St Cross Holds Inaugural Mentors’ Tea Event

The College held its inaugural Career Mentors’ Tea networking event on Thursday, 20 October. 

The event gave around 20 students the chance to ask the College’s Alumni Career Mentors about their experience and expertise as well as to ask questions about entry into a wide range of careers, all in an informal environment over coffee and cake. 

A diverse range of alumni mentors attended, including civil servants, career academics, management consultants and entrepreneurs. 

Mentors attending the event included Richard Makepeace, a registrar for the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and Alexandra Kasseri, who has a DPhil Classical Archaeology and has expertise in academia, digital transformation and management/strategy consulting.  

Richard studied Modern Languages at Keeble College, Oxford, before joining HM Diplomatic Service in 1976 and going on work for 35 years as British diplomat in the Middle East, Western and Central Europe as well as in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  

Alexandra started her career in Greece and Italy, studying history and archaeology, before getting involved in digital technology and then pursuing graduate studies at Oxford University. She has gone on to publish her doctoral thesis as a book, and her career has since taken her to China, Belgium, Singapore and back to the UK, covering fields such as retail, finance and pharma.


St Cross College has a vibrant alumni community of over 4,000 alumni around the world in more than 100 countries. Whether you are still identifying areas that might be of interest to you, or if you already have a particular career path in mind, your fellow St Crossers are here to assist you in your career journey. We have a number of alumni volunteers in a wide range of professional fields happy to support you and answer your questions. For more information, please visit our careers page.