Spring Martlet 2017

Aimée Campbell
(2008, BA PPP)
HRBP Refreshment R&D
Unilever
Who was your biggest influence at Univ?
It’s got to be Acer Nethercott, because I do Ironman
quite seriously now and have been to the World
Championships, but it was Acer, Tom Walker and Howard
Duncan who did an Ironman while I was in my second
year at Univ and it had always been on my bucket list.
They were very good college rowers and I was a
good Uni rower – I thought if they can do it, I can
probably do it. So I entered one and Acer just said,
‘You’re going to nail it!’ and he looked at my time
afterwards and said, ‘You have to try and go to the
World Championships at Kona.’ This is a guy who
went to the Olympics, but was so humble and
generous with his time.
How important do you think the gallery project is?
I think it’s fantastic just in terms of raising people’s
aspirations. There are people involved in this who have
gone way out of the area they did their undergrad
in; I think Univites tend to go outside
of their comfort zones or topics – the topic
is merely the training session, it gives you so
much access to other things. Having confidence,
taking risks, travelling, putting yourself in new
situations – the Univ travel bursaries for
example allow people a taste for that.
Martin Chan
(2008, MEng)
Engineering Consultant
Rolls Royce
Dr Oliver Cox
(2006, BA, MSt, DPhil History)
Heritage Engagement Fellow, University of Oxford and
Director of Thames Valley Country House Partnership
What do you recall about your first day at Univ?
I remember being dropped off in Logic Lane and us
walking all of our stuff over and wondering who had
got through from interviews, but after that it’s all a bit
of a blur of excitement for the rest of that week... I do
remember going into my room and thinking ‘Oh bloody
hell, this is really all happening,’ and at that point my
father becoming quite emotional. My main memory was
that I felt I needed to have something vaguely cool for
my room. We’d been to Ikea the week before along with
everyone else going to university and trying to think
about what bedspread to have...
26 THE MARTLET | SPRING 2017