BUSINESS FIRST INNER 3-38:Layout 1 9/6/08 16:31 Page 18
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Oliver Gilsenen
Age: 22
Educated: Kings’, Winchester
Course: Business Studies
Alongside my studies I am marketing director for the country’s top
provider of private tuition, The Tutors Group. Our private tutors work
all over the globe, frequently with the children of some of the
world’s most prominent and influential families. A key area of our
business is getting pupils up to the standard required to get them
into their school of first choice. We have an incredible 100% record
at Common Entrance. I started working for The Tutors Group as a
residential out-of-house business tutor just to supplement my
student income. I was promoted to in-house tutor and head of
Business, Economics and Finance for the group of 15 pupils who
make up Blythe Hall, a small private school we run. I soon saw ways
in which the business could be taken to the next level and they
appointed me as their marketing director, with a view to growing
both the school and the out-of-house tutoring businesses.
My ambition is to run my own business, preferably in catering. I
recently went on BBC Masterchef because I had seen so many
screw up and thought I could do better. However, I didn’t win. I just
love cooking – I love eating too!
I am a very strong believer in everyone taking responsibility for
themselves and for the planet; it is really very important to protect
the earth. I am absolutely outraged by a system of state benefits that
encourages people not to work and that robs them of their self-
reliance. It is a scandal that someone can work hard for low pay and
Nico van der Merwe
still earn less than someone on benefits. The system has to change.
Age: 22
Educated: Afrikaans High School, Pretoria
Course: Accounting with finance
I have my own business running security at events at Goodwood
and Cowdray Park. I got into it when I was a bar manager working
at Goodwood and then for a period as Lord March’s private butler
during my holidays. A friend’s dad offered me the chance to work
as a bouncer at events and receptions – I used to be a good rugby
player, playing for Bath U-19’s so I am pretty solid – and then I went
back to Goodwood to work security there for four times the money
I’d made in the bar or as a butler. I then worked for the company
doing security patrols at Cowdray Park, and after a few months I had
totally paid off my student loan. I told my boss, who was an ex-cop,
that there was more money in doing security at events and he let
me set up that side of the business. I got a £20,000 loan, which I
repaid, and am now running the whole business myself after the
boss retired a few months ago. I hire my friends and six of them
have been able to leave university free of student loans.
I am using my degree to help me learn more about budgeting and
management, to help me build my business and diversify. I have
already decided to invest in a Spanish-style tapas bar in Chichester
which is set up to attract the student population, but that’s just the
start. As far as I am concerned you either go big or you go home.
My parents’ philosophy was wait and see. I don’t think that works
nowadays. You have to think not just about being the best in your
region or your country but about being the best in the world.
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