Edward Raymond (Ray) Evans

A native of Birmingham, Ray Evans attended King Edwards Camp Hill Grammar School before taking up an apprenticeship with the British Cast Iron Research Association and attending evening classes at Birmingham Central Technical College - the forerunner of Aston University.

In the war he was a member of a Civil Defence First Aid party during the air raids before volunteering to join the Royal Air Force where he qualified as a navigator in 1943. He rejoined BCIRA in 1946 and continued part-time studies to gain College Associateship. He was awarded a BSc ad eundem in Metallurgy when Aston became a university.

In the research department of BCIRA, he covered a variety of topics and developed wide recognition in the fields of light castings, vitreous enamelling, the fluidity of molten cast iron and in advisory work on heavy castings, especially steelworks ingot moulds. He played a major part in the development and production of Compacted Graphite Cast Irons.

In recognition of this work, he was awarded Associateship then Fellowship of the Institution of Metallurgists, Membership of the Institute of British Foundrymen and of the Institute of Vitreous Enamellers where he gained the Grainger Medal. He presented papers in Australia, Europe and America and was awarded the Howard F Taylor Prize for the best technical paper at the American Foundrymen's Society 1976 Conference in Chicago.

He maintained an interest in Aston University through AGA during some 17 years on its Committee. He was also elected to the Standing Committee of Convocation, serving twice as Chairman - a post he still holds after 8 years. During this time he was prominent in the establishment of the Alumni Relations Office and has represented Aston on the Congress of University Convocations and Alumni Associations and its forerunners. Ray has been a keen rugby player and cross-country runner, but now contents himself with golf and bridge.

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David Gwilym Gregory

David Gregory was educated at St Catherine's College, Oxford University, and the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Birmingham University. After holding various posts in banking and local government, he joined Aston University as a lecturer in 1969. He subsequently held the positions of Head of the Public Sector Management Group, Chairman of Aston Business School, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Modern Languages, Director of Aston Business School Management Development Programme and Director of the Institute of Continuing Professional and Managerial Studies. He retired in 1999 but remains an Honorary Fellow of Aston Business School and is Chairman of its Advisory Board.

Throughout his career he sustained a research interest in evaluation of public service performance and the interface between top managers and politicians. He contributed regularly to the Cabinet Office Top Management Programme in its early years and undertook many public service consultancy assignments in the UK and overseas.

He was an elected Councillor and a Justice of the Peace for six years. He also developed an interest in the work of housing associations and was a founder member and Chairman of Wolverhampton Housing Association, and Chairman of Focus 2 Housing. In retirement, he now has time to pursue his other main interests in music, the performing arts and travel.

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Alan David Jones OBE

Alan Jones is Group Managing Director TNT Express and he is a member of the Board of Management of TNT Post Group NV, a major public company listed in Amsterdam, London, New York and Frankfurt.

Alan is the Variety Club of Great Britain 1998 Midlands Businessman of the Year and winner of the 2000 Investors in People Ambassador Award.

Alan is the founder Chairman of Midlands Excellence and was elected to the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Governing Committee in October 1999. Alan is Chairman of In Kind Direct, a successful charity founded by HRH The Prince of Wales that distributes surplus donated goods to voluntary organisations, and a member of the Board of Business in the Community.

Alan is a member of the Ministry of Defence Tri-Service Logistics Ministerial Steering Committee and a member of the Defence Procurement Ministerial Advisory Agency Board. He is also the partner chosen by the Cabinet Office to sponsor and lead the TNT Modernising Government Partnership Award competition.

Alan is a former Director of the British Quality Foundation and a former Chairman of The Chartered Institute of Transport. He is a Freeman of the City of London and was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the June 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

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Marylane Barfield

Marylane Barfield was born in Michigan, USA, where she was educated at the Michigan State University. From 1960-65 she taught art in Long Island, New York. In 1965 she came to London to take the job as Head of the Art Department at The American School in London. She married and moved to Birmingham in 1969 where her husband was a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Birmingham. She continued to paint and exhibit her work.

