taught me I still needed to put in the effort alongside it. The reputation of QE however, helped with my smooth entry into Kings and has been a point of interest for many, even as far afield as Korea, throughout my broadcast career.

“My closest friends still remain the fellow Elizabethans I met that first day in 1994 in Barnet, five of them being my best men at my Seoul wedding. Despite living a good 5,500 miles away from Queen’s Road, I still get to meet fellow QE friends fairly regularly, with some of the class of ’94 based in East Asia – notably fellow Staplytonian and, during our QE days, child-prodigy pianist, David Wu, who regularly pays a visit to the Korean capital. This network of QE boys around the world can be an invaluable resource, as well as a bringing a much-welcomed dollop of nostalgia for the good old days.

“All in all I am sincerely grateful to QE for allowing our Korean crew and cast to film and introduce Korean cuisine to the boys. I hope that everyone enjoyed it and there will be a chance to come back in the future, or even an opportunity to meet in Korea.”

• The programme featuring QE should be airing on 22nd and 29th April.

Old Elizabethan academic and marine biologist Nick Jones has completed his PhD in Florida, awarded for his research into coral reefs.

His work on understanding the future prospects of the reefs has been presented at international conferences and published in international journals.

Nick (OE 1997–2004) now lectures at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University and mentors Master’s students, having made the USA his home.

“As a field-based researcher, much of my time is spent underwater and over the last few years I’ve been lucky to study coral reefs throughout Florida, in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Mexico,” he says.

After QE, Nick spent a gap year in Australia before returning to read Marine Biology at Southampton.

When he graduated, he was offered a scholarship to study coral reefs at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. This led to his working abroad for several years, studying coral reefs and sharks, before he returned to the UK to work for the Environment Agency.

In 2015, Nick decided to get back into academia and pursue his interest in coral reef ecosystems. “I enrolled in a Master’s at Nova Southeastern University, where my research focused on the impact of temperature on the coral reef communities. After completion, I decided to continue my research in Florida and undertake a PhD.

“I assessed how community dynamics and coral demographics (e.g., growth, recruitment, mortality rates) are influenced by global stressors (e.g., ocean warming, hurricane activity) and local anthropogenic pressures (e.g., nutrient pollution, increased sedimentation from coastal construction) to understand their recovery potential and viability under climate change.”

It is the results of this work that have been presented at conferences and published, including being featured in the National Climate Change Assessment produced by the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

“In addition to research, I give lectures in marine biology, community ecology and biostatistics, as well as mentoring multiple Master’s students, helping them with experimental design, technical writing and data analysis. I live in Hollywood, Florida, situated between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.”

He remains grateful to his teachers at QE who helped prepare him for his career.

• The main picture, top, shows Nick conducting an underwater survey in Florida. The laboratory shot shows him preparing a coral sample for an experiment, while the bottom photograph is Nick assessing a reef in Mexico.

An award-winning exhibition curated by an Old Elizabethan academic about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that hit Japan in 2011 has returned to the UK.

The exhibition, Picturing the Invisible, is now on at the Heong Gallery – a contemporary art space in Downing College, University of Cambridge, that has recently hosted exhibitions featuring artists including Ai Wei Wei, Barbara Hepworth, and David Hockney.

Featuring striking photography as well as a series of essays by internationally renowned experts in fields ranging from science to diplomacy, the exhibition is curated by Dr Makoto Takahashi (OE 2003–2010), a Fulbright-Lloyd’s Fellow from the Program on Science, Technology & Society at Harvard University’s Harvard Kennedy School. and a lecturer at the Technical University Munich’s Department for Science and Technology Studies.

Bringing together Makoto’s research interests in the Fukushima disaster with his longstanding involvement with art, the exhibition was shown at the Royal Geographical Society in London in 2021 and subsequently in Munich, where it won the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology’s 2022 Ziman Award.

It returns to the UK in an expanded format and is being shown until 23^rd April during Wednesday–Sunday afternoons at the Heong Gallery. Admission is free.

“We are proud to be the first research-led exhibition at this venue and I would be truly delighted to welcome the QE community to this exhibition space,” said Makoto, who curated it in collaboration with his students in Munich.

