Alumni in the City Event - Corney & Barrow, Broadgate

Over 100 alumni gathered at Corney & Barrow in the City for this now regular alumni gathering.  A range of graduation years were represented, as were a wide variety of organisations from retail through to investment banks. Once again, our special thanks go to alumnus Tristram Hillier (French, 1997), Director of Marketing at Corney & Barrow, who provided a complimentary glass of Prosecco for each guest.

"The Royal Holloway Alumni in the City evening was an excellent and successful event benefiting alumni of all ages and experience. As a recent graduate it was a great opportunity to meet with and learn from fellow alumni with a greater level of experience than my own. Networking events organised by the university such as this are a really useful way for recent graduates to obtain career guidance and potentially make useful business contacts for their current and future employment."
Edward Fisher (Economics, 2007)

"An interesting evening in an excellent location for alumni. We enjoyed meeting Prof. Chris Smith and his colleagues, and many others!"
Anne Thomas (nee Pawsey) (BA General Arts, 1956)

Alumni in the City is now a regular event, so remember to visit the alumni events page for details of the next event in April 2010.

An Audience with Debra Barr

Debra Barr, star of BBC 1's The Apprentice, returned to Royal Holloway in November for the first time in three years to host a presentation about resilience and risk-taking in business. Graduating with a BA in English Literature in 2006, Debra has since made a name for herself as a tenacious and confrontational business woman, making it as far as the final three contestants on The Apprentice.

Her presentation in the Windsor Building tackled issues surrounding resilience; the transition from university to the world of work; spotting opportunities and taking risks; and being rejected and bouncing back. The presentation was part of the series ‘An Audience With…' and was followed by a lively Q&A session.

Before appearing in The Apprentice, Debra worked as a senior sales consultant in digital media. She has now returned to the retail sector to work as Commercial Manager at E-trader Group Ltd, where she helps retailers & manufacturers dispose of excess stock to the trade. Debra is also involved with The Children's Trust and the Surrey Association for Visual Impairment (SAVS).

Alumni Sports Day - Saturday, January 23rd 2010

Alumni are invited back to the College for the third Alumni Sports Day on Saturday 23 January to take on the current student teams in a range of different sports:

Students and alumni will be competing for the Hancock Cup, which students have claimed for the past two years.  Alumni are therefore more determined than ever to be crowned champions – so make sure you don't miss out on being part of this exciting event! Come along either as a player or spectator, and enjoy a day of friendly competition at Royal Holloway.

At the end of the day, there will be a short awards presentation in Medicine followed by a social evening, so please stay around for the duration of the day if you can!

Registration cost is £5 per person (as either a player or spectator), this will also include food. This year we are also asking for a donation of £5 to the Sports Development Fund. This fund helps us enhance the facilities, training and equipment on offer, making a real difference for generations to come.

Please visit the Alumni Sports Day website for more information, or go to our secure online booking to book for the event.

We look forward to welcoming you back to the College, and don't forget to visit the alumni stand on the day!

There are a wide range of events that alumni are invited to throughout the year, including reunions, performances, lecturers, concerts, presentations, sporting activities and much more. These include:

• 3 February - London Mozart Players concert
• 13 February - Valentine's Day Soiree concert
• 18 February - Alumni Lecture Series: Helene Raynsford, 2008 Paralympic Champion

For full information on alumni events and to book please visit the alumni events pages.

Our regular feature on Alumni making the news...

Baroness (Catherine) Ashton of Upholland (BSc Sociology, 1977 Bedford College)

Lady Ashton became the first EU foreign minister in Brussels on 1st December. She replaced Peter Mandelson as EU Commissioner for External Trade last year.

The Guardian (21/11/09): "In the space of a few minutes in Brussels on November 20th, Cathy Ashton found herself catapulted into the international limelight as one of the world's most powerful women. It is a spectacular rise by any standards. Just 13 months ago she was a relatively junior member of the British cabinet, as leader of the House of Lords. In her latest role she will represent the foreign policy of half a billion EU citizens.

Cathy Ashton will rank just behind Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel as one of the world's most powerful women immersed in some of its most intractable problems. Her main areas will be the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme, the Middle East and Europe's fractious relations with Russia. Afghanistan will loom ever larger as the EU face greater US pressure to step up their commitments.

The softly-spoken commissioner, who has won strong support and great affection in her year in Brussels, is also on course to become the most significant woman in the history of the Labour Party. As EU high representative she will probably outrank the late Barbara Castle, the author of the landmark 1969 In Place of Strife document, Margaret Beckett, the former foreign secretary, and Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader. Margaret Thatcher is the only female British politician to have risen higher than Ashton.

