'What a fantastic opportunity RGS was'

Congratulations to this past pupil, who completed his first marathon this year. We caught up with what else the banking IT specialist has been up to since leaving RGS and discover more about his time at school

PAST pupil Philip Dodd took on his first marathon this year, the particularly challenging Marathon des Alpes, which involved climbing 420 metres over 42 kilometres.

Alps-based Philip, who heads up technology services for a multinational bank, says people have been asking why he did it.

“It's my local marathon, which has a bit of a reputation due to the amount of vertical climbing. The ‘Why did I do it?" question has something of a ‘Why do people climb Everest? Because it's there’ ring to it.

“But in reality, I'm towards the end of a bit of a mid-life crisis that saw me go from being an overweight couch potato to getting my life in order (or at least most of it).

We caught up with what else Philip’s been up to since leaving RGS in 1992 after taking A-levels in French, chemistry and biology.

Q: What did you do immediately after leaving RGS?

A: After sixth form I took a year out and used it wisely to do a winter season in Val Thorens in a ski shop. That taught me a lot, mainly that the difference between being good at French in school and sitting at a dinner table surrounded by native French speakers is enormous.

After my gap year, I went to the University of Kent, chosen mainly because it offered a two-year ERASMUS opportunity, unlike the usual one year. I did my first year on campus in Canterbur,y then left for two years in Grenoble but never came back. I ended up doing three years at the University of Grenoble, where I skied a lot (including teaching at the University Ski School - famous in French ski lore for having been the mastermind of a somewhat controversial French national coach called Georges Joubert) and studied a bit. I got a degree in French from there, but then left to live in Val d'Isère, Avoriaz before finally heading to Paris and getting what my mum would call a ‘real job’ - in IT.

I am now responsible for Technology Services across a number of countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for a multinational bank

Q: What was it that inspired you to follow this path?

A: Inspired is probably too strong a word to use here. I followed this path having made a few decisions (like leaving the Alps) and having had some fortunate timing (I joined my current employer just as they made a significant decision to ‘decentralise’ the banking platform so a number of career opportunities opened up rather unexpectedly) and some luck (I'm now back at that same employer after 15 years at one of their main competitors who ended up in major financial difficulty and was taken over). I've tried to do things that are of interest to me, and I've been fairly successful at that.

Q: What have been the highlights of your career to date?

A: A couple of years ago as part of a small leadership team I won a rather prestigious prize at my former employer for our technology management during the COVID crisis. It's awarded once a year and really is a ‘big thing’ at that employer (now defunct) but is also quite well known across the industry.

Q: What’s the best bit about your job?

A: Without a doubt the people I work with. There are some genuinely talented and genuinely pleasant people to work with. Some of them are even both.

Q: And the worst?

A: The pressure; especially when it comes to managing people. There are decisions we take that are purely business related, but sometimes those decisions will affect people's lives outside the office. Sometimes positively, but sometimes not - and that has been known to make me lose sleep.

Q: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced?

A: Probably managing the transition through the fairly well-documented collapse of my former employer and its subsequent takeover by the competitor. It all more or less happened over a weekend, but the organisational integration lasted a very long time, and was tough on everyone.

Q: Can you outline a typical day?

A: My typical day is probably not very typical because I live in the Alps and work remotely. I wake up and have at least two large mugs of tea while the kids get ready for school (they're 12 and ten years old - and they only ‘get ready’ with a bit of encouragement most days). Once I'm convinced they're ready or close enough that I'm sure they'll make it the rest of the way, I go to my office and connect. The start of day is mainly ensuring that technology is working as we need it to, and if there are incidents ensuring they are being managed appropriately, and that the various business lines are informed. Once that part is done, my day is pretty much filled with meetings - either with my teams in the locations I manage or with stakeholders to cover projects or service management. Lunchtime is time to walk the dog and have a quick bite to eat. I'm lucky these days as I only manage EMEA - I previously had teams across many more time zones (from Singapore to San Francisco) - so managing the week into Asia-Pacific-aligned and Americas-aligned time zones was a bit more challenging.

*School quiz team: pictured l-r, Nick Howard, Raymond Peacock, Philip Dodd and Neil Coulson

Q: What was the most important thing you learnt at RGS?

A: Regrettably, I think I probably didn't listen enough at RGS. Hindsight and all that, I'm not sure I realised then what an opportunity I had. But regrets aren't helpful either.

Q: What do you wish you’d known back then?

A: What a fantastic opportunity RGS was, and how lucky I was to have such good teachers. Like I suspect many kids did (and still do) - I took a lot of that for granted. But some of the things I learned from the teachers I was lucky enough to have have stayed with me throughout - and the realisation that that is the case is probably the thing I'd wish I'd have known. I might have paid more attention.

Q: What extra-curricular activities were you involved in while at RGS and how valuable were they?

A: At school, not so much. I lived quite a long way from Ripon so anything after school was a bit difficult (and I can now absolutely empathise with the time involved in running children around). Ironically, I wasn't much of a sportsperson either, although I passed my English Ski Council (now Snowsport England) instructor's qualifications and managed to be allowed to go to ski as part of PE. Possibly because Mr. Miller was famously quite a skiing enthusiast himself.

Q; What did you want to do/was your dream when you were at school?

A: As you may have picked up from some other answers, I loved skiing. I haven't made it my livelihood (and I'm not sure I regret that now, I probably have the next best thing and, in fact, it may even be better...) but at the time I would have sacrificed a great deal for time on the mountains.

Q: What is the one piece of advice you’d give students interested in following a similar career path?

A: Don't wait to be asked - be interested in things whether or not they are ‘your job’. Opportunities tend to find you when you're curious.

Q: Who was your favourite teacher and why?

A: Many to choose from. Mrs Swainston, a notable French teacher who clearly had a lasting impact. Mr Rowland and then Mr Lister - Classics. I did both Latin and Greek and although I think I drove both of them mad, I have very fond memories of Greek lessons (there weren't many of us...) reading (trying...) Homer and Mr Lister would sometimes let us do the lesson outside in the summer. Latin and Greek taught me so much - more than any other subject, they are probably those I regret not having taken a bit more seriously (although I got A at GCSE for both, somehow...)

Q: Who or what inspired you when you were at school?

A: I love learning things. I like to figure things out. That's probably the most inspiring thing I can think of right now - going to bed having figured something out you couldn't understand the previous day.

Q: What would you say has been your greatest success?

A: I'm fortunate enough to live in a beautiful part of the world with a wonderful family and a lovely (but very stubborn...) dog. I think that is a sign that I have got a few things right at various points.

Q: And biggest disaster?

A: So many to choose from. In my operational days in IT I have a very good memory of a failed production release when at some point I took the call to say we were going to have to go back to backups. The terrified ‘rabbit in headlights’ look on the face of the poor guy who asked "What backups?" is still fairly memorable. It was already late on a Saturday, and our weekend clearly wasn't over.

Q: What are your hopes for the future?

A: For my personal life, I would like my children to grow up happy and fulfilled, successful in whatever it is they would like to be successful in. For the world in general, I hope that education will become a focus. So much of the rise in extremist thinking and conspiracy theory has its roots in some issues about how children learn about the world. I'm generally a bit pessimistic when it comes to this topic.

Q: What do you miss most about Ripon?

A: I haven't been to Ripon since I left school. I don't think there's anything I miss really, but North Yorkshire in general is a spectacularly beautiful part of the world.