Robin Wood (2003) Robin lives and works in Norway. He is currently Vice President (Head) of Civil structures at Statkraft, which is the largest renewable energy producer in Europe. He is married with four young children, shown here on their first National Day (17 May) after they gained Norwegian citizenship. Phil Norris (2006) Since arriving in Switzerland in 2014, Phil has lived and worked in most of the country’s main cities, including Geneva and Lausanne in the Frenchspeaking part, and Bern and Zurich in the German-speaking area. He now lives with his wife and two young boys on the shores of lake Zurich. This year Phil completed an Executive Master of Business Administration at one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools, the Institute for Management Development (IMD). He now leads the scaleup programs at Digital Switzerland, a Swiss association that brings together those at the forefront of digital transformation in leading corporations, NGOs and high-potential startups. He would love to hear from you if you are also a digital pioneer in the startup ecosystem. Tobi Onalaja (2013) After a period in his hometown in Nigeria, founding a startup aimed at helping Nigerian families find domestic staff, Tobi decided to move to Berlin, Germany to take a Masters in Management and enrolled in the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT, Berlin). He is still there, six years later, having joined FinTech company Raisin GmbH, specialising in savings and investments for a wide range of customers. He is now an Associate in the Business Development team where his team scopes out and analyses the different EU markets to bring banks to their platform and ultimately solve/help their liquidity needs. Tobi’s role in the company is to manage the overall Sales and Commercial processes that govern how they run their Sales operations. Rupert Kelley (2015) Whilst he was at Abingdon the idea of studying in Spain never crossed Rupert’s mind. However, after reading Medical Pharmacology at Cardiff University, he decided to explore his options to pursue his true passion – dentistry. In 2019, this led him to Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (UCAM) in southeast Spain. With a stateof-the-art university dental clinic, UCAM provides all the facilities needed for Rupert to develop his skills. He has found living and studying in Spain to be a very fulfilling and enjoyable experience and has made good use of the Spanish he learnt during his time at Abingdon! Rupert recently won a competition for dental students organised by worldwide dental equipment company Dentsply Sirona which was presented to him in May. He says he is thoroughly looking forward to starting his fourth year of five in September. Nikita Yalinski (2015) After leaving Abingdon, Nikita went on to get his Bachelor’s in International Economics and Finance at Bocconi University – the most prestigious business school in Italy. He is currently working as a trader in the steel industry for a company located in Lugano, Switzerland. He says “To be honest, for the longest time I didn’t really feel or think much about Abingdon. After all, what 17/18 year old will seriously reminisce about the so-recent past when university life starts getting into full swing? That changed a few months back when, for no particular reason at all, I suddenly realised just how much School and my peers contributed to who I am today. From love for the English language to the discipline instilled by rugby and rowing – all of it shaped who I am. I am forever grateful to Abingdon and would love to visit soon!” n G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 2 6
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