In 1988 she was elected Associate Member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. She then served as Curator and was elected full member in 1993 and President in 1995. During her term as President, the Society moved their gallery from New Street to St. Paul's Square which Marylane has the honour to supervise. She now serves the RBSA in the position of Development Manager and continues to paint and exhibit her work.

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Sir Nicholas Dominic Cadbury

Sir Dominic Cadbury has been Chairman of the Wellcome Trust since his retirement from Cadbury Schweppes in May 2000 where he had been CEO and subsequently Chairman. He is also Chairman of the Economist Group and of Transense Technologies, Deputy Chairman of EMI and a Non-Executive Director of Misys plc.

He has been involved in many aspects of education through the CBI as Chairman of its Education & Training Committee and as Deputy Chairman of the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority. He is a Fellow of Eton College, Vice-President of Edgbaston High School for Girls and a Trustee of the Teaching Awards Trust, which honours outstanding teachers, as well as Chairman of an advisory committee of the National Life Story Collection of the British Library. He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 1997.

Sir Dominic has always been a keen sportsman though his main competitive sporting interest now is golf. Other interests include walking his dogs in the Oxfordshire countryside where he lives with his wife Sally and attending the opera and ballet at Covent Garden, London.

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Professor Cary Lynn Cooper CBE

Cary Cooper is currently BUPA Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health in the Manchester School of Management and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

He is the author of over 80 books on occupational stress, women in the workplace and industrial and organisational psychology. He has written over 400 scholarly articles for academic journals and is a frequent contributor to national newspapers, TV and radio. Currently he is Founding Editor of the Journal of Organisational Behaviour and co-editor of the medical journal Stress and Health (formerly Stress Medicine).

Professor Cooper is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Royal Society of Arts, The Royal Society of Health and an Academician of the Academy for the Social Sciences. He is also President of the British academy of Management, is a Companion of the (British) Institute of Management and one of the first UK-based Fellows of the (American) Academy of Management having also won the 1998 Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to management science from the Academy of Management. In 2001 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his contribution to organisational health.

He is currently Joint Editor (with Professor Chris Argyris of Harvard Business School) of the international scholarly Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Management and the Editor of Who's Who in the Management Sciences. He as been an advisor to the World Health Organisation, ILO and recently published a major report for the EU's European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Work Conditions on Stress Prevention in the Workplace.

In addition he is President of the Institute of Welfare Officers, Vice-President of the British Association of Counselling, an Ambassador of The Samaritans and Patron of the National Phobic Society.

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Dr John Parnaby CBE

John Parnaby is a native of Cumbria and has had a long career in both industry and academia. He spent a total of fourteen years as an academic in two spells, interspersed with periods in industry. After holding a Chair in Engineering, he left the university world in 1980 to resume his industrial career, initially as Managing Director of a machinery company.

He first moved to live in the Midlands with his family in 1981 to take up a post as General Manager with Dunlop plc before moving in 1983 to Lucas Industries plc as Group Director for Technology. Subsequently he became Chief Executive of the Lucas Electronic Systems Products Sector.

At the beginning of 1998, Dr Parnaby retired from Lucas but continued as a Non-Executive Director of several companies including Jarvis plc, Molins plc and Scottish Power plc. He is currently Chairman of Knowledge Process Software plc, Think Digital plc and Amchem Ltd. He is also a member of the Council of Aston University and Treasurer.

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Professor John Maxwell Irvine

John Maxwell Irvine was born and raised in Edinburgh. He studied at the universities of Edinburgh, Michigan and Manchester.

As an academic physicist, he has authored more than one hundred research papers and half a dozen books in his field. He was Vice-President of the Institute of Physics, Chairman of the SERC's Nuclear Physics Committee and Research Fellowships Panel, Dean of Science at the University of Manchester and Chairman of the Manchester Computing Centre.

In 1991, he joined the University of Aberdeen as Principal. He chaired the Committee of Scottish University Principals, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and was a member of the Scottish Economic Council. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1995 and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

In 1996, he came to the West Midlands as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and worked for closer co-operation between the higher education institutes in the region. He chaired the Regional Innovation Strategy Group and was appointed a Deputy Lord Lieutenant in 1999.

