POSTCARDS

Nicholas Reese (OS 1981)

IT Manager,

Lismore, NSW

I had the privilege of attending Grammar under the leadership of Alastair Mackerras, an inspiring figure who imparted a simple yet profound message: “It doesn’t matter what you do in life, as long as you do your best.”

My passion for technology was honed at Macquarie University, later earning a Master of Business in IT Management from the University of Technology Sydney. My career has included contracting roles with the Department of Defence, IBM, Compuware and NetApp in Canberra.

A pivotal moment in my life came when I was invited to the Solomon Islands by a university friend. During my time there, I met and married my wife and spent many years serving as an IT manager for various businesses and organisations. Among my contributions, I developed the first website for the national newspaper, The Solomon Star, worked as an IT tutor for the University of the South Pacific, managed the European Union’s computer networks and served as IT Manager for the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.

Eleven years ago, my family and I relocated to Lismore. Since then, I have worked with the NSW Department of Health and the NSW Department of Education.

My wife and I founded “T4SI” (Technology for Solomon Islands), a registered charity that refurbishes decommissioned laptops from the NSW Department of Education for use in two schools in the Solomon Islands.

Looking ahead, I am taking on a role with Australian Volunteers AusAID managing the digitisation of the Solomon Islands Government National Archives.

Alexander Penrose (OS 2005)

Corporate Pilot,

Tokyo, Japan

“Being a pilot is not a mainstream job” was what I was told during Form V. However, when most of the Grammar staff knew I was serious about pursuing a career in aviation, the support and encouragement I had was second to none.

Aviation can be a challenging career. From trying to gain your first job, to working your way up the chain, I always maintained the Grammar culture, and structure was an integral part of my career.

I trained at Bankstown straight after I completed my HSC, gaining my commercial licence in 2007. I left Sydney permanently towards the end of the decade and pursued a career in flying seaplanes around the Whitsundays.

In 2014, I headed overseas to fly a corporate seaplane in the Philippines, and this led to an extremely fortuitous opportunity to become a corporate jet pilot. A marriage and two children later, my wife and I are now based in Tokyo working for the Japanese company, DMG MORI, and I get the privilege of being a captain on their Bombardier Global G6500.

It hasn’t been an easy road, sometimes involving a lot of sacrifice, but it has been the most rewarding and enjoyable career. Would I do it all over again? Absolutely.

Nicholas Stead (OS 2010)

Finance Executive,

New York City, USA

I left Sydney to study finance and music at Princeton, followed by a Fulbright year in Switzerland, where I studied piano at the Geneva Conservatory. Since then, I’ve spent the past decade in finance roles in New York, currently at Lemonade, an Insurtech company built on cutting-edge AI. I have ‘grown up’ with the company; the business has multiplied by ten since I first joined and has gone public along the way.

I was an early hire on the finance team that I now manage. It has been a great experience working at an innovative company with sharp people, deploying cutting-edge technologies for our customers with great speed and impact.

Sydney Grammar School played a pivotal role in shaping me. It taught me how to think critically, perform under pressure and stay intellectually curious. But above all, Ransford Elsley, my piano teacher, left the greatest impact. His lessons extended far beyond music – teaching me how to practise with discipline, prepare with intention and strive for excellence while bringing joy to those around me. His influence still guides how I approach challenges today.

I now live in Brooklyn NY with my wife Kalin, our two cats and our baby daughter, Rosemary, who has already begun exploring the piano in her own way.

Lorcan Young (OS 2009)

First Officer A330,

Sydney

I started my flying career in the Australian Air Force Cadets where I reached the lofty heights of Leading Cadet. Despite my keen ability to iron a shirt and trousers better than anyone I know, they weren’t hosting flying weekends nearly enough to fill my appetite, so I pursued my pilot licence privately.

Over the next five years, I built up my qualifications and hours, flying in several roles in general aviation. This included flying single pilot air ambulance missions at all hours and in all conditions to transport patients between remote areas and major hospitals in regional centres and capital cities.

I joined Qantas in 2017 and have flown the Boeing 787, 737 and Airbus 330 aircraft all over the world. I am a Queenstown qualified pilot and currently serve and fly as a senior Flight Operations Manager working in our operational safety and risk management space. If you see there’s a volcano erupting in Indonesia or political escalations in the Middle East, my team is working behind the scenes to ensure you safely reach your destination.

Aside from my formal career, and following a passion for extracurricular activities stemming from my time at Grammar, I became cross qualified in rotary wing aircraft (helicopters) at an IFR/ATPL level and completed a Bachelor of Aviation with Griffith University, achieving recognition through the Golden Key International Honour Society.

My key life advice: “Live life as if everything is rigged in your favour.” (Rumi)

Take care and good luck.

Kim Ho (OS 2013)

Playwright and Screenwriter,

Macedon Ranges, Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Victoria

During my time at Grammar, I had some amazing mentors who nurtured my passion for creative writing and performance. I threw myself into extracurricular drama and relished 4-Unit English, but things kicked into overdrive when I got the opportunity to write a short film with Australian Theatre for Young People, The Language of Love. The Headmaster, Dr John Vallance, generously allowed us to shoot in Big School, and the film’s warm reception gave me the confidence to seriously pursue a career in stage and screen.

After moving to Melbourne to study literature, theatre and cinema, I endured a terrifying rite of passage – having my play savaged in The Guardian – and survived. I got an unlikely break in television on the ABC drama series The Newsreader – first notetaking in the writers’ room, then co-writing an episode with the show’s creator, and finally penning an episode of my own in Season Two. Following fictional journalists reporting on real news events over 1986–89, The Newsreader explores themes that have come to pervade my work: the weight of history in the present; our contested/evolving national identity; and how we might navigate, defy and reimagine systems of power. I’m currently developing several screen projects of my own, as well as two plays for the Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre.

I feel very fortunate to make a living off my writing; while the industry’s indeed competitive, I encourage Old Sydneians passionate about theatre and screen production to take the plunge. Time spent telling stories is never time wasted.

Felix Waldmann (OS 2005)

History Academic,

Cambridge, UK

Since leaving Grammar I have spent the past two decades at the University of Cambridge, first as an undergraduate, then as a graduate student and now as a full-time academic. My research focuses mostly on the history of philosophy and political thought in Europe during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

My PhD was about southern Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. I moved to Naples, Palermo and Rome and explored archives across Europe for three years. I concurrently worked on the philosophers David Hume (1711–1776) and John Locke (1632–1704) and I am now responsible for editing the standard editions of their famous works – such as Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689), probably the most influential book on politics written in English. During the teaching year, I supervise superb undergraduates and graduates from across the world in the Oxbridge system, which is a one-to-one or small-group format of teaching. Outside my work in Cambridge, I spend my time playing with my three-year-old daughter.

I loved my time at Grammar. Whatever qualities I have as a teacher I owe to Edgecliff Preparatory and College Street, where I was fortunate to have extraordinary teachers and accomplished peers. Like many expat Old Sydneians, I know that the longer you stay away the harder it is to come back, but I love Sydney and I try to spend as much time as I can back home. I’m always wary of giving lofty advice to teenagers, but I often think how strange it is that I spend my life in a profession I knew nothing about when I was their age, working in languages I didn’t then know, and living in a place I’d never visited.