New Customer Acquisition | 14th September 2018
Mark Mogridge gave a fascinating insight into how to acquire new customers. 

Dentistry | 28th September 
Clive Gibson gave a useful and informative talk on what being a dentist entails and how to begin to study dentistry.

Martin Phillips - Motorway construction and maintenance | 12th October
Martin left school at 16 and went straight into the Royal Engineers for 8 years and trained as a Plant Operator & Mechanic (construction plant operator). In 1994 he went to Aston University to complete a three year Degree in Civil Engineering. After graduating in 1997, he joined BAM as a site engineer and has been there ever since. Usually a Site Manager, but he is currently doing a Corporate Social Responsibility project as he is from Oldbury and has existing contacts within the community. Martin has also recently been promoted to Highways Divisional Manager within BAM for the above disciplines.
This talk was particularly interesting for those who wish to pursue a career in Engineering. 

Teresa Boughey - Woman in Business winner | 19th October 2pm 
Teresa Boughey is the founder of Jungle HR and has over 12 years HR experience at a Senior level within a variety of industries and sectors including FTSE 250, Financial Services, Travel Industry, Private and Public Sectors and a Sunday Times Top 100 Company that grew 20% year on year. Her experience includes retail, travel and tourism and general insurance within plcs, family owned and limited companies large and small. She has been involved in numerous acquisitions projects including Pilkington Glazing and Homeserve. Teresa holds a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management, is a member of the British Psychological Society, and a qualified MBTI Practitioner, as well as being a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

OW Simon Chapman | 9th November 
Simon is an OW (N. 1966 - 71) and was Head of Norman House and the Senior Under Officer in the CCF during his time at Wrekin. He left Wrekin in 1971 and joined the army for a year before studying medicine at Birmingham and graduating with honours in pharmacology. Simon’s career gradually moved from clinical medicine to commercial research; he became one of the country’s youngest medical directors at 33 and managing director of an Australian clinical research organisation a couple of years later. He was a founding Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and qualifyied as a Chartered Biologist. He now has over 30 years of business experience in 4 countries: directing 23 companies including publishing, public relations, advertising, housing, call centres, town planning, motor cycles and currency arbitrage. He has raised capital, bought and sold businesses, led change programmes (including the challenges of both rapid growth and contraction) and appointed and mentored executives at all levels of management. Simon’s current portfolio includes a New York Investment Bank specialising in new technologies (of which he is a founding shareholder), a motor cycle retail and repair business in Sydney, a London Fintec start up, assessing companies seeking PrePack administration for the courts and teaching at the Sir John Cass Business School, University of London. Simon never lost the military interest fostered at Wrekin, serving 38 years in the Army Reserve (leaving as an infantry colonel) and another 5 years commanding the Army Cadet Force in South West London. He is also Assistant Colonel Commandant (Cadets) for The Rifles to which Wrekin’s CCF is affiliated.

Lucy Allan - Politics | 16th November 
Lucy started her career at Price Waterhouse as a trainee in 1987, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant and specialised in business turnaround, and in 1994 she further qualified as a Chartered Secretary in the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, before moving into Investment Management, reaching director level, working for UBS Warburg, Gartmore Investment, De La Rue, Mercury Asset Management and First State Investments. In January 2004 she was made redundant, after First State Investments ceased to manage SAINTS. She then began her master's degree in employment law and set up her employment law consultancy, specialising in discrimination and maternity issues. In 2009, Allan became a non-executive director of Wandsworth NHS primary care trust. Lucy was elected as a local councillor to Wandsworth London Borough Council in 2006 and served until 2012, then in March 2013, she was selected as the Conservative Party parliamentary candidate to contest the marginal constituency of Telford in the 2015 General Election. She advocated a direct rail link to London from the town and aimed to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment in Telford. She was the first woman to represent the Telford constituency and was re-elected in the 2017 general election.

Grant Berry - Venture Capital | 23rd November 
Grant is an OW (B. 1980-85).  Following a scholarship in the United States he went on to study American History and Politics at Aberystwyth University. After graduation, Grant subsequently spent almost ten years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers having qualified as an ACA. He then spent ten years at Lloyds TSB Development Capital establishing LDC’s Northern presence. Under Grant’s stewardship, LDC annual investment increased from circa £75m per annum to over £300m per annum. Grant left LDC to co-found NorthEdge Capital LLP in 2009 and built the firm from a start-up to managing over £650m in private equity funding from a global investor base in a little over five years.

