Bay Harbour: July 12, 2017

PAGE 6 BAY HARBOUR Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Wednesday July 12 2017
Our People
Richard Jolly
Former oil trader finds reward
Your Local Views
Teacher Richard Jolly is
head of social science at
Linwood College but in
his former life, he was a
London-based oil trader
who travelled the world.
Sarla Donovan talks to
him about what a trader
does and why he moved
ews
to Christchurch
Oil trader to social studies
teacher – why the change?
To do something worthwhile
and bring up a family in
Christchurch. I taught in Camp
America for a year before oil
ashion
trading and loved it. I wanted to
go back to it; teaching students is
very rewarding – and there’s not
many oil trading jobs here.
It sounds exotic.
It is exotic. I travelled to many
countries – the United States
lots of times, Egypt and Russia
and the Baltic States. I was
based in London, but did a lot
Gardening
of work Hamburg and Zug
in Switzerland. It’s a great life,
but if you have small children
you never see them. I spent
hours and hours oil trading
and realised one day, sitting
at my desk that I was paying a
nanny to take my daughter to
the beach. That’s really when
I decided to make the change.
That was 14 years ago. We
moved from Switzerland to New
Zealand and I trained at the
New Zealand Graduate School
of Education. My wife Beth is
from Methven but it wasn’t all
her choice, she certainly wasn’t
putting the pressure on to come
back.
What do oil traders need to
be good at, what’s involved?
You need to be good with
people, good with numbers
and good at making decisions.
I’d make contacts in different
countries, buy large quantities
of oil, organise shipping, ship
it halfway across the world,
hedge the price using the futures
market, talk to refineries to
process it. So, you have to work
with a lot of different people.
Are there any similarities
between the two jobs?
Not a lot – the lunches are
quite different! You’re still
working with people
though, that’s the same.
So were you
here during the
earthquakes?
Yes . . . but I wish I wasn’t.
How did they affect
you?
Not good.
We lost our
house in the
February 2011
earthquake
and like many,
it took six years
to get it replaced.
Meanwhile, we
moved 13 times,
including one
year back in
the UK.
I was offered a job back in oil
trading when we went back but
chose to stay in teaching and
worked in a very posh English
public school, Dauntsey’s.
So Linwood’s not the only
school you’ve taught at?
No, prior to the earthquake
I worked at Catholic
Cathedral College, which I
very much enjoyed, and
only left because my
house was destroyed.
I commuted in
from Methven
for a few
months but
then got
a job at
Mt Hutt
College followed by a spell back
at Dauntsey’s.
Did you grow up in the
countryside back in the UK?
I grew up in a town called
Beaconsfield, just outside of
London, and it was great but the
town has now been swallowed
by London commuters and is
not really very nice now.
Are your family still back in
the UK?
Yes, people are still around.
My parents have lived in the
same place for 52 years and I
try to get back every year or
18 months. I also have four
brothers over in that part of the
world.
PEOPLE: Teaching and oil trading are both peoplefocused
jobs, says Richard Jolly.
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