Pauline Perspectives 2024 – Speakers

Pauline Perspectives 2024 – Speakers

Alex Cooke

Alex Cooke is a Legal Counsellor at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office where he leads the EU Trade & Relations team, advising on the wide range of legal issues arising from the new relationship between the UK and the EU. After qualifying at the Bar, Alex joined the Government Legal Service in 2002 and has advised in six departments including, for five years following the Brexit referendum, the Department for International Trade. As a civil servant, Alex is entirely impartial on the subject matter of this debate and his participation is purely academic.

Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser is a Founder of Flint Global Ltd, an advisory company that supports businesses in managing policy, regulatory and political challenges in international markets. Simon’s previous career was in diplomacy and government. He was Permanent Secretary at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2010-2015 and was on the UK’s National Security Council. Prior to that, Simon served as Permanent Secretary at the UK Department for Business, and also as Chief of Staff to the European Trade Commissioner in Brussels. Simon is a Senior Adviser of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and UK Board Member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He is also an Old Pauline and a former Governor of the school.

Dil Kunnummal

Dil is a Corporate Finance Adviser with more than 15 years’ experience providing mergers and acquisitions and capital raising advice to entrepreneurs, innovators and financial sponsors within the technology industry, with a significant proportion of those transactions being cross-border. Prior to his current role at Lincoln International, he worked at Houlihan Lokey and at HSBC in similar roles. He began his career at Barclays in investment management. Having lived, studied or worked across three continents, Dil is an advocate for globalisation and free markets. He earned his MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a CFA Charterholder.

Mark Lobel

Mark is a Freelance Broadcaster and Reporter with more than 20 years’ experience at the BBC, covering stories from the UK and around the world. He specialises in politics, business and foreign affairs following years of reporting and producing at the BBC’s Live Political Programmes department in Westminster, at Newsnight, on Radio 4, and on network news. He has made documentaries for Radio 4 on knife crime, rough sleeping, suicide, bailiffs and organ harvesting in the UK. His international TV documentaries have ranged from Boko Haram’s threat in Nigeria, to devastating floods in Pakistan. Mark, who is an Old Pauline, presents news and business bulletins on the BBC News Channel and BBC One. He has written for the Spectator, New Statesman and Guardian, and was a launch news presenter for Times Radio.

Eli

Eli studies History, English, Politics and Drama in Lower Eighth at SPS. Outside of academics, he is passionate about both sport and drama. He is currently rehearsing for the Spring Term production of Death of a Salesman. He runs the school’s Senior History Society, which is a potential university subject for him.

Frankie

Frankie is in the VIIth Form (Lower Eighth) at SPGS. She is a passionate debater and public speaker, and has recently founded a speaking platform at SPGS called SPGSSAYS. She also leads Junior Debating and the Philosophy Society. She is studying English, Biology, Philosophy and Art for her A Levels.

Jules

Jules is in the VIIth Form (Lower Eighth) at SPGS. She is a member of the Debating Club and leader of the Law Society, with a passion for public speaking and journalism. Jules studies Philosophy, History, French, and English at A Level, and intends to read Law at university.

Yusaf

Yusaf is in the Lower Eighth form at SPS, studying Politics, History, Economics, and Latin A Levels, as well as writing an EPQ on the failure of the British evacuation from Afghanistan. He currently leads the school social sciences magazine, Polemic, and sits on the SPS Values Committee, helping to shape and improve the school’s culture and education.