4 minute read
Class Notes
from The Voice 36
CLASS Tanglin’s alumni may be scattered all over the world, but the connections they made at Tanglin remain invaluable and close to heart. We catch up with our 2012 Cohort to find out what they’ve been up to and celebrate their important milestones. NOTES
Hillary Samuels is currently the Head of History at Dulwich in Singapore, and despite having to navigate Singapore’s restrictions for education during the past two years, she tells us that she is still having a great time nurturing young minds. Hillary said: “I went to university in the UK, trained as a History teacher and then came back to Singapore to teach at Dulwich College in 2019. When I left Tanglin, I thought I was going to become a journalist but I’m so happy with my life now as a teacher!”
Likewise, Siobhan Hartnoll is living in Singapore but will move back to London later this month. Siobhan had just finished her tenure as Commercial Lead for APAC at Featurespace, the world leader in Adaptive Behavioural Analytics fighting financial crime using machine learning, where she successfully expanded the company into Asia Pacific at the age of 23. She also got married to her Durham University sweetheart Alexander Murray in a summer wedding this year with fellow Tanglin alumni Kristin Piening as her maid of honour. Congratulations Siobhan!
Living across the world in Copenhagen, Denmark, is Ingrid Nielsin who will move to the United States in February 2022. She is planning to marry her American fiancé whom she has known since 2010 when he was attending Singapore American School in Singapore. Talk about high school sweethearts! A qualified actress who has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Westminster and an acting degree from Copenhagen Film & Theatre School under
her belt, Ingrid has acted in Danish programmes like Oda Omvendt (a children’s show) and theatre productions such as The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare where she played a female version of the character Gratiano (named Gratiana, instead) as well as in a few original pieces by Danish playwrights and drama teachers.
In the meantime, Justin Villar in Melbourne, Australia, is working on his dream to become a film director and hoping to get his web series funded next year. He said: “I just stumbled onto VFX (visual effects) somehow through meeting people and saying yes to things. Doing VFX this past year has been paying the bills and helped me learn a lot of the filmmaking process.” Justin recently received his first feature film credit for the Marvel movie Shang-Chi as a VFX Production Assistant. Right now, he is the on-set VFX Production Assistant for a Netflix film being shot in Melbourne and keeping in touch with his classmates on Instagram and Facebook.
Catherine Sadler may have left Tanglin in 2007 but her heart still remains with her alma mater. She said: “Make sure you don’t lose touch with your friends from Tanglin because it’s amazing to meet up 10 years later down the line and find out that not much has changed!” Career-wise, Catherine is currently a mixed veterinary surgeon in Kent and she is also engaged to be married. In fact, one of her bridesmaids is Venetia Speke, who is also from Tanglin. Sounds like a friendship made in heaven!
Timothy James, on the other hand, pursued his ambition of becoming an airline pilot. He attended Buckinghamshire New University where he studied Air Transport Management with Commercial Pilot Training, which was in conjunction with L3Harris Aviation Academy. He said: “After graduating from both University and Aviation Academy, I secured my first airline job in April 2016 with easyJet based in Milan, Italy. Since then, I’ve been flying around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East with easyJet for 5 and half years, now based in London Gatwick as a Senior First Officer.”
Gabriella Demetriou is currently the Corporate Governance Executive at Grant Thornton UK LLP. She was recently promoted within nine months of joining the firm and is currently on a fasttrack programme to becoming a manager within two years. She is also the proud owner of her first property in a trendy part of SW London so that’s exciting!
Living in the same city is Anthea Demetriou. Her current role involves recruiting and supporting aspiring solicitors who start their careers with an international law firm called Watson Farley & Williams. On top of that, she’s juggling a part-time CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management and while it’s challenging to work and study at the same time, Anthea assures us that she is doing well.
Last but not least, you might know Sean Hudspeth. He is a 27-year-old professional racing driver and Ferrari instructor who has been competing professionally for over ten years and won multiple Motorsport championships. He was the Alumni of the Year 2020 but due to COVID restrictions last year, he was only able to attend the alumni event in London on 14 October for an onsite acknowledgement. ■ Sounds like our alumni are living their best lives out there and we are proud of them for persevering despite the COVID challenges. Well done everyone! In the meantime, if you have something you’d like to share with our community, please drop us a line at alumni@tts.edu.sg!
