Our annual Commemoration Service is usually held at Chester Cathedral, but for reasons we no longer need to explain, the 2021 event was held virtually.
All Senior School students and staff as well as our Year 6 girls watched the service during Form Time which included a welcome from the Headmistress, Mrs Wallace-Woodroffe, followed by an inspirational video from our guest speaker, alumna Kat McGettigan ‘01, who is the Global Head of Growth at Grayling.
Kat left Queen’s in 2001 and went on to study Modern European Studies at the University of Nottingham; a four-year course including a year spent as a language assistant in Germany. She graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 2005.
Since then, Kat has been working in the PR industry, for some of the world’s most recognised brands and events at a number of PR agencies including M&C, Saatchi PR and Weber Shandwick. She is a consumer brands specialist and has worked for one of the ‘tier one’ sponsors of the London 2012 Games, EDF Energy and has led communications programmes for brands including Spotify, Twitter; MasterCard and Nespresso.
After holding the role of Head of Consumer PR and a UK board member at the international agency, Grayling, where she lead the team working on brands from Visa to Hilton hotels, she now works as Global Head of Growth, leading a new function to drive multi-market business and client growth.
She is passionate about nurturing female talent in the industry and sits on the board of the Women in PR committee helping to empower and inspire the next generation of talent in PR.
Following the service, Kat led two live Q&A sessions, one with Year 6 and another with Year 12.
Year 6 asked about her career path, time at Queen's, favourite subjects in school and how she decided on her career. It was lovely to hear she made lifelong friends during her time at Queen's!
Year 12 found out about what a career in the PR industry involves, more about her current role and favourite project so far. The girls also asked about the her travel experiences and about Nottingham as a university and destination.
We truly value the inspirational impact our alumni have on our current students and events like Commem solidify the strength of our Queen's Community.
