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Alumni Relations and Development 2012–13<br />
A message from Bill Conner, the Development Director<br />
Formal alumni events were hosted by the President, the Development Director<br />
or the Vicegerent, in eight cities across the world, a new record in our efforts to<br />
reconnect with alumni. In addition to New York, Washington and Madrid, we made<br />
our first trip to East Asia for some years, and the Vicegerent’s trip to Australia<br />
was the occasion to meet Sydney-based alumni. We saw between 20 and 40 former<br />
members at each, and envisage further informal events. Our second London lecture<br />
was given by Vlatko Vedral at the Royal Society in March, on ‘Living in a Quantum<br />
World’. Again we had a full house, and met some people we hadn’t seen for a long<br />
time.<br />
Our international community continues to grow, and the activities and interests<br />
of the greater Wolfson family are breathtaking in their scope. We have invested<br />
successfully over the last five years in communications and data systems that<br />
help us stay connected, and will continue to exploit new technology and better<br />
communications to knit our global family together.<br />
We continue to be interested in how alumni can help advance the careers of current<br />
students. Tom Black gave a very interesting career advisory event in Hilary Term<br />
<strong>2013</strong>, and other less formal events have taken place from time to time. We want to<br />
expand our efforts in this direction, as we keep finding examples of alumni who<br />
have pursued successful careers in business, as entrepreneurs, in non-traditional<br />
academic settings and in third-sector organisations. As academic careers become<br />
more difficult to achieve, we want to exploit the resourcefulness of Wolfsonians in<br />
developing new ideas for Wolfson graduates.<br />
Fund-raising continues to grow steadily, and Wolfson is now one of the most<br />
generous Oxford colleges in providing scholarships. The Marriott legacy has been<br />
a major factor, but the ongoing generosity of alumni and friends has helped greatly,<br />
with the provision of dedicated scholarships for physics, classical art, early Christian<br />
Jewish studies, and Korean studies. Annual fund-raising has also raised the research<br />
profile of the <strong>College</strong>, one of the highest in Oxford with its eight research clusters<br />
and more in development. Our trip to East Asia started the development of further<br />
funding for Korean studies, Buddhist studies and digital methods. The challenge<br />
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