Organised in memory of ‘3.11’ (the 9.1-magnitude earthquake occurred on 11^th March – or 3.11 in some countries’ dating practice), Picturing the Invisible provides a striking photographic portrait of life in the wake of the triple disaster.

It brings together seven talented photographers, working in the affected territories, and pairs their works with essays by policymakers, academics, authors, and activists.

The exhibition’s promotional material states: “Together these works make visible the otherwise overlooked legacies of 3.11: the ghostly touch of radiation, lingering traumas, and the resilience of the affected communities.”

Reviewers have been fulsome in their praise: Marigold Warner, of The British Journal of Photography, called it “cool and noteworthy”, while The New Statesman’s creative editor, Gerry Brakus said: “A striking and evocative collaboration between academics, artists, and policy makers… It is educational, beautiful, heart-breaking and inspiring… Unmissable.”

A full exhibition programme can be found here.

Two Old Elizabethan entrepreneurs and a friend have launched an innovative business that leverages the power of AI to help students revise and learn.

Their online business, Save All, uses machine learning to turn students’ own input into interactive quizzes. As well as a website, there are iOS and Android Save All apps.

Backed by venture capitalists, QE contemporaries Paul Evangelou and Petros Christodoulou (2001–2008) and their business partner, Robin Jack, are keen for Old Elizabethans to try out Save All for themselves.

“You can paste or type in pure information, and our AI automatically turns it into interactive quizzes,” says Paul. “It recognises key words and generates questions.” Users can also upload their own images to be used.

“These quizzes apply principles from cognitive science research – such as spaced retrieval, active recall, and interleaving – to maximise effectiveness for memory.

“Please try it and let us know what you think,” Paul says.

After graduating from Cambridge, Paul became a teacher, and during that time conducted research into cognitive science. Having realised the value of using quizzes to aid learning, he introduced the concept to Petros and to Robin, whom the pair had met at Cambridge.

For his part, after Philosophy at Cambridge, Petros’ career has included a spell working in YouTube marketing for Google and a period as an analyst. He later developed his interest in AI, taking a postgraduate diploma from Birkbeck, University of London, and a Master’s in Machine Learning from Imperial in 2018–2019, where he came top out of 60 students in his year. He then worked for nearly two years as a machine learning specialist for Amazon.

The three friends realised that existing quiz software was very slow and difficult to use, but that by deploying artificial intelligence and marrying that with effective design, they could make it much faster and deliver a much better experience for the user.

Each of them plays to his strengths in running the business. Paul handles the marketing and the web design, including the user experience (UX). He spent the past year learning visual design – “that has kind of been my hobby” – by following online courses and having weekly sessions with a mentor. He has also been focusing on learning how to do TikTok marketing and has made many TikTok videos – several have clocked up view counts in the tens of thousands. [link to  https://www.tiktok.com/@saveall.ai]

Petros is responsible for the machine learning and website front-end coding. Robin’s role centres on the backend database.

The three lived together in a shared house for the first two years. All three now have partners but still live within 30 minutes of each other in East London.

Having raised a six-figure sum, Paul, Petros and Robin all went full-time with the business in 2021.

“We have built something that people really like,” says Paul. “Now we are looking to expand. We have 50,000 active users, including GCSE and A-level students as well as university students. It’s a good start, but there is a long way to go to reach the billion-plus numbers that we are aiming for. We want to be as big as, or bigger than, Duolingo and Quizlet.”

They have built Save All using a ‘freemium’ model. “We have used aspects of gaming design, where, for example, standard users have a certain number of lives. If they use all of them, there is an enforced ‘cool down’ period, but this can be bypassed by buying a monthly subscription and gaining more lives. We will also allow the purchase of other add-ons in a way that is familiar to gamers.”

They are now working to towards the next round of funding.

Focused on their student market, they will keep the pricing affordable, Paul says.

However, he adds that Save All is by no means only targeted at the young and those in full-time education.

“We have had a woman in her sixties who used it to help her memorise bird characteristics, having taken advantage of the site’s facility for uploading images and diagrams.”

