Nick Green (1977 – 1984) recently shared with us a nostalgic school day cricket pic taken when he was at TWGSB.

It was great to connect with him and find out a bit of his post school-day journey courtesy his straight into work from school, as, whilst I enjoyed education & most of my friends went to Uni, I wanted to earn money!

That said, the first 6 months of work I absolutely hated (various reasons!) so gained a place Bristol Uni to undertake a 4 year Degree in Business Management – handed in my notice to the bank and was immediately promoted on a greatly increased salary, so stayed in work!

In August 1984 I joined Lloyds Bank on the Management Development Programme and spent circa 5years learning banking from the ground up in a branch environment and across 4 different locations in the South East. I became one of the youngest Assistant Managers at the age of 23 working in the corporate side of the bank ending up as Corporate Director for Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets and looking after businesses turning over up to c£100m.

In 2008 I was headhunted by a Swedish Bank (Svenska Handelsbanken) to set up a brand new branch operation in Tunbridge Wells, my home town! This was an opportunity not to be missed and proved to be the best 15 years of my career, starting a banking business from scratch for a Nordic bank in the midst of the financial crisis. I created, developed, built & led the business on the back of a fantastic team of people over the next 15 years providing full banking services to corporates and private individuals & wealth managements services.

I was in the fortunate financial position to be able to take early retirement in my late so now volunteer for The King’s Trust as a Business Mentor for young people starting their own businesses, as well as being a Trustee for a charity (Street Children Iringa) which was started by & is run by a local lady from T Wells. I also act as a paid Independent Trustee for Employee Owned businesses.

Naturally there have been plenty of challenges along the way were I have needed to constantly develop and push myself beyond my comfort zones – however uncomfortable that felt or the massive case of imposter syndrome I have experienced at many stages of my career!

But from my early TWGSB days the lessons of honesty, integrity & consistency in all (both in & outside of work) and treating people as you would wish to be treated, have stood me in good stead!

I look at Derek Barnard as a positive influence in my life. When I first started at TWGSB (back in 1977!) it had a very poor reputation from a discipline perspective, until Mr Barnard joined, I seem to recall initially, as Deputy Head. He was definitely a marmite character, but one who in my mind turned the school around – and so I ended up becoming one of ‘Derek’s Runners’ when I was in the 6th Form, reporting to him every morning to carry out duties and errands. Discipline, integrity, smart appearance at all times & pride in the uniform; just some of the lessons from Derek!

Bill Kearn (not sure on the spelling!) was my Economics teacher – it helped that I loved the subject (one of my A Levels), but he was just brilliant & great fun too.

A few others who were great too - Mr Maden (aka ‘Dumpy’!!), Mr Pratt and of course the late Miss Barnaby, as she was then.

In terms of my schoolmates, my best man at my wedding came from TWGSB & I am God Father to one of his boys. We still see each other regularly – and as soon as we meet we are 18 again!!

I’m married and have 2 daughters (32 & 31) as well as a beautiful 18 month old granddaughter.

I’ve been lucky to have travelled a lot, especially to watch motorsport as I just love cars.

I also love to take long walks (just completed the South Downs Way of 110 miles), and spend as much time as possible with my children & granddaughter, helping my wife run her business and I do also enjoy a spot of gardening!

As a last thought to say something that has inspired me on my life journey has been embracing the word ‘yes’. It really is very powerful – so to any TWGSB students today I would encourage taking that chance to go for it, even if you may think you are not ready for that next job, the next role, the next promotion. What if it is exactly the opportunity that was meant for you to succeed? And only you can prove this one way or another.

Nick Green – Leader and Commercial Banker (40+ years)