She started her working life, after studying Economics at Bedford College, part of the University of London, in the late 1970s. In the 1980s she was director of Business in the Community which brought her into contact with the Prince of Wales who sends her a Christmas card every year. She entered public service in 1998 as Chairman of the Hertfordshire Health Authority, a post she held until 2001 when she became a junior education minister where she played a key role in establishing the Sure Start network of children's centres.

She had been appointed as a peer in 1999 while on a secondment to the home office. It was not until June 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, that she entered the cabinet as Leader of the Lords. This gave her a useful grounding for Brussels where commissioners have to achieve consensus. Labour leaders of the Lords have had to be conciliatory figures because, unlike their Conservative predecessors, they cannot rely on a majority in the upper house to push through legislation. Her most notable success was in pushing through the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the face of intense Tory opposition.

She has made her mark in Brussels, despite early criticism that she was too junior. The trade job in the European Commission is one of the biggest foreign policy jobs in Brussels and one of the few commission posts where the incumbent negotiates on Europe's behalf with the rest of the world in trade talks. Cathy Ashton has won admiration for her competence, thoroughness, and likability."

Bonita Norris (BA Media Arts, 2009)

At 21, Bonita became the youngest woman to reach the summit of Mount Manaslu in Nepal, the world's eighth highest mountain at 8156 metres. She now hopes to be the youngest British woman to climb Everest, which she will attempt next year aged 22. That record is currently held by alumna Victoria James (BA Geography, 2003), who climbed Everest aged 25.

Here is Bonita's account of being on top of the world:

"So, after only something like 20 days on the hill, I was standing on the summit of the 8th highest mountain in the world as the youngest female and only the 4th British woman to have climbed Manaslu, or ‘Mountain of the Spirit' as it translates. Standing on the summit wasn't how I imagined (or hoped) it would be at all - no crescendo of music as I took those last few steps, no punching the air in jubilation - I could barely sum up the will to take a picture.

As I stood there, oxygen mask whooshing in my ears, steamed goggles clouding my vision all I could think was: ‘I've got to get down, now!' Behind the mask, all those tubes, your goggles and everything else you're wearing to cover every inch of skin on your body, you feel completely disjointed from what's happening around you. I was scared, exhausted and slightly mad from living so long in a tent - I could barely take in the sights around me. I look back now and think: ‘why didn't you savour that view?' To be honest - I couldn't have cared less about the view, I felt nothing - numb. I wanted to get my sponsorship photos done and go home- home to mum's cooking, my bed and The X Factor.

But one last thing - I had to give Dad a ring. I'd promised I'd call, even though it was about 4 o'clock in the morning UK time. I had to persuade myself it was worth the effort of taking off my oxygen mask and breathing this dam air with no oxygen in it! That was it - I crouched down to hear the satellite connection properly, and as soon as I heard my dad's voice and simply said: ‘Dad... I'm on the top' the flood gates opened. I cried my eyes out!

Suddenly I noticed how high we actually were - all those other huge mountains hundreds of metres below, the clouds a white carpet separating the atmosphere. The curvature of the earth just visible on the endless horizon - nothing but deep blue sky in every direction. We really were on top of the world. In fact, chances are we would have been the highest people on Earth as we stood on that summit. It was a bizarre feeling to talk to my dad over 5 vertical miles below. I breathed in the mountain fresh air as I tried to speak - wow, breathing air that is usually home to jet streams, jumbo jets, and now little old me!

I then couldn't stop crying, which is not good at 8000m. My goggles had steamed to the point where I was blinded. I was snotty, sobbing and trying to breathe through an oxygen mask, which is incredibly claustrophobic at the best of times let alone when it's filled with tears and snot! ‘Love you, Dad. I'll get down safe, I promise.' Suddenly, all too soon, I was being faced with a long descent back to camp 2, some 1700m below. We had stood on the summit for 15 minutes.

Still crying a little, Sherpa Namgel handed me the fixed line and as I looked over the edge I can remember thinking: ‘never in a million years!' It looked terrifyingly steep - vertical even! ‘I can't do this', I thought, but yet I was being herded along the rope - no choice, man up! I took one last look at the summit; it was a beautiful clear morning up there. I knew I'd never go back ever again. Then that was it, I turned my back, wrapped the rope around my arm and clambered off the top with tear stained cheeks. I couldn't force a smile, it was too much of a struggle to feel happy - all I could think was: ‘I've got to get down alive. I promised'.

http://bonitanorris.blogspot.com/

Dr Simon Thurley (BA History, 1985 Bedford College)

Simon Thurley is Chief Executive of English Heritage and has launched an appeal to trace Charles Darwin's missing Galapagos notebook. English Heritage has published Darwin's remaining 14 notebooks and a microfilm of the missing notebook on the internet. Simon said, "We're delighted that people can now leaf through Darwin's notebooks online but there's a desperately sad gap on the Down House bookshelves and it's one that we hope will be filled."

