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www impossible) or emotional (it turns out pursuing a degree and career you hate just because it’s part of a plan makes you somewhat unhappy. Shocking!), and to be blunt, my life is infinitely better without them. What did I do to break the malaise? Well, at 25 I upped sticks, took all the money I had earned (and not an inconsiderable amount of debt) and spent 18 months learning to fly helicopters in Florida. It was not all sunshine and roses, but I have come out the other side with a job I love and am generally happier and healthier than any time since leaving Oundle. Personal life....? Yeah, still working on that one.
Tim Gibson: I took a year out between Oundle and university, and after earning some money (making cappuccinos), I headed to South America. I spent two unforgettable months working as a ranch hand in an estancia in Patagonia, then meandered my way up the Andes – with a few diversions in between – and ended up picking coffee beans on a farm in Colombia. Back home, I went to Christ Church, Oxford, to read History. I spent three happy years playing rugby, acting in plays and generally trying to pretend I was in an Evelyn Waugh novel (alongside work of course). It seems I was bitten by the acting bug and followed Oxford with an MA at Mountview, a London drama school. Since then I have been living in London and working as an actor. I’ve managed to combine this with a little travelling, with theatre tours to Austria, Italy, Spain and France, but most recently I was back in London, appearing in two plays at the Vaudeville Theatre as part of their Oscar Wilde season. I don’t see my Oundle friends enough, but whenever we do meet up, the old dynamics are soon back. It’s hard to believe 10 years have passed!
George Kaye: Having said my goodbyes to Oundle in July 2009, I journeyed to the University of York to begin my undergraduate degree reading History. Three years passed and I achieved a 2:1, after which I began my training in Law. At the time this sounded like a pretty sensible
idea. I stayed in Yorkshire doing the GDL Law conversion course, training to be a solicitor, and at the start of the second year I was offered a training contract with Ince & Co, beginning in September 2015. Given that I’d managed to be cheeky and get a year off between finishing my GDL and starting at Ince, I thought it’d be fun to run around South-East Asia and Australia - which turned out to be quite a laugh! After spending the first eight months of my training contract in London, I was invited to go on secondment to the Monaco office. Six months turned into eight and upon qualification in September 2017, I was invited to move down to Monaco permanently. I now live in Monaco full time with my girlfriend, Elizabeth, trying (and failing) to spend as little time as possible in the office. I specialise in commercial shipping and international trade litigation with a bit of yachting work on the side, which you can’t really avoid in the South of France. French Riviera life is very good. We Sidney boys stay in touch as best we can and they’ll always be mates for life. It would be great to meet any OOs who are in the Monaco area.
Alex McMullan: After leaving Oundle, I continued my academic career at Exeter University with a BA in Politics, before completing my studies with a more career- appropriate multi-discipline MSc at Durham. Before moving into finance, I initially forayed into political campaigning. In 2010 I ran a parliamentary campaign that delivered unprecedented results, before working on two other successful elections in 2012 and 2015. Subsequently, after a brief flirtation with America, I returned to London and have spent the past three years working as an associate consultant with BNP Paribas.
Kai Chun Neoh: After pursuing an Engineering degree at Imperial College, I returned to Malaysia and have had an exciting (some would say turbulent!) career path in this region, spanning from management consulting to tech start-ups and video gaming. Outside of work, I
have been travelling mostly around Asia, most recently spending a few weeks hiking through the incredible Himalayan trails of Nepal. This year, exactly a decade since leaving Oundle, I will be returning to the UK to pursue an MBA at the University of Oxford. I’m certainly looking forward to completing the long overdue final chapter of my education and experiencing the English countryside once more.
James Nicol: My wife, Sharayah, and I got married on New Year’s Eve 2017 in Aberdeenshire. We are currently living in Edinburgh with our dog, Skye, and Sharayah is due to have our first child. We are very excited to meet her and to start the new chapter it will bring. I have been able to continue playing rugby and turn out for the Boroughmuir club. Over the past year I have been studying on the PGDE course to become a primary teacher. So, come the autumn, a juggling act between fatherhood, being a husband and being a probation teacher commences!
Oliver Stokes: After Oundle I took a gap year before heading off to Leeds University for three years to study Medical Sciences. I had a really great time there, regularly meeting up with George Kaye and Alex McMullan (S 09) to sample the delights that the North has to offer... and managed to fit some studying in on the side as well! After university I returned home to work in the family business in Northamptonshire for a year, before stumbling upon Warner Edwards Distillery, which kick-started my (professional) career in gin-making. I spent two and a half years as Head Distiller there, frantically learning my trade amongst the dramatic resurgence in gin’s popularity that’s still ongoing. From Warner Edwards I moved west to the greener pastures of Herefordshire to continue my career with Chase Distillery. I’ve now been at Chase for just over two years, leading the production of a range of vodkas and gins, all made from potatoes, as well as laying down some future English whisky into casks for the years to come.
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
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