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2019
The Alleyn Club was founded in 1873 and is managed by a committee of OAs.
In 1995, I embarked on a series of private equity backed management purchases of companies in the retail and leisure business in the UK and Europe. This was very inspiring and I worked with some of the brightest and most committed people in the City. I joined Montagu Private Equity as a Partner in 2011 and wound down my active career overseeing some of their investments and mentoring their staff. How have you been occupying your time since retiring? I have a farm in East Sussex which keeps me amused. I have been lucky enough to travel the world and be astonished at how beautiful and fragile it all is. I am belatedly discovering the art and architecture of Italy and Spain. Education is my passion and I was a Governor of the College for nearly ten years helping with the commercial activities and overseeing the development of the international schools. I was also a Governor of Bexhill Academy, a failing, but now blossoming state school in East Sussex. The difference was telling, not the physical facilities, but the co-curricular commitment of the College’s teaching staff is hard to replicate in the state sector. The power of engaged and demanding consumers as a stimulus for achieving excellence is obvious in any business, and education is no different. In 2007, I set up The Lovering Charitable Foundation, to acknowledge my luck and good fortune in life and to champion education and advance those less advantaged. I am a great believer in social mobility and meritocracy. I want to put the ladder back for poorer bright children that was represented by The Dulwich College Experiment and the Assisted Places Scheme. The scheme was devised to educate able children from poor backgrounds, where their school fees would be met by the local authorities. Other trusts I have been involved with are the Woodland Trust and the British Heart Foundation. I am also a late convert to the world of art and have been a trustee of the Holburne Museum in Bath.
What are your favourite memories of Dulwich? I really enjoyed my two years in the Sixth Form. I studied Economics under an inspiring Master, Bryn Richards, and he opened my eyes to the subject. I also learned from a tough taskmaster, John Hughes, in Geography. They both lifted my expectations. I had a good social life and even found time to play soccer on Sunday mornings. My team was known as Chislehurst United in the Bromley and District League. What did you do when you left? I had a wonderful time studying Economics at the University of Exeter and I made many lifelong friends. During the holidays I worked for Lunn Poly in the travel business as a reservations clerk, before the age of computers, and had one summer as a bus conductor in Exeter. After two years working for Metal Box (an engineering firm) in Poole, I completed my formal education with an MBA programme at the Manchester Business School when there were only two such institutions in the UK. This was one of my better decisions. Can you tell us a little bit about your career? After leaving Manchester Business School, I then spent twenty years in corporate life. I worked as a financial and strategic analyst for Spillers and Lex, and became Finance Director of Grand Metropolitan pub and restaurant division when I was 32. By 1988, I was Finance Director of Sears Plc, a large British-based conglomerate in the FTSE 100 Company. I was a workaholic and my family life was the loser. My wife Brenda, a James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS) girl whom I have known since 1967, ran the house, managed the children and put up with me being tired at weekends when I was in the country. My career success was bought at a price.
We are in contact with approximately 10,000 OAs living in more than 90 countries all over the world. Our biggest aim is to keep in touch with our OAs wherever they are and whatever they are doing.
Alleyn Club Committee John Lovering CBE (61-68) President Simon Dyson (59-67) Vice President James Thornton (67-75) Immediate Past President Trevor Llewelyn (72-79) Honorary Secretary James Kendall (59-67) Honorary Treasurer Nick Robinson (62-71) Honorary Assistant Secretary Simon Brown (69-76) Marco De Benedictis (90-00)
Nick Donald (73-80) Nick Howe (74-80) Mark Hutchings (77-84) James Jarratt (04-11) Alex Langley (98-03) Alex Mole (89-96) Joe Richardson (88-98) Sion Roberts (02-13) Ben Turnbull (90-95) Michael Wade (67-72)
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