An opportunity to meet and listen to experienced professionals 

In 2011 Gordon's School introduced an Insight Programme. The programme gave students, parents and staff the opportunity to meet and listen to experienced professionals and to have the opportunity to ask any questions. From this, we also begin another new programme consisting of professionals from different specialities giving talks about their experiences.

Gordon and the russians: follow the sapper!

MAJOR GENERAL MUNGO MELVIN

 

Major General Mungo Melvin CB OBE retired from the British Army in 2011, having served in the Royal Engineers and on the General Staff. He is a senior visiting research fellow of the War Studies Department of King’s College London and a senior associate fellow at RUSI. Emeritus President of the British Commission for Military History, he is now the Chairman of the Royal Engineers Historical Society and a Vice President of the Western Front Association. He authored Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General (2010) and edited the Army’s Battlefield Guide to the Western Front (2015). His latest work, Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin was published in April 2017.

"The English Premier League is the most successful sporting league on the planet"  - Summer 2018

David joined the Arsenal Board in 1983 and was made Vice-Chairman in the same year. He also rose to Vice-Chairman of the Football Association and has served on numerous UEFA and FIFA Committees. David was an early proponent of women’s football having been President of the hugely successful Arsenal Ladies Team. He was the man who had the foresight to bring Arsene Wenger to Arsenal in 1996. During David’s reign, the Club won: a total of 18 trophies!

David was a prime mover when the Premier League was launched in 1992. As Greg Dyke, the former Chairman of the FA, told the Financial Times

“David Dein was the most revolutionary bloke I’ve met in football. David Dein created the Premier League, it was his idea.”

Last year the Daily Mail published a list of the 50 most influential people in the history of the Premier League and David Dein was in the top ten with people like Sir Alex Ferguson.

These days David spends much of his time speaking in schools & prisons as well as businesses – he recently spoke to students of the world renowned Harvard Business School in Boston.

How does the corporate world really work? - Spring 2018

Sir Michael Rake, knighted in 2007 is chairman of BT Group plc (2007) and Worldpay Group plc (2015).  He is also a director of S&P Global (2008), and chairman of Majid AL Futtaim Holdings LLC (2010). He became Chairman of Great Ormond Street Hospital on 1st November 2017.

Mike’s business advisory roles include chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce UK, a Senior Adviser for Chatham House and a member of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation Global Advisory Board.  Mike is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge.  He is also a member of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE) Advisory Board, EPI's Advisory Group on Education and Employment and the Productivity Leadership Group.  Mike is also Vice President of the RNIB. 

Mike’s former principal roles include Chairman (both UK and International) of KPMG, Chairman of easyJet, President of the Confederation of British Industry, Deputy Chairman of Barclays and director of the Financial Reporting Council.

"Nice camel but was Charles Gordon really a hero?" - Autumn 2017

 

Jeremy Paxman is an award-winning journalist, author and television presenter.  Beginning his career covering The Troubles in Northern Ireland for three years, he then spent eight years reporting from around the world for the BBC, before becoming anchorman of the BBC’s nightly news analysis programme, Newsnight in 1989, a post he held for 25 years. He has been chairman of University Challenge since 1994.

In May 2015 and June 2017, he anchored Channel 4's Election Night coverage.  He is the author of numerous documentaries and documentary series – on the history of the British Empire, on the poet Wilfred Owen, on Victorian art, on Churchill’s funeral and on the effect of the First World War on Great Britain.

In the last two years, he has presented three current affairs documentaries for BBC1 Paxman on Brussels: Who Really Rules Us?, Paxman on Trump v Clinton: Divided America and Trump’s First 100 Days and a series for Channel 4 about four British rivers.

His 2014 one-man show PAXO at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was a critically acclaimed sell-out.

Jeremy Paxman was born in Yorkshire in 1950, educated at Malvern College in Worcestershire and received his degree (in English) from St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He is an honorary fellow there, and a Fellow by Special Election at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He holds honorary doctorates from Leeds, Bradford and the Open University.

Irrelevant and Old-fashioned in the 21st Century?

Mr Michael More-Molyneux, Mr Richard Whittington and Mr David Munro

This term’s Insight Talk took a different format this time when parents, students, staff and Friends of Gordon’s joined three trustees of The Gordon Foundation for a unique audience. The three trustees each currently holds high office within the county of Surrey: Michael More-Molyneux as Lord Lieutenant, Richard Whittington ( Chairman of Gordon’s School Governors) as High Sheriff and David Munro who was elected Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016. Each of our trustees was invited to provide a five minute summary of their role and responsibilities before the evening’s Chair, Susan Meikle, posed some challenging questions and invited the audience to ask their own. This was an enjoyable and informative evening and was followed by drinks where guests were able to continue discussions and inspect  the High Sheriff’s Court sword and the Lord Lieutenant’s Letters Patent under the Great Seal.

 

Caryn Franklin MBE ('The Clothes Show')

Former Fashion Editor and Co-editor of i-D Magazine and BBC Broadcaster (Clothes Show and Style Challenge).

Matt Dickinson
Explorer and Film Maker
May 2016

Alan Foster
Executive Operations Director at McLaren

​March 2016

 

Please visit our Community page for more information regarding previous speakers.