In 2001, Professor Irvine returned to Manchester from which he currently chairs the JISC, responsible for ICT infrastructure throughout the UK and promotes international higher education through his work with the ACU, E-SU, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, British Council and the Association of European Universities. He is also a Board member of the Public Health Laboratories Service.

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Rising star

January 2001 saw Asia's most successful 24-hour satellite entertainment channel, STAR Plus and its sister channel STAR News, beamed onto UK TV screens. Already serving 300 million viewers across 53 countries, STAR promised to be a leading contender in ethnic TV and the challenge to pioneer its expansion into Europe was seized by Lisa Srao (1995 BSc Managerial & Administrative Studies). Now Vice-President Business Operations, she gave Apex an insight into the fiercely competitive world of satellite media.

The plan made financial sense. The programming existed. There was an audience. "So why not simply bring these together," began Lisa. A simple concept, maybe, but one which was put to the test in a market where there were already 20 channels broadcasting to the UK's two million strong South-Asian community.

In India, 39 of the top 50 shows are STAR's. STAR was renowned for high quality programming and this proved to be the ultimate driving force to grow and retain an audience. UK viewers were gaining access to the cream of Asian shows: Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Saans.

"Having launched on the Sky platform at a higher price than all channels, my first challenge was to encourage trial, convinced that once people were hooked onto the award-winning serials, there would be no question regarding churn - subscribers leaving the channel." A winning strategy. Having fought with the powers-that-be to secure a three-month free window for viewers, Lisa launched an aggressive marketing campaign highlighting the USPs of both the channels across ethnic print and radio. STAR News came into its own within weeks of launch with the tragic earthquake in Gujarat. But the channel brought families together and showed the power of a 24-hour news channel broadcasting into the UK from the Subcontinent.

Lisa remains at the cutting edge of international media always driving forward to break through the next obstacle, taking STAR further and faster into a highly competitive world. After months of negotiating with cable networks claiming full capacity, STAR Plus and STAR News launched on Telewest last October. "We have a solid role to play, in the everyday lives of the UK's Asian community," declares Lisa. "I am committed to bringing the very best in programming from both the Subcontinent and the UK to our viewers. After just a year and a half we have expanded our distribution across all possible UK platforms. We now need to make sure that everyone has a reason to subscribe. I'm confident that STAR Plus and STAR News will be the UK's number one channels, just as they are in the Subcontinent."

A brief look at her career since graduating from Aston shows how her attitude and constant determination to succeed has catapulted her through the ranks right to the top of her profession where she occupies one of the most influential positions in the world of satellite TV. She has worked as International Marketing Manager for Universal Pictures launching an intranet site and working on campaigns for many of the company's specialist video and DVD products including Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals and Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. At 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, she gained expertise in the field of children's entertainment working specifically on all 20th Century's children's titles and alongside the Fox Kids network team. Lisa has worked with several other home entertainment companies including Paramount Home Video with particular responsibilities for Nickelodeon and MTV. Within the international marketing arena, Lisa has also worked with SeaFrance Ferries and Federal Express Europe where she was presented with the Bravo Zulu Award for Excellence.

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The changing face of Aston...

Founded in 1895 and a university since 1966, Aston is an old university with a proven history of academic excellence. Its green campus in the heart of the vibrant City of Birmingham has been home to thousands of students from all over the world. Here you studied. Here you met your friends. And no doubt Aston has a special place in your heart. We've captured your memories and unfolded them here alongside the new developments in the City and on campus. But this is only a snapshot of generations. Experience it again, come back to Aston.

Pharmacy class around 1963

"We were all about to embark on a coach trip to Hertfordshire; we stayed overnight at the Russell Hotel in London. Mr Bateson was Head of Department and Mr Jepson taught us dispensing. My years at Aston were happy and we used to enjoy our dances. One night Tom Jones sang. He was ribbed a little and walked off stage, only to return later and apologise to very loud cheers - all had a wonderful time afterwards."
David Lee

"I arrived in Birmingham in September 1981 and enrolled as a student on the MSc Public Sector Management course. Back in Nigeria I had obtained a BA degree and was Senior Hospital Administrator. In my first year I lived in Vauxhall Court and Dalton Tower in my second. During the unusually severe winter of 1981/82, I ran cross-country races with a number of students through the streets of Birmingham in the mornings."
James E A Ituru (1982 MSc Public Sector Management)

