Journey to CEO

Alastair joined Bloxham at 15 from St Columba’s College, a Headmaster’s Conference school in Dublin, when his family moved to the UK. Throughout school he launched himself into all aspects of school life: he played in the second row in the 1^st XV and he was a star on the stage performing in plays including Murder in the Cathedral, Billy Liar and The Changeling where our School Archivist Simon Batten remembers: “Like a lot of Jacobean Tragedy, there was comedy mixed in with dark tones, Alastair was especially good in the role of the owner of a lunatic asylum.”

 In his final year, he won the Senior Politics Prize at Founderstide and then, in a joint initiative by the Department of Trade & Industry and the IOD, in association with the Society of Education Officers, Alastair’s business flair was spotted. He was selected to spend a week shadowing one of the UK’s top executives – Mr J A C King, Managing Director of British Telecom.

 Post graduation, Alastair joined the accountancy firm, Deloitte. He qualified and was quickly seconded to Hungary, where he still lives today. He is married and has three children. Alastair stayed with Deloitte for 34 years, becoming a partner in 1999 and was CEO (Central Europe) for eight years. Today, Alastair is semi-retired and enjoys spending time travelling in Europe seeing friends and family.

 

One of the greatest takeaways from Bloxham, is that I learnt how to think through issues and to take responsibility for myself.

 

What were your fondest memories from school?

Without a doubt the people I met, many of whom have remained friends to this day. Bloxham placed focus on life as a whole, not just academics, and I believe it was this that allowed close friendships to flourish. I especially enjoyed rugby (hockey always scared me a bit), and drama productions were great fun. At the time, I was unaware of how useful it would be to my future career to be part of a cast and learn lines. It also greatly helped me with public speaking, a skill that was integral to my career. I was also part of Orion, the school newspaper.

 

Is there a place at Bloxham that holds special memories?

The Great Hall – not only for the drama productions. When I was at school Founderstide was held in the Great Hall and one year, when Sir Ranulph Fiennes was the guest speaker, a funny moment happened. The firescreen came down in front of everyone on the stage for the Founderstide speeches with the message “Happy Christmas” (in June!). This caused much amusement, not only to the audience, but also the speaker and surprisingly, I think, Headmaster Michael Vallance.

 

What A’ Levels did you study?

I chose Politics, Maths with Statistics, Chemistry and at that time, everyone studied General Studies.

 

Which of these was most useful to your career?

The blend of all three subjects were complementary to my career in accountancy at Deloitte. The combination of logical and analytical skills of science and maths were invaluable, as was the start of my journey into learning about politics, including international affairs. This provided useful building blocks into an understanding of key dynamics of different global political systems and gave me an insight into how political practices and beliefs are central to understanding the modern world. I suppose that this led to my choice of subject at university.

 

Who inspired you?

Mike Cane was an inspirational Chemistry teacher. He was Deputy Head and I liked him. He treated us as in an adult way and this meant that we learnt even more from him.

 

What did you read at university?

Politics and International Studies at the University of Southampton (BSc). Having had work experience with the MD of BT, I was driven to ‘get on with it’ and unlike a few of my peers I didn’t want to take a gap year. After leaving school, I returned almost immediately to earn money working with the school’s maintenance team and then worked on a school friend’s farm – hard work but great fun.

 

Why did you choose a career in accountancy?

I graduated in the summer of 1989, just before the Berlin Wall fell and the European communist regimes and the Soviet Union collapsed. It was an interesting world and quite optimistic. But then there was a recession in the second half of the year so I ended up applying to join the accounting firms as a trainee auditor as this meant that I could get a qualification and there were opportunities to work abroad. I chose to join Deloitte in London and in 1993, I qualified as a chartered accountant.

 

Describe your career at Deloitte.

Having started in London, once I qualified, I applied for a two-year secondment to Hungary. The work was very different from in the UK, as well as auditing we were transforming and privatising companies after the end of communism. It was fascinating and a dynamic process and was far more exciting than what I would have been doing in London.

I enjoyed living and working in Hungary and Deloitte had just formed a regional partnership across the former communist countries, so I saw an opportunity and stayed.

In 1999, I became a partner and after auditing large banks and running an auditing business in Hungary, I was invited to join the Central European Executive in 2005. I was appointed CEO in 2012: a post which I held for eight years. In my latter years at Deloitte, I built risk advisory services, mainly around IT and Cyber, Banking Risk and Regulation and Sustainability.

Most of my career was about growing the business by investing in new services and building teams by a combination of developing our people and hiring externally. This involved a lot of travel around Central Europe and building global connections. I was on the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International Board of Directors for seven years.

 

Why did you choose to stay in Hungary?

Firstly, the work at Deloitte was varied and interested me greatly. I was given many opportunities across Central Europe, and I learnt fast. I also learnt to speak some Hungarian but more importantly understand it. I then met my wife, who is Hungarian, and we stayed and had a family. I like the people here; it’s a nice place to live, and the climate helps too.

 

What are you doing now?

In 2023, I took the decision to resign and take early retirement; I felt that I had done everything I wanted to and after relaxing for a year, I now work part-time for a Private Equity investment in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, where I am the Independent Audit Committee Chair.

 

How did Bloxham prepare you for working life?

What I liked a lot about Bloxham is that it was not over-focused on the academic side and there were a lot of activities available. I was not very focused on studying, which I still think is fine, if you are driven and want a career you have hard work ahead. At school, I became widely read, developed a range of interests and met a lot of interesting people. One of the greatest takeaways from Bloxham, is that I learnt how to think through issues and to take responsibility for myself.

 

What has been the most exciting or rewarding moment of your career?

Being selected by the Board of Directors as the CEO candidate for Central Europe and then elected by the partners. Being a CEO is a very rewarding and demanding role: working across 17 countries, I led 41 offices with more than 9,000 employees.

 

What is your greatest professional achievement to date?

At the start of my career, I would not have imagined that I would spend 34 years at one company! But this, I think, is my greatest professional achievement. With large companies there is always something different to do and spending a long time in a company allows you to build a lot of capital through being successful, which also means that you are allowed to learn from your mistakes.

 

Alumni wisdom…

Looking back, my advice to myself at school would probably be to have studied a bit harder. I was fairly good at doing enough to get by and this worked until I failed one set of my professional exams, which I subsequently had to retake.

 

What are your hopes and aims for the future?

I would like a couple more advisory or non-executive director roles in Central Europe. I will continue to live in Hungary, I enjoy the diversity and visiting the neighbouring countries, and especially spending more time in Switzerland: it is a great part of the world to be as I enjoy skiing, running, swimming, walking, gardening and enjoy sharing this with friends.

I am quite interested in education and with a friend, we founded a school in Hungary with a commitment to bilingual education and combining the Hungarian National Core Curriculum and the Cambridge International curriculum. We now have 200 children attending the school, from Years 1 to 8 (the starting age of school here is age seven).

I have strong ties with Bloxham: I have two brothers, Jo (Wn 83-88) who met his wife Isabel (née Britton (Wn 84-86) at school, and a second brother Declan (Wn 85-90).  Also, my father was Chairman of Governors from 1992 to 1997. I enjoy the camaraderie of the Old Bloxhamist network and enjoyed the London Drinks last year, and I’m already looking forward to a 40-year reunion at school in 2026.

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