The Galapagos notebook contains the scientist's on-the-spot observations of his time in the Galapagos Islands and it proved invaluable when he was later writing the groundbreaking On the Origin of Species, published 150 years ago. The notebook went missing – it was possibly stolen – around the early 1980s from the home of Charles Darwin, Down House in Kent, before the house came under the care of English Heritage.  English Heritage has digitised and published online the remaining 14 Beagle notebooks, as well as highlights from a 1969 microfilm of the missing notebook. These are the small field notebooks which Darwin used to jot down his day-to-day thoughts while travelling around the world on board HMS Beagle (1831-1836). You are now able to read the notebooks – all 116,000 words and 300 sketches and doodles.

"The missing notebook is out there somewhere but it belongs at Down House, Darwin's own home and where he referred to it over many years, all the while developing his revolutionary theory," said Simon Thurley. Charles Darwin's great-great grandson, Randal Keynes OBE, supports the English Heritage appeal. "Our family always felt that the best Darwin material should be at Down House so that the public could see it in his home. The Galapagos notebook is of outstanding value for the history of science. If Darwin had not posed the questions in that notebook, he might never have written On the Origin of Species. The notebook was almost certainly stolen around the 1980s. But I am hopeful that it is only a matter of time before it resurfaces and when it does, it must be returned to English Heritage and Down House."

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.17476

Adrian Waddingham (BSc Computer Science & Mathematics & Statistics, 1971 Royal Holloway College)

Adrian became Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries in the City of London in July. The Company is the 91st Livery Company in the City of London and celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2010. The Company has just received a Royal Charter from Her Majesty, which will be presented at the Mansion House at a dinner in April.

The Livery Companies support the new Lord Mayor in his Parade which took place this year on the 14th November. The picture shows Master Adrian Waddingham wearing the actuarial egg-head and carrying the big pencil (good for doing big sums).

Supporting Adrian on the Court of the Company of Actuariesis fellow Hollowegian Peter Thompson (BSc Mathematics with Statistics, 1973), whilst fellow actuary, Hollowegian and ordained priest, Rev Kevan Royle (Mathematics, Computer Science & Statistics, 1971), officiated at the Actuaries Carol Service at St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London last year.

We have negotiated a range of discounts and special offers for alumni with some of the UK's leading companies.

We will be adding to this list as new offers come in and including them in future mailings to you. Here are just a few we have negotiated so far: Arena Flowers, Prestat Chocolates, Nelsons Solicitors, Gourmet Food Society, Go Ape, The Enlightened Traveller and The Economist subscription.

For further information on these discounts please our alumni benefits & services page.

If your business/company would like to offer discounts or special offers to alumni, please contact us on alumni@rhul.ac.uk.

Alumni are tackling issue surrounding the environment in a number of different ways:

Claire Snowball (BSc Zoology, 2004) is an ecological consultant who specialises in "new energy" technologies and carries out work on renewable energy sites. She gives her insights into how the recession is affecting her area of work:

"In spite of the down turn in the economy, the ecological sector does not appear to have been significantly affected as yet. There has been a change in the type of work most ecologists appear to be involved in (far more renewable energy work and less housing construction, etc), but overall the workload does not appear to have altered significantly.

Developers appear to be more aware of the need to include protected species surveys when working out the timing of their planning submissions, particularly since the survey period for species such as great crested newt is so restricted and can cause significant delays if not scheduled in at an early enough stage. Although there has been some improvement in awareness even during the relatively short period of time I've worked in this sector, there is still a long way to go before a large proportion of developers take protected species issues seriously. Penalties for breaches of the legislation need to be made more severe and the relevant authorities need to be given more power to push for a successful prosecution when such breaches occur."

"I undertake ecological surveys for a wide variety of habitats and protected species, including bats, great crested newt, otter, water vole and badger and species-specific surveys for a variety of rare plant species. The subsequent reports are used to support planning applications and are necessary for a wide variety of developments, from simple loft conversions to the creation of new wind farms, open cast sites, road realignment schemes and new housing developments throughout Great Britain."
 
