Alastair Robertson (1979) After School, Alastair spent ten years as an officer in the Royal Engineers in the Falklands, Germany, Solomon Islands and Northern Ireland, but then went to university and left with an MBA. His ‘real’ career took off when he joined Tetra Pak and soon found himself working and living in countless countries around the world and spent many happy years before finally reaching executive board level based in Lausanne. From there he joined a global logistics organisation in Switzerland but from where he travelled widely. Next Alastair worked for a retailer in Europe before joining the exec Board of Kingfisher based in London. His final move has been to return to Switzerland where he heads HR in a global aesthetic dentistry organisation. Alastair and his wife are now empty nesters, living in a ski village high up in the Swiss alps, their three daughters and two grandchildren having returned to the UK. John Persson (1981) “I worked for Alfred Nobel for three years and these years have taught me so much.” These are the words at the start of his 40 minute solo performance at Björkborn Manor, Nobel’s official home in Sweden. John moved, with his family, to Sweden 17 years ago and during the last four years, alongside his work as a professional photographer, he has played the role of Ragnar Sohlman at the Alfred Nobel museum in Karlskoga. Sohlman was the executor of Nobel’s will and, despite massive opposition, was the main reason the Nobel prizes became a reality. To date John has done over 450 performances, the majority in Swedish. It’s interesting to think John never took up drama at School, especially as the Amey Hall was built during his Sixth Form years, however various twists and turns in his life have led him to this point for which he is grateful. Mark Surridge (1983) After leaving Abingdon in 1983 Mark spent a few years as a croupier on cruise ships around the US then returned to study Civil Engineering at Portsmouth. An Erasmus exchange allowed him to complete this in St Etienne, moving to Paris working in the early days of geographic systems to manage water and telecoms networks. Mark got back into cricket and played for France, winning the European Championships. After 5 years there, he returned to Bristol then London for five years, more cricket in the Surrey Championship and tours to India and West Indies and then moved to Austria in 2004, where his children were born and he has lived since. His career has encompassed project management, planning, construction, consultancy, process improvement and digital transformation. He speaks fluent French and German and he is currently managing the planning for a Microsoft datacentre build in Vienna. Tom Wilkinson (1990) Tom’s journey abroad began in 2003 when he left the UK for Sydney, Australia. Following two years there, he moved to Thailand for a few years, where he formed a small NGO working with Burmese human rights organisations. Since 2009 he has been living in Barcelona, Spain, working mainly with tech start-ups. The Latin climate and outdoor lifestyle suits him well – he likes the fact that culturally family always comes first, and the work-life balance feels in some ways “better calibrated” than in the UK. He was a late starter to fatherhood, but now has two children (a son, 3 and a daughter, 7) with his Colombian partner. He says it’s rewarding to watch them growing up trilingual (Catalan, Spanish and English). “I miss some aspects of living in the UK, but feel that living here we can still experience the best of all worlds!” Edward Russell (1997) Edward Russell - second from right Edward moved to Switzerland in 2006 and became a Swiss citizen in 2014. The country has certainly delivered when it comes to professional opportunity and quality of life however he is still a Brit at heart. He takes every opportunity to come back and spend time with UK family and friends, visit the pub and eat fish and chips but his life is firmly Swiss based with his wife and two sons. Edward recently rowed around Britain with five friends in an event called GB Row Challenge. The start and finish line was Tower Bridge in London and the trip lasted four weeks. Rowing in two hour shifts they were also analysing water samples to build the first comprehensive pollution and DNA map of UK coastal waters which will be used to educate schoolchildren on marine pollution and biodiversity. G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 2 5
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