'I miss my old friends - RGS builds amazing people!'

Former boarding student Laura Holmes studied marketing at Newcastle University, following A-levels in business studies, French and English literature, and now works in luxury real estate marketing in Dubai. She says the ambition, hard work and dedication of other students at RGS, driving the mindset of hard work throughout the school, always inspired her

Q: What was it that inspired you to work in luxury real estate marketing?

A: I travelled a lot to Dubai when my parents lived there. I loved the city, the opportunities, the lifestyle and the weather. Whilst visiting there during a summer holiday, I started to think more seriously about my future beyond education and took an unpaid two-week internship at a magazine company, which led me into a one-year internship during my university placement year.

Once I finished university, I found the graduate market in the UK extremely competitive, so decided to move to Dubai full time. The negatives of a competitive job market inspired me to to do something different, look wider and create an opportunity for myself.

Q: Can you outline a typical day?

A: In Dubai it's very common for residential towers to be branded, similarly to a luxury car or a designer bag. I am working on developing these brands for multi billion dollar real estate projects on key Dubai landmarks such as Palm Jumeirah, I consult with agencies across the world from New York to Australia on launching and managing these brands both locally and globally, plus bringing them to life visually by working with our architects, visualisation and modelling companies, along with managing and protecting the existing brands which sit under my team, through branding, communications and digital marketing. 

A typical day would include a lot of emails, working on strategy presentations, setting upcoming brand activations, launch events, planning global events to connect with high net worth individuals and managing corporate sponsorships. To be honest, in Dubai there is no such thing as a typical day!

Q: What have been the highlights of your career to date?

A: It’s such a difficult question, I could say securing my first ever job after university was an amazing feeling, but then working on certain projects implementing world firsts, creating a global reach with my own ideas, really makes me proud as a marketeer.

Q: What’s the best bit about your job?

A: The international travel is definitely a huge perk. Last year I had the opportunity to travel around Europe over the summer for a sponsorship and for one of our project launches which was amazing. Working in such a successful industry within the region for such a visionary company in luxury real estate really pushes me to the best I can be professionally.

Q: And the worst?

A: In Dubai and the Middle East in general, most companies value output not time, so I dedicate a lot of my time to my career to generate as much output as possible. So my work life balance would not be as balanced as I’d hoped. That’s a 2025 resolution of mine!

Q: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced?

A: Dealing with difficult personalities is always challenging, especially in Dubai when you are dealing with 20-30 different nationalities per day, with cultural differences and sometimes language barriers. I have worked with really difficult people both upwards in management, and direct reporting line, but I always think of every personality you meet as a lesson!

I have always found presenting to large groups difficult, but I always like to face fears head on and nominate myself for these kind of tasks which push me and eventually end up making me stronger in the long run.

Q: What was the most important lesson you learnt at RGS?

A: Academically it would be business studies which leaned me into my career in the first place, but most importantly RGS taught me that its actually cool to be smart and work hard, do your best and be respectful. It’s quite rare to find a school with this mindset as a central core culture, and I think this is really important as it also led me to always do my best in my later life, and I have carved a reputation for this now in my career.

Living slightly out of the catchment area, it was by fluke that I got a place at RGS back in 2003, because someone had dropped out just before the school year started. I am so lucky that this happened as RGS shaped me into the person I became and still am today. 

Q: What extra-curricular activities were you involved in while at RGS, and how valuable were they?

A: I didn’t do too many extra curricular activities, I played guitar when I was in first year, and I’m very passionate in music. This really helps me in my job because I work with agencies on composing bespoke music tracks for CGI films.

I’m not sure if this counts as extra-curricular but I was also in the Johnson boarding house for two years, and this definitely helped me learn how to live well with people who are not your family. From leaving RGS until I finally got my own place I think I spent six to seven years living with other people, so I think Johnson House was a huge factor which got me ready for that.

Q: What do you wish you’d known back then?

A: School is a really small part of what is going to come in your life. You just need to work hard to get the initial grades you need, to leverage yourself to start your professional life as strongly as possible.

Also don’t limit yourself.

Q: What was your dream when you were at school?

A: I honestly did not look that far ahead at the time. I had considered many routes, but I always thought: ‘Will this pay well and make me successful?’, and then would go back to the drawing board. I initially always wanted to be a lawyer but I always had more of a creative mindset.

Q: What is the one piece of advice you’d give students interested in following a similar career path?

A: Marketing is such a broad field, and it can look and operate so differently from sector to sector. I’d recommend trying to get internships at small start-up agencies (where they need the help and will put you on real agency work rather than running for coffees), where you can work in different sectors from one place, and see what sparks your interest. And with marketing, you always have to stay up to date with trends, upcoming AI, and best practices. Listen to podcasts, follow key opinion leaders on social media, so you can be confident in your conversations, interviews, and can explore as much of this field as you can.

Q: Who was your favourite teacher and why?

A: I had so many amazing teachers from 2003-2010. Mr Fell is so memorable, along with Mr Andrew who taught me business studies. Another icon was Mr Walker, but there are so many teachers I am so thankful to for leading me on this path.

Q: Who or what inspired you when you were at school?

A: It was always the students heading for Oxbridge, along with those on course to study medicine that would inspire me. Their level of dedication was so admirable, and they really drove the mindset of hard work throughout the school.

Q: What would you say has been your greatest success?

A: Aside from personal achievements like getting married and having my two children, my greatest success would be my recent promotion to associate marketing director. This was always a dream milestone of mine and I achieved it just at the end of 2024, ten years after I graduated from university.

Q: What are your hopes for the future?

A: I hope to become a private luxury real estate developer.

Q: What do you miss most about Ripon?

A: I have so many cherished memories of Ripon Grammar School, I miss hanging out with my school friends at lunch, I miss Johnson house, I miss the school activities, charity week and the sixth form balls we had. I also miss Ripon itself it was such a lovely place to be, I’d love to visit again one day soon.

Living so far away for so long, when I go back home and see my old friends its like nothing has changed. RGS builds amazing people! Also calling on head boy and head girl Giles & Amy to set up a 2010 leavers reunion!