"In terms of the work itself though, you can spend large amounts of time out in poor weather conditions on some very uninteresting sites. Just occasionally though you'll get to see something - whether it's a good view, a sighting of a rare or protected species, or even just a close encounter with something more common - which makes it all worthwhile. Development works are going to continue no matter what, so it's important that there are people involved who will make sure that biodiversity is maintained or enhanced and that protected species and habitats are properly catered for as part of every such scheme."

Harnessing the power of the sun is the latest goal of singer and Brit Award winner, KT Tunstall (BA Drama & Music, 1996), who has unplugged her Hungerford studio from the National Grid and intends to use the solar power to record her next album.

This is the latest in a series of green initiatives that have been undertaken by KT and continues her deep-rooted, serious, commitment to protecting the environment. KT said, "I have a passion for the planet and am at my happiest when I feel in harmony with it. The natural world is in crisis and we are in a position to alleviate it. If Britain goes solar, we can drastically reduce the negative impact of fossil fuel usage and save money on our electricity bills. It would be an amazing thing to witness in our lifetimes."

In 2007 KT helped launch Global Cool, an organization that is calling on one billion people to reduce their carbon emissions by just one ton a year, for the next 10 years. She also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in addressing man-made climate change.

Greg Barker MP (BA Modern History Economic History and Politics, 1987) has been working closely on climate change and wider environmental policy as Shadow Climate Change Minister since 2005. In March 2006 he accompanied David Cameron to the Arctic to highlight the dangers of global warming.

Greg's policy paper Power to the People advocated a radical increase in the use of decentralised energy, greatly informed the Conservative Party policy paper of the same name, published in November 2007. Greg led the passage of the Climate Change Bill through the House of Commons in 2008 and was a key author of the Conservative Party's Low Carbon Economy green paper, launched in January 2009. Greg was elected MP for Bexhill and Battle in his native Sussex in 2001 and served on the House of Commons Environmental Audit select committee between 2001 and 2005.

Professor David Bellamy OBE (PhD Botany, 1960 Bedford College)

The botanist, author and broadcaster David Bellamy is equally famous for his environmental campaigning. One of his most successful recent projects has been the David Bellamy Conservation Awards, which are made each year to holiday parks that show active concern for the environment. David began examining the conservation work being carried out by holiday parks almost ten years ago. He found that in many cases birds, animals and plant life were flourishing as a result of good environmental practices. This prompted him to initiate the annual award scheme to highlight the achievements of these parks - and to encourage others to follow suit. In 2009, more than 600 holiday parks have gained awards and many take a special pride in helping guests to come closer to the countryside.

Meanwhile, at Royal Holloway, the Students' Union recently turned the Windsor Building green to launch Are we the Age of Stupid?, their contribution to the nationwide initiative to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

400 students, staff and members of the local community packed the Windsor Building for a screening of the drama-documentary, The Age of Stupid, which features Pete Postlethwaite living in a devastated future who asks, “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?” Afterwards guest speakers from the NUS and Student Switch Off demonstrated how cutting carbon emissions was a realistic and achievable aim. In the Windsor Building foyer were displays by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Student Switch Off, People and Planet and the College’s own Centre for Research into Sustainability.

Dr Simone Bullion (BSc Biology, 1983 Royal Holloway College)

The Mammals of Suffolk (Suffolk Wildlife Trust/Suffolk Naturalists' Society, 2009) is the first comprehensive account of Suffolk's Mammals, including colour photographs and distribution maps of more than 60 species, from bottle-nosed dolphin and Minke whale to soprano pipistrelle bats and red deer. Simone is County Mammal Recorder and Senior Conservation Adviser for Suffolk Wildlife Trust and all profits from sales are donated to SWT and SNS.

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Paul Edwards (BA English, 2004; MA Postmodernism, Literature and Contemporary Culture, 2005)

How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC (Chicago Review Press, December 2009). According to US poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the US's National Endowment for the Arts), "Paul Edwards's How to Rap marks a cultural coming-of-age for Hip-Hop. His book is the first comprehensive poetics of this new literary form. Clear, concise, and immensely useful, it alternates a practical introduction to the subject with the comments of leading rap artists. Combining literary criticism and street smarts, Edwards has made his bid to become the Aristotle of Hip-Hop poetics."