Other actual and potential users include those preparing for their driving theory tests and cognitive behavioural therapists, who could use it to monitor their patients’ mental health. Their corporate customers have included Starbucks, who use Save All to test employees’ knowledge of different varieties of coffee.

As a proud Old Elizabethan and member of Underne, Paul cherishes fond memories of being taught History by Mr Lewis: “That was really fun: the lessons were animated.” He went on to read History at university.

Paul also enjoyed playing rugby, fluctuating between the A and B sides, while Petros held a more fixed position in the A side.

• You can try Save All here.

Akash Vaghela is continuing to grow and refine his fitness business – now billed as “the only place in the world entirely focused on helping you not only get into shape, but on learning how to stay in shape”.

RNT Fitness has transformed more than 3,000 lives in more than 25 countries, says Akash (OE 2003–2010) – and fellow Elizabethans number among some of his most satisfied customers.

As previously reported in Alumni News, Akash set up the business in 2017. Recently, he has put more emphasis on ‘get in shape, stay in shape’ as its unique selling point. “This is emphasised with a minimum commitment of 12 months, which is very different for the fitness industry.

“RNT has evolved from ‘spreadsheets and emails’ to building its own proprietary technology to better serve its members,” he adds. “All the technology is being built self-funded. Doing it without outside investment and as our first foray into building tech has been a very interesting challenge indeed!

“We have also ‘niched down’ towards working with high performers, which is a natural fit to QE alumni, who are typically high performers in their careers.” In fact, the most-read case study on RNT’s website has been that of Shyam Kotecha [OE 2003–2010], whose story has featured in Men’s Health, The Telegraph and The Guardian.

“Tom Bridges [OE 2005–2011] is a great example of our USP in action, showing the benefits of the long-term journey. Punit Rawal [OE 2002–2009] exemplifies our ethos of ‘using the physical as the vehicle’ very well: he used this as a springboard to open his own vet practice. And Minil Patel [OE 2003–2010] shows just what is possible as a vegan. His story featured in the Evening Standard recently.” Click on the thumbnails below to see what they achieved.

Akash himself turned vegan last year and has used his experience to prove that it is possible as a vegan to make fitness gains. In his own words, his “body transformation journey” took him from “eating a kilo of meat a day to getting shredded on a completely vegan plant-based diet”.

His website offers a free 28-day programme – the Transformation Accelerator – which Akash is inviting his fellow Elizabethans to join.

Raj Bavishi (1995–2002) is a Director with global audit and consulting firm Mazars in New York, a city he has long made his home. But this term he made a visit back to QE with his family – and received a friendly challenge from the Headmaster.

“Raj has a talent for bringing people together,” said Mr Enright “so I have challenged him to help us develop an OE network in the Big Apple.”

Raj, who is pictured above with the Headmaster, Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan and Head of External Relations Matthew Rose, relished many aspects of School life. He was a librarian for three years and remembers at a tender age being tasked with fixing the photocopier! He enjoyed playing rugby, adding:  “In sporting terms, the School is phenomenal, competing with the likes of Eton and Habs.”

One highlight that sticks in his mind is the research & presentation course he took. “I really enjoyed that class the most, partly because it prepared you for public speaking. Also, at that time, you didn’t Google everything: it was all about going to the library and trying to do some research. Teaching that is not something that every school does.

“I used to love the Founder’s Day Fete. As you get older and into your twenties and thirties, you look back and think ‘how lucky we were to have a Founder’s Day Fete.’” He had long regaled his Brooklyn-born wife, Drusty, with his tales of very British institutions such as Founder’s Day and Sports Day, and of taking part in inter-House competitions for Broughton, convincing her that her husband had, in fact, been to a school somewhat akin to Hogwarts! She had the chance to see for herself when she accompanied Raj on his visit, during which the Headmaster presented their three-and-a-half year-old son, Yash, with his own Broughton rugby shirt. Raj is shown below in his Year 7 form photo, second row from the front, third from the left.

“QE has helped me in specific ways a couple of times in my life. In my A-level results, I missed out on one grade and, if it wasn’t for the School making a phone call, I don’t think UCL would have taken me.”

