In our first alumni update we present the story of Jeremy Thompson, an alumnus who took an unconventional path after graduating from the University and has now found himself working on the small island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific
In 1972 I transferred from a Secondary School where the aspirational horizons were “fog and low grey cloud”. Three years of savouring A Level Biology, Chemistry and Physics at RGS immersed me in an entirely different school ethos where spirits sparked and the horizons were blue sky.
From Reigate to Aberdeen University, whose leaving present was a BSC (Agr) with which I entered the financial services industry – naturally. Six years of working in London, commuting on British Rail with long, sunless days were ample; I emigrated to New Zealand’s magnificent South Island in 1986 and thrived.
The financial planning industry was being born following the Labour Government’s deregulation of the woeful economy it inherited in 1984. Building Financial Strategies (NZ) Ltd. was inventive, pioneering work. It was one of the first firms to introduce a fee-based, fully transparent remuneration system. Clients gathered and stayed. Their wealth and multi-generational financial security grew, and with it the firm’s revenue. An innovative succession plan was woven into the company’s re-engineered constitution in 2004, facilitating expansion and the staged purchase of my shares by senior colleagues. I retired fully in 2008 at the tender age of 52, free to enjoy family time and work on our rural property.
In 2015, with two kids having graduated and working and the third nearly so, we sold our property, sold or gave away lots of accumulated ‘stuff’, then packed the rest into a shipping container parked on a friend’s land. My wife and I then moved to the Vanuatu island of Espiritu Santo where I had a two-year job with NZ’s Volunteer Service Abroad (www.vsa.org.nz). Just as a BSc(Agr) did not lead me into the financial services industry, a successful career in personal financial planning and investment management didn’t exactly gift wrap me as Market Adviser (Coconut Research & Development) – but here I am, having an especially rewarding experience.
For many Aberdeen Alumni reading this, Vanuatu could be on another planet. Having lived and worked in the developed world until aged 59, life here, just a four hour flight from NZ, does feel like spinning in another orbit.
What are the differences?
The climate (big difference) is tropical with 25 to 30ºc and high humidity; the national language is Bislama, a pijin English; the ethnicity is Melanesian; the inhabitants are dark skinned. In addition to these physical differences are the culture and human tempo. Ni-Vanuatun priorities are: Family first, Church second, work a distant third.
Above: Me, middle of screen after presentation to Port Olry coconut growers
Below: Port Olry, 52 kms north, where I’m working with coconut growers
Day to day we revel in the openness of expression, the whoops and screams of laughter, the smiling eyes, the contentment without ‘stuff’. Work is a procession of bizarre frustrations, a process of slowing down, of weaving together tangential wavelengths. Patience, humility – keys to coping.
To conclude, this former Aberdeen Uni undergrad is having a great life. I’m in touch with three friends from those halcyon days in the granite city.
Below is a shot of me (right) with the only one of those friends still living in Aberdeen, Donald McIntyre. We did some memory lane stuff when I was visiting Aberdeen in 2012, including the scene below being his roots – Arbroath.
Thank you Aberdeen University, you helped open and develop my mind and served as a great launching pad.
Map of Oceania courtesy of http://www.mapcruzin.com/free-world-maps/