A full panoramic vista of campus

"Stafford Tower roof, a brilliant sunny day immediately after my graduation, 1982. In this shot you can see buildings and features which are no longer there like the Tea Warehouse, Geology block and prototype Biotechnology centre."
Steve Knight (1982 BSc Biochemistry and Chemistry)

"Do folk remember the Birmingham SUN - a top quality college newspaper! I joined the editorial team in 1967 when MJK Stanworth was editor. I remember well the balls in the Great Hall with names like The Merseybeats, The Rockinberries, Tom Jones and the Squires, the John Barry 7 and Spencer Davis."
Christine Bray (née Nixon 1966 BSc Pharmacy)

"I had formed a football team for which I played - it was no surprise to be asked to do a similar job for the University. As a qualified coach, to be later assisted by Aston Villa player Geoff Vowden, we began the grading of 70 potential players. The standard of those who would form the 1st and 2nd XI's was extremely high. A football committee was formed. Paul Bloodworth, ex Coventry City player and member of the Physical Recreation Department, took over training. Shustoke was well established. An organised club was complete."
Stan Arthurs (1967)

Aston University from Millennium Point, October 2001

"Since I started as a day-release student (aged 16) at Suffolk Street in 1950, things have certainly changed. I did chemical calculations using long multiplication and division, a slide rule for checking, proficiency in foreign languages for engineering students was a requirement and when the first computer arrived at Gosta Green in the late 1950s, it was the size of a large wardrobe."
David G Owen (1959 ACT)

"I briefly passed by Aston recently." (Don't pass by, drop in - Ed.) "The campus was looking nice but the Vauxhall Brasserie (formerly the Vauxhall Dining Centre, affectionately known to all as the VD Centre) has been closed and turned into seminar rooms! What happened to the barman, Hugh, with his trademark moustache and Guinness tie? I was probably his longest standing customer - was still going there six years after graduating. Now that I live in France, I've had to find other student bars to go to instead."
Andrew Winder (1992 BSc Transport Management)

"When I got my degree I shook hands with the Chancellor and left the stage a little confused, being a bit deaf (hay fever I think) on the day. As we got down, I asked my best mate Matt O'Hare (just behind me as it happened) how he knew me as I'd never seen him before. "What do you mean, how he knew you?" asked Matt.
"Well," I explained, "he said, 'I'll miss you'."
"And what did you say?"
"That I'd miss him too and he didn't half look at me strange afterwards."
"That's because he actually said, 'I admit you'."
Oh dear.
Daniel Lees (1997 BSc Modern Languages French)

Latest additions to campus

Lakeside Residences, the first new building on the Aston campus for 12 years, was officially opened on November 16th 1999. A striking 17-storey tower with a snaking eight-storey tail has changed Birmingham's skyline and received landmark acclaim from the architectural community. Lakeside fronts onto the inner ring road and the entrance to Aston.

Lakeside Conference Centre (formerly the Vauxhall Dining Centre and Oscar's) was opened in summer 2001 providing a convenient and accessible location for small or large events. Lakeside, dedicated to the provision of conference, training and meeting facilities, is a contemporary new development featuring an eye-catching glass frontage.

Bar Lago, situated in the Sumpner Building, is a modern, stylish food and drink outlet, open between 8.00am and 11.00pm.

More changes are planned on campus in the near future as the University implements a major new estates strategy over the next 10-15 years. Apex will keep you up to date.

...in Birmingham

Birmingham looks and feels better than ever thanks to massive investment which has transformed the City into one of Europe's most exciting venues for entertainment, shopping, business, culture and sport. There's a whole host of new developments and many more planned on the east side of the City close to campus.

Above: The Water's Edge; Victoria Square; Brindley Place

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A gifted graduate

When looking to inject a tad more style into our gift range earlier this year, we were delighted to discover that Peter Osborne (1970 BSc Behavioural Science) owned his own successful merchandising company - Special EFX - which boasts clients from Aston Martin and Mercedes to Harrods and the Gadget Shop. We quickly sought him out and with Peter's help, and his enthusiasm to give something back to his University, we have been able to add four stylish new gifts to our range. We went to find out more about Special EFX and just what, out of the gifts Peter's supplied, he would buy with his money!