He took up his place at UCL, reading Mathematics and Economics. “I was definitely a numbers guy: I always wanted to be an accountant.”

As he neared the end of his degree, he got a second-round interview with one of the Big Four accountancy firms. “One partner said: ‘My son did not get into QE’: he understood what going to QE meant.” He duly received an offer from the firm, but it lapsed when he received a 2:2 instead of the 2:1 required for the place. Instead, he secured a job with a smaller firm. “Sometimes failures happen for a reason. If I had gone to one of the Big Four, I wouldn’t have had the mentorship and the wider opportunities to see different sorts of transactions that I had with my first firm.”

It was while establishing himself in this job that through a family friend he met Michael Bernstein, a senior figure working in New York’s accountancy scene. “I call him my Jewish father: to survive in New York , you need a Jewish father!” He invited Raj to come and work in the US and so, on September 23rd 2006, he moved across the Atlantic, starting work on 1st October from offices opposite Bloomingdale’s, the famous department store.

Through mergers, that firm is now part of one of the accounting industry giant, Mazars, for which both he and Mr Bernstein, who today leads its private equity and transaction services practices, still work. “It has given me a good platform,” said Raj. Auditing was for a long time his “bread and butter” work: “I really enjoyed understanding a business and systems and processes. Using flow charts was a big skill that I learned at QE!”

Since 2014, he has worked in the financial advisory department; his role as Financial Advisory – Director involves him working closely with private equity providers, banks and the companies involved.

Reflecting on his life and career, Raj is clear about the benefits that QE has brought him. “QE actually did give us a good grounding. At that stage of your life, it’s important to have some discipline and sense of responsibility. There are of course always two ways of looking at things, but I think QE does teach you responsibility and it does give you the skillset to build your career in the way you want to.”

Pictured here with OE friends at a reunion earlier this year, Raj uses social media – originally Facebook, but now largely WhatsApp – to keep in touch with fellow alumni.

• If you would like to be part of the New York Old Elizabethan network, email developmentoffice@qebarnet.co.uk and we’ll put you in touch with Raj.

Until recently, Ali Woods was, as one reviewer put it, PR man by day, comedian by night.

Better known to his QE contemporaries as Alister Heywood (OE 2005–2012), he first made a name on TikTok and then gained a big boost when his debut solo show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe sold out amid five-star reviews.

Now, underpinned by his huge online following, he has given up the day job and become a professional comedian.

The very first time he was involved in performing comedy was at York, where he was reading English & Related Literature. He was part of a university ‘improv’ group called The Shambles. He then first did stand-up in London in 2015 at open mic nights. In 2017, he was runner-up in the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year competition and was short-listed for a BBC New Comedy Award in both 2017 and 2018.

Alister won Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2020 – Evening Standard writer Bruce Dessau’s quotation in the headline is from that time. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4, TalkRadio and TalkSport, alongside hosting his own podcast, All I Do Is Fail.

All of this was achieved while he was simultaneously working in PR: he is working his notice as a New Business and Marketing Executive for the Propeller Group (a global PR, content and events agency) and finishes on 21st December.

Alister was planning to do his debut full stand-up show in 2020, but was thwarted by the pandemic. Instead, during lockdown he started making videos, which soon went viral. Today, he has 153,000 followers on Instagram and 113,000 on TikTok. His online comedy sketches under the tag @aliwoodsgigs have gained millions of views and likes, and featured on LadBible and Buzzfeed UK. It is by using this audience that he has now managed to turn professional.

In his comedy, he presents a mix of the ‘everyman’ and the ‘modern man’, displaying sensitivity and a genuine interest in men’s mental health, which gives him a great perspective on the modern ‘lad’ culture. He speaks on topics such as football, the environment, and many social causes close to his heart.

Typically outspoken, he is keen to encourage those interested in creative work to pursue it and get the career they really want: “You can do it, believe that you can. I’ve done it and I’m not even funny!” It was not, he said, an aspiration that was really valued in the QE of his time. “I was never encouraged to take creative work seriously, it was seen as a facilitator for cover letters and CVs.”

