The Old Bradfordian community is truly international, with more than 6,000 OBs based across 40 countries. We love hearing about OB’s international experiences and used lockdown as an excuse to reach out to find out what some have been up to. To see the ‘Where in the World’ feature in its entirety, read pages 36-41 in The Old Bradfordian 2020 magazine.

Old Bradfordians Henry Walker and Ravi Prasad now find themselves working in the sunny climes of Singapore.

Henry studied at the University of Bradford graduating in Business Economics, including a year working as an Economist with the Department for Work and Pensions. Following university, Henry moved to Singapore and joined Trafigura, a leading global commodity trading house. Initially as a graduate recruit, Henry completed rotations in operations and trade finance. He then spent two years in Geneva managing a fleet of oil tankers as a junior Charterer, before returning to Singapore in January 2020 to launch the Asia freight trading business for Trafigura subsidiary Puma Energy. Henry’s role involves managing commercial shipping activities for the company, East of Suez Canal.

Ravi studied Economics at Cambridge University. After a stint in investment banking in London, he moved to China, initially to pursue a master’s at Peking University. Following that, Ravi joined the UK Foreign Office, and spent a further two years in Beijing working on UK-China Trade Policy at the British Embassy. Last year he moved to Singapore, still with the UK Foreign Office, but now covering South East Asia. His role involves strengthening the UK’s economic and trade links with this rapidly growing region including through Free Trade Agreements.

Both Henry and Ravi continue to enjoy life in Singapore, which is a melting pot of different cultures, food and people. The island nation also positions itself as a gateway into South East Asia, presenting exciting work and travel opportunities (in a normal year!). Both OBs meet up regularly, most recently for drinks at Singapore Cricket Club – one of Asia’s oldest and premier sporting clubs – where they reminisced about many glorious BGS cricketing victories on the Colts Square!

They are planning a wider OBs in Singapore meet-up in 2021 and would be happy to offer advice to any current BGS student or OB considering a move to Asia, either for study or work. They can be reached at walkerhenryj@googlemail.com and ravi.prasad@fcdo.gov.uk