Tell us about Special EFX - you've been going for over ten years haven't you?

Yes, that's right. I started Special EFX in 1991 and we've been going strong ever since. I've actually been in this industry much longer though, having owned another business prior to this in 1971 called Troika. My first ever product was a gear-knob for a car, which had a silver top engraved with an individual's initials. We sold hundreds of thousands of these by mail order in the first few years and quickly grew to employ seventy-five people. Troika was sold in the teeth of recession in 1989, rather unfortunately, and two years later I started Special EFX. I have always been a manufacturer at heart - it must be the Birmingham roots - and we are still expanding the engineering and production side of our business.

Is this what you expected to end up doing?

I have the attention span of a gnat! I don't think I have ever seriously planned anything in my career, which I guess can also mean rolling along out of control! I spend most of my time now pursuing concepts and product ideas and marketing them.

So what is different about Special EFX?

Our by-line is 'EFX...Special by Design'. We try to do everything differently and hopefully better than anyone else. We are innovative in both design and technology and 72% of the products in our range have been developed and brought to market by us, using our own in-house design facility. Our products are very original, some quirky and fun, others with advanced technical features. We (thirty-one of us) operate out of a group of eighteenth century barns just south of Stratford-upon-Avon, in a delightful rural setting. EFX is very much a family business whether through blood or purely a shared passion for the enterprise.

You've won plenty of awards - tell us about them.

In 1988 we won the British Design Award for a new 'Ergo' pewter hip flask, which won acclaim all over the world and is now recognised as a design icon. Since then we have won awards for product innovation in Germany, Japan and the USA and have been outright winners three times of the Gift of the Year Award, which is organised by the British Giftware Association. We were also a finalist in the Coventry and Warwickshire Small Business of the Year.

We are delighted that you have been able to provide Aston with some new products for its gift range. Has it been nice for you to be able to give something back to your University, so to speak?

Yes, I was honoured when you approached me with a view to providing some new items for your gift range. Having worked with you from start to finish on the whole project, it's wonderful to now be able to see the finished products and I think they look great, even if I do say so myself. I hope that they will be a success. I have many, many happy memories of Aston in the swinging sixties and a very large soft spot in my heart for the place. I am the worst at keeping in touch and welcome the new 're-association'.

Finally, what would you buy from the range you've given to us? You can only choose one!

I would definitely buy the coasters. The original version was designed by my daughter, Holly, and my wife, Melanie, for BA Concorde. They were intended as a memento to be given out to prestigious passengers. They are modern, tasteful, good-looking and functional. What more can you ask?

The new additions - courtesy of Special EFX...

• Coasters
• Tower clock
• Dual time alarm clock
• Jumper key-ring

Full details on how to order any of our gifts can be found on our website, at http://www.aston.ac.uk/alumni/gifts.htm

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Expedition: Uganda

Every week we hear from graduates eager to tell us about their travel experiences, from climbing mount Kilimanjaro to walking the Inca Trail in Peru. Increasingly, more and more of you are choosing to go away on organised expeditions, drawn in by the opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds and nationalities on a variety of community and environmental projects all over the world. Claire Surtees (née Lewis, 1992 BSc Managerial and Administrative Studies) has been going on expeditions for the last five years. Having just returned from Uganda, we were keen to catch up with Claire to find out about her latest expedition and why she finds them such an attraction.

Why do I love going on expeditions? I just thrive on the challenges that these expeditions present. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to be able to get to know a country better by living and working with local people. I also get to meet a new group of people with whom I can develop new friendships. A small company called XCL runs the expeditions, which are based in remote communities rather than being purely adventure based. I've been going away with them for five years, and it's great because as the expeditions are relatively short, I can take them as part of my annual leave. As the Business Development Manager for Matthews Foods, I can't just choose to go away whenever I feel like it, so this provides me with a good compromise.

The rugby tournament gets underway!