Alister, who was among the guests at this term’s OE Association Dinner, therefore feels a special impetus to encourage today’s pupils if they hold similar interests.

“You can work really hard to end up in a job you hate because you thought it was the safe option,” he says. “I would like to communicate to current QE boys that creative arts are a legitimate pursuit which requires the same work as any difficult degree or discipline or career, and will truly be worth it. If you are passionate about it, and you’re willing to be consistent, put yourself out there, learn from your setbacks and not to give up: it will be the most fulfilling journey you’ll ever make.

“Don’t be afraid to take the risk. Believe that you are able to succeed in a competitive, creative field.”

• You can view Alister’s videos at his website.

As current Year 12 pupil Darren Lee gets ready to take over as School Captain in our 450th anniversary year, we asked the 400th anniversary Captain, Iain Lanyon, for his memories of that momentous year.

He began by saying that he had in fact had other plans for the first half of 1973…

“I stayed on after my A-levels in 1972 to take Cambridge entrance exams in the autumn. I was, I think, the youngest in my year, so I wanted to take a year out,” he said. “In the end, I stayed the whole academic year 1972–73 as School Captain: it was the 400th anniversary and there was so much to do! Prefects were responsible for much of the discipline and organised all school break times and the junior assembly. I had to combine school work with part-time paid work (I was from a one-parent family and on free school meals). I worked in the doubles bar at the Red Lion pub and remember ‘Tiger’ Timson [Classics teacher Percival Timson] coming in for a drink each evening before catching the bus home – double White Horse whisky with Malvern Water.

“My favourite memory of the 400th anniversary was organising the School fete. I persuaded the school to hold a joint fete with the Girls’ School and for the proceeds to go to the new Marie Foster home for multiple sclerosis about to be opened in Wood Street. I worked with the new comprehensive intake of QE junior boys to save enough Green Shield stamps to buy an early type of mobility scooter for the home, and the fete also raised over £1,200 for the home – that’s over £17,000 in today’s value.” He has a copy of a letter from Marie Foster herself thanking him. “She was an amazing woman!” The colour photo in front of the Main Building shows him collecting a prize on Founder’s Day 1973, while he is in the front row, centre, in the prefect team line-up.

Iain was a keen sportsman. He was captain of the athletics team and played rugby on the left wing in the First XV, also playing for the county in both sports. He was the Borough of Barnet schools 100 metres sprint champion for two years. “My time of 11.2 seconds was a record that stood for several years, I think.”

In 1973, the School was approached by a local college to see if there was a QE pupil who could teach the English Language course. “I was sent along. I remember being the youngest in the room full of people needing an English qualification for their careers. The administrator came in and apologised that the teacher hadn’t arrived, so I had to put up my hand to say I was their teacher!”

Teaching has remained part of his life ever since: “Firstly graphic design and communication, and now as a part-time voluntary mentor for English Literature Oxbridge candidates at Camden School For Girls.”

After Iain finally handed over the School Captain’s mantle to Maxwell Ball, who took over in the Autumn Term of 1973, he went on to his own English Literature degree at Warwick. After that, he worked in arts marketing at the Royal Opera House. “I then became a graphic designer, working for theatre companies, which has been my career for the past 40 years.” He is creative director of his own company, Kean Lanyon Ltd.

Iain lives in Crouch End. “Several of us still meet up on Founder’s Day each year at the Black Horse, then go on to the School fete. This year we were given a guided tour and saw the new swimming pool for the first time. ” It is, he reflects, quite a contrast to the days when he and his classmates would stand shivering on the edge of the outdoor pool, with PE teacher Eric Shearly cheerfully pouring scorn on their reluctance to enter the water.

Nine friends from the Class of 2016 passed on their advice and guidance to junior boys and caught up with their former teachers when they returned to the School for a reunion.

Eight of the group were from Broughton, so they duly dubbed odd man out Michael Yeung, of Leicester House, an honorary Broughtonian for the day.

First stop was a trip down memory lane with a visit to 7B’s form time, where Languages teacher Marie-Jo Jacquin is still the form tutor, just as she was in their day back in 2009. They then did a careers ‘speed-dating’ workshop in which they introduced their roles and industries, and the key skills and routes into it, to small groups of Year 8 boys.