Harry Brennan - Your future | 30th November
Harry graduated from Cardiff University with a History degree in 2015, before moving to Newcastle Upon Tyne and working multiple jobs in hospitality and learning support throughout the year. Returning to Cardiff in late 2016, he spent the next year completing an MA degree in History, and began working towards PhD research. After another year of applying to different universities and funding bodies, all whilst working as a tour guide in Edinburgh, he is now beginning a PhD at Glasgow University. 

7th December - Everything you need to know about Apprenticeships                 
The presentation was on post 18 higher level apprenticeships. The object was to ensure that pupils and parents are aware of all the excellent opportunities now available and how to apply for these.  Our speaker presented for around 20 minutes, followed by a questions and answers section.

Modern apprenticeships are so different from those of some years ago and are now a viable and very attractive alternative to studying at university in the traditional way. The presentation was provided by project ASK, who are a Government partner.  
The ASK programme offers a bespoke apprenticeship support package to transform apprenticeship awareness activities so that students, parents, teachers and governors can be informed about the wonderful opportunities that apprenticeships offer.

Stuart Telford - Lily's Kitchen | 25th January 2019
Stuart is currently the COO of Lily's Kitchen and was previously Group Operations Director at Tyrells Crisps. Stuart spoke about his background and career progression, focusing on the five years of building a successful business (Tyrells) and prepping it for sale. At Tyrells Stuart was responsible for managing operations across multiple sites in the UK, Europe and Asia. He developed and implemented an operations srategy by site, oversaw production, finance, distribution, manufacturing and engineering functions and led a team to ensure delivery of operational objectives. He was heavily involved in the sale of Tyrells to Bahrain-based luxury brands investor, Investcorp, in 2013 and the subsequent sale to Amplify in 2016. He also led all operational aspects of acquisitions including the German-based Aroma Snacks in 2016 and Melbourne-based Yarra Valley Snack Food in 2015.  
 
Henry Owen - Internships and Apprenticeships | 1st February
Henry Owen came back to Wrekin to talk about the benefits of internships. He noted that these can be done whilst at school during the summer holidays or when you are at university; they are a fantastic way of adding real weight to your CV and differentiating yourself from the rest of the market. He also talked about going from school straight into a job (apprenticeship) rather than going to university. 

Dr Julian Barratt - Physiotherapy, Nursing and Midwifery | Friday 8th February 
Dr Julian Barratt RN Bsc (Hons) PGCHE, MSc, PhD, FHEA came in to talk about the educational aspect and careers in physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery.

Duncan Malyon - Retail Industry | Friday 1st March
Duncan came in to talk about his career up to his current role as Retail Director for Camelot. Previously, he has worked for Coors Brewing and Kraft foods. 

Thomas Van Mourik - Logistics | Friday 8th March
This was a return visit for Thomas to the school. Thomas is CEO of Culina Group, the leading chilled and ambient food & drink 3PL (Third Party Logistics) specialist based in the UK and Ireland with a turnover of £600m+. He spoke about his career, how he started out and what he does now including the way the company has grown since the early days to the enviable position it now holds within the UK and Ireland.

Philip Maddocks - Farming | Friday 15th March
Philip spoke about growing a very successful and commercial scale farming business in Shropshire.

Simon Richards - Careers in the Built Environment | Friday 22nd March
Simon is an Old Wrekinian, the Director at S J Richards Limited and Visiting Lecturer at University of Wolverhampton. He discussed professional management careers in the construction industry, built environment degrees and apprenticeships. He also spoke about the reasons why students may wish to consider a career in the sector, looking into both financial and emotive reasons.  Finally, he discussed sponsored part-time study opportunities within the sector.

Paul Harries - Architecture | Friday 29th March
Paul Harries is partner at Baart Harries Newall, local architects who were responsible for the design of the Wrekin Business School. He talked about his career and the opportunities within the industry for young people and how the firm got involved with the school during the design process and building of the Business School.

In the Lent term of 2019, the Business School also conducted a Mock Trial which was a fantastic introduction to the criminal justice system for our pupils.