More info | Amazon Link

Dr Lorna Gibson (PhD Music, 2005)

Lorna has published her thesis, Beyond Jerusalem; Music in the Women's Institute, 1919-1969 (Ashgate, 2008). The Women's Institute may have become stereotyped by the ritualistic singing of Jerusalem at monthly meetings, but this book examines the full range of music making within the organization. Lorna has also co-edited, with Tim Crawford, Modern Methods for Musicology; prospects, proposals and realities (Ashgate, 2009)

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Dr Heather Ingman (BA French, Bedford College, 1977; PhD Bedford College, 1981)

A History of the Irish Short Story (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Though the short story is often regarded as central to the Irish canon, this is the first comprehensive study of the genre for many years. The book traces the development of the modern short story in Ireland from its beginnings in the nineteenth-century to the present day, giving a central part to Irish women's short stories. The study incorporates the most recent critical thinking on the short story, traces international connections and looks at the role of magazines and editors in shaping the form. Heather Ingman lectures in the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin.

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Charlotte Innes (BA Latin, 1972 Bedford College)

Charlotte's first collection of poems, Reading Ruskin in Los Angeles (Finishing Line Press, 2009), are reflections on her Jewish refugee inheritance, her childhood in England, her neighborhood in Los Angeles and the landscape of the West.  

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Jean Lucas MBE (BA English, 1948 Bedford College)

Jean's fourth book, Between the Thin Blue Lines: The Agents' View of Politics (Trafford, 2008), with a Foreword by Sir John Major, is a social history of Conservative Party agents. In 1947 nearly every constituency had the benefit of trained political advice, but by 2000 less than a quarter of that number of Agents remained. Jean, who was an Agent for all of her professional life, has drawn together the threads of the post-war era into a tapestry of social history covering key bye-elections, conferences, the development of the Young Conservative movement and the heightening of security after the Brighton bomb.

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Anna McKerrow (MA Poetic Practice, 2009)

Anna's first book of poetry is The Fast Heat of Beauty (Flambard Press, 2008). Andrew Motion said of the book, "The poems have the strange ability to create a kind of ring round experience, where we see the poet concentrating, delighting in what she is seeing and feeling and thinking, a part of her subject but separate and discerning. It's very appealing, mainly because it creates a mood of urgency which guarantees that she holds our attention."

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David Overton (BSc Computer Science, 1992)

Small Business Server 2008 Installation, Migration and Configuration (Packt, 2009) presents a step-by-step guide for the installation and configuration process of SBS 2008. David has been Head of Technology for Small Businesses at Microsoft UK and continues to play an active part in the small business teams at Microsoft as ISV Partner Account Manager for Small and Mid-Market Solutions & Partners.

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Paul Parkin (MSc Medical Sociology, 1995)

Managing Change in Healthcare: Using Action Research (Sage, 2009) is ideal for all nursing and allied health care trainees taking courses in management and leadership. It is also invaluable for qualified professionals and managers who need a clear and engaging guide to the key issues and skills underpinning effective healthcare management. Paul is Senior Lecturer in Health Studies/Course Director at Brunel University

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Helen Ruffhead (BSc Mathematics with Statistics, 1978 Royal Holloway College)

Not Your Normal Family, A single Asperger woman's adoption of two Down's boys (AuthorsOnLine, 2008) written under the pseudonym Fiona Barrington. This autobiography describes the author's struggles with undiagnosed Asperger syndrome, her breakdown at age 18 and how her life was transformed at RHC by the friendship shown by other students and by voluntary work with the Community Action Group, leading to a lifelong interest in people with learning disabilities.  Subsequent difficulties in relationships led to a return to loneliness, but she eventually found fulfilment by adopting two baby boys with Down's syndrome.  When her sons were teenagers she was finally diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the age of 48, enabling her to make sense of her life.  This book is one of those recommended and sold by the National Autistic Society

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Helen Scott Taylor (BSc Biology, 1981 Royal Holloway College)

The Magic Knot (Mass Market, 2009), a contemporary fantasy romance set in Cornwall and Ireland, was chosen by Booklist (the review journal of The American Library Association Booklist) as one of its Top Ten Romances for 2009. Helen's second book, The Phoenix Charm, the second in the Magic Knot Fairies series will be available on December 29th 2009

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Dr Les Simpson

I'm Fine - Mark's Story, written by Les Simpson and his wife, who said, "This self-published book describes the emotional and political problems in bringing up our son Mark (one of twins) who has a dual diagnosis of Downs Syndrome and autism. This is the story of our struggle to find the best care for him. The Downs Syndrome Association believes that this may be the first biography for someone with a dual diagnosis."

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Jane Wharam (BA French, 1981 Royal Holloway College)

Emotional Intelligence: Journey to the Centre of Your Self (O Books) is a layperson's guide to emotional intelligence written with wit and humour. Jane probes her own mid-life crisis to provide examples of potential problems. She uses these alongside EQ (emotional quotient) testing and practical exercises and visualisations to help the reader think emotionally and cope better with stress, anger and change

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