United Kingdom

A highlight of our trip to the UK in June was tea with Sir Sydney Kentridge (a few months shy of his own 100th birthday) to thank him for his many and varied contributions to his alma mater that also shares his year of birth. At our three Centenary alumni celebratory reunions held in London, Oxford and Cambridge, Dixit Joshi (CFO Credit Suisse), Prof. Ian Steadman (playwright and former Dean at Wits), and Dr Theo Hacking (University of Cambridge) respectively delivered heartfelt addresses. Lunch with Professor Sir David King (Climate Crisis Advisory Group) at his London Club for a discussion on the climate crisis, sustainability and inequality included key alumni such as former Investec Director Dr Allen Zimbler, Dr Bill Carman (Founder of Fast Track Diagnostics) and Keith Coleman (cofounder of algal food and carbon sequestration company Brilliant Planet) and, on subsequent occasions, Kate Kuper (Bateleur), Dr Fiona Perrott-Humphrey (Mining Investment Adviser to Rothschild & Co.), as well as Evan and Damon Hoff (Musgrave), and Michael Schewitz (Investec).'

We are grateful to Ruth Leas (CEO Investec Bank plc) for honouring the Vice-Chancellor at a party at Investec in London when he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a society which describes itself as a Fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and as the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Wits alumnus Prof John Burland FRS famed for stabilising the Leaning Tower of Pisa, welcomed Prof Vilakazi to the illustrious group of Wits alumni who are Fellows of the Royal Society. Notable Wits alumni that attended included Professor Helen Rees, Duncan Wanblad (Global CEO of Anglo American), good friends Wendy and Hylton Appelbaum, Janet and Matthew Kentridge and Steven Braudo (former CEO of Quilter).