It was an opportunity for younger boys to see the range of career paths that OEs are taking and to ask questions at a formative stage. Our visitors enjoyed catching up with a number of their former teachers (the Headmaster, Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan, Sarah Westcott Assistant Head (Pupil Progress), Mathematics teacher & Head of Academic Administration Wendy Fung, Head of Physics Jonathan Brooke, and others) before taking a tour round the School to see the considerable change even since they were here.

In common with the visit of Max Curtis, mentioned in the Headmaster’s introduction, the visit began with an OE – in this case, Alexander Ng – reaching out to the Headmaster.

“It was good to learn that this group still retains great affection for their alma mater and to see that friendships formed at QE really do stand the test of time, even with some of this group having left before Year 13 (including one of their number, Brian Yoon, moving to South Korea as early as Year 9),” the Headmaster said.

The nine were:

• Three medical doctors: Alexander Ng, who went to UCL and is now at Barnet Hospital; David Hao, and Michael Yeung (Cambridge).
• Two engineers: mechanical engineer Lampojan Raveenthiranathan, who studied at UCL and now works for a company which designs and manufactures components for military aircraft ejector seats, and civil engineer Roderick Lee
• Brian Yoon, who works in finance
• Prahlad Patel, who studied Actuarial Science at City University, but is now in the film industry and currently working on Season 5 of Netflix’s The Crown, digitally refining the images.
• Lawyer Meer Gala-Shah
• David Dubinsky, who read Physics & Astronomy at Durham.

Priyan Shah and his family are so passionate about encouraging the next generation that they have set up their own educational awards scheme.

Together with his parents, Dhiru and Rami, Priyan (OE 1991–1998) visited the School this term to present DVS Foundation Awards to ten of the current Year 12s. These aim to promote a virtuous circle of motivation and success, together with kindness. And the awards are only one facet of the family’s philanthropic work: the foundation’s focus is on education, food insecurity and healthcare, in both the UK and East Africa.

Priyan read Accounting & Finance at the University of Kent at Canterbury and then completed a postgraduate degree at the LSE. His father established the family’s commercial real estate investment business, DVS Property, in 1985. The company specialises in UK institutional real estate investment across sectors including logistics, automotive, out-of-town retail, supermarkets, as well as holding occupational assets that include student accommodation and hotels.

Having been part of the business throughout his career, Priyan today runs the company with his brothers, Julan and Prag. He is also actively involved in the running of the foundation, which was set up in 2012 to formalise the family’s giving.

Introducing its work in a special assembly, he explained that the foundation supports other organisations as well as operating its own programmes. These programmes include not only the awards programme, which was launched in 2021, but also its WhyOhYou personal development programme. QE plans to get involved in WhyOhYou in the autumn.

“Focusing on the individual (the name is a play on words for ‘YOU’), the programme is a five-week personal development journey that provides youth aged 15–18 with the space and tools to explore who they are, what they want and how to achieve it,” Priyan said. WhyOhYou is run by Rupal Shah (no relation), who was recruited by the foundation approximately four years ago, and by Priyan’s wife, Asmi, who has worked at EY for over ten years as an actuary and supports the global firm’s mentoring programme.

The Headmaster thanked him and his parents for their visit: “We are really grateful to the family for their generosity in awarding each of our ten prize winners a £100 Amazon voucher, and I know that the whole Year 12 year group are, in turn, grateful for the great advice Priyan passed on to them. I look forward to working with the foundation through WhyOhYou in the coming months: my thanks go to Rupal Shah for her work coordinating the scheme.”

The awards, set out below, cover a number of academic subjects, as well as extra-curricular activities. Among the winners is Atul Kanodia, who, as reported in the last issue of QE Connect, is a fellow member – the youngest on the roll – of the 450 Club.

Priyan and Asmi have a daughter and baby son. Priyan enjoys travelling and hiking. A long-time racquet sports enthusiast, he continues to play tennis and badminton.

Priyan joined the 450 Club in October 2021 and, in this capacity, attended the formal opening of The Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms earlier this term.