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Trustees: John Green
Position: CEO of BFMT HK Branch
Work: Director of Studies and IB Coordinator at Li Po Chun United World College 2003 – 2008
He is now an independent Educational Consultant working out of Hong Kong.
John was a close colleague and friend of Blair’s. John had known Blair long before his move to Hong Kong. When Blair was the Principal of the International School in Suva, Fiji, John was working as Director of Studies at Kristin School, Auckland. They often met at IB conferences and at recruitment fairs, and he remembers Blair ringing him whenever he was over to ask if he could play the grand piano in the school’s auditorium. Blair was a superb pianist and would play the piano at every opportunity. Later on during one particular UWC conference, he took over the live entertainment at a restaurant whilst the musicians were on a break, much to the delight of the clientele. John came to Li Po Chun United World College in ’96 as Blair’s Director of Studies and gladly became a Founding Trustee of the Blair Forster Memorial Trust. His reasons for getting involved with the Trust can be best summed up from an extract from his tribute to Blair.
I have a great respect for Blair and he was a wonderful leader. He had the great gift of being able to see through to the nub of a problem and the patience to solicit a range of views on any issue before coming to a decision. In this way he won true affection from those who worked under him. Outside of work Blair was a good friend of mine and I spent a lot of time socialising with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his intellect, his dry sense of humour and I miss him a great deal . . . Blair was also a champion of the underprivileged and probably the time that he spent as a manager in Latin America, before he joined the teaching profession did a great deal to shape this. In the College his attention was often on the students we had from deprived backgrounds – the Hong Kong student from the lower classes or the African refugee. His interest in championing the cause of the people from East Timor therefore came as no surprise and I am sad that he did not survive long enough to put his ideas into practice. I think that the establishment of the Blair Forster Memorial Fund is the best imaginable way that we can try to ensure that his name lives on in the context of international education, to which he devoted his life.
John’s dedication in helping to start up the Trust and his numerous ideas has given the Trust a foundation that we can rely on. His steady hand and his philosophical outlook act as our conscience and allow us to stop and consider every move we make.
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