- Tutors International representatives attended the Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum, where tuition expert and CEO of the elite tutoring company, Adam Caller, was a guest speaker.
- Tutors International reflect on the two-day programme and reveal what the events mean for the future of tailored high-end private tuition.
Prestel & Partner Family Office Forum 2021
OXFORD, UK: On the 28th and 29th September, the 2021 Prestel & Partner Family Office Forum took place at the Corinthia Hotel, London. Founder and CEO of Tutors International, Adam Caller, was invited to speak as a panellist at the prestigious event. As an esteemed education consultant, he joined the ‘Wealth Wisdom’ panel alongside Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, Francesca Agostinelli, Psychologist and Coach, Dr Ronit Meshi-Mai Lami and Cerescom Founder, Jo Sawicki.
Representatives from Tutors International joining Mr Caller were Chief Operating Officer (COO), Victoria Gibbs, and Account Manager, Joanna Dunckley Phillips.
Tobias Prestel and Katja Muelheim of Prestel and Partner put on an informative and inspiring two-day programme of expert panels and talks. It was an event that enabled a lot of professionals at the top of their game to exchange ideas, knowledge and expertise across a wide range of topics. Tutors International was the only representative from the private education sector, which made for unique and exciting juxtapositions with the other experts, who spoke on wealth management, investment practice, tech advancements, the climate crisis and many other topics. Tutors International’s Joanna Dunckley Phillips said that this made for “some fascinating discussions about many different aspects of education, and where and when our personally-tailored services can be so beneficial.”
The Panel: Adam Caller
Founder and CEO of Tutors International, Adam Caller, contributed to the ‘Wealth Wisdom’ panel by sharing engaging anecdotes about his extensive experience educating the world’s Ultra-High Net-Worth (UHNW) families.
Mr Caller presented himself as a gifted and evocative storyteller. Tutors International COO, Victoria Gibbs, recalls that “people were still talking about Adam’s panel feature at the end of the second day. It really made a mark. Everyone was so interested in hearing about the practice of full-time private tuition for the ultra-wealthy."
Anonymised anecdotes shared on the panel included some of the challenging cases Mr Caller has seen over the years, whereby parents have been disconnected from their children and how the private tutor has been an immeasurably beneficial presence. He illustrated how the perfect home tutor can both reform and transform troubled children. The discussion had a deeply powerful impact on the audience.
Mr Caller reflects:
“It was an honour to contribute to the ‘Wealth Wisdom’ panel. It is so important to emphasise the importance of providing a world-class education for the children who will inherit a future that we won’t be a part of.
"In the context of the recurring themes at the Forum – environmental emergency, Family Office responsibility, investment – the importance of educating young minds is the uniting common denominator. The need for high-quality education underpins all of the thoughts and discussions around our future.
“Tutors International sources high-end, tailored tutors for the next generation of the global elite. We understand that the students who our tutors are educating will go on to be some of the most influential people in the world – that requires the best possible education. Our customised global recruitment process and twenty-plus years of experience mean we are simply the best in the world at finding that first-rate education that is completely personalised for each student and their circumstances. Positioning what we do within the context of world issues and the conversations happening between influential figures from the global elite was an enlightening, affirming and motivating experience.”
Educating for the Future
Ecological Social Governance (ESG) was one of the dominant topics of the two-day programme. In particular, the ecological responsibility of the world’s ultra-wealthy individuals. Chair of the European Climate Foundation, Stephen Brenninkmeijer, set the tone for the Forum with his opening speech on the Tuesday morning. He stressed the importance of the Family Office’s influence on the climate crisis and explained the need to take immediate and positive action. The climate crisis was discussed in conjunction with the theme of wellbeing. The topics of environmentalism and wellbeing share the fact that high-quality education is the key to providing solutions and progress in practice for the challenges presented by each. This places Tutors International and its tailored approach to education in an interesting and exciting position within the wider context of issues faced by UHNW families and the world at large.
A further key theme was the use of philanthropy as investment. Tutors International aligns with this sentiment. In 2020, Tutors International officially launched its Mentorship Programme. The programme supports individuals and causes that align with their educational ethos of providing the freedom to learn in a flexible, supportive, and tailored environment. Drawing on the extensive educational experience of Tutors International’s senior management team, the programme provides advice, financial support, and guidance to select students of all backgrounds who demonstrate aptitude, aspiration, and fortitude. Current mentees are Tobias Zijlstra, who Tutors International sponsored to go to school on a tall ship, and Nampet Sae-Heng, who has been supported by the programme to assist with school fees so that she can reach her full academic potential. The programme has also contributed to Nampet’s work with the Royal Ballet, where she achieved a summer school placement. The programme offers the elite, personalised and extraordinary experiences that a Tutors International education has become renowned for, including getting portrait artist to the Royals, Hazel Morgan, to paint Nampet in her ballet attire. More than a financial sponsorship for schooling, and more than just supporting formal education, the mentorship scheme offers extraordinary life experiences too.
Education and Superyachts
Captain Brendan O’Shannassy of the International Superyacht Society gave a compelling talk about how to make yacht ownership as successful as possible. He listed the broad scope of the professionals that can make up a yacht’s crew: chefs, masseuses, make-up artists, swimming or diving instructors, and many more. One professional he did not mention was the tutor. In a later discussion with Tutors International COO, Victoria Gibbs, he explained his reasoning – the aforementioned professionals come as crew with the boat itself, whereas a tutor is brought on by the family. This is an interesting distinction and one that aligns with Tutors International’s ethos, as they believe that one-to-one tuition should be perfectly matched to the student, the family, the environment and the individual needs and goals of that child. This can only be achieved via the customised recruitment process that Tutors International endorse and implement.
Tutors International launched Sea Tutors specifically for this niche in the private tuition market. Teaching on board a yacht enables tutors to incorporate the ever-changing environment on water and land into their teaching.
Captain O’Shannassy is a consultant for yacht design, so he has to consider the wide-ranging requirements of life on a superyacht and offer his expertise in designing them accordingly. Tutors International urges designers, consultants and yacht-owners to consider a purpose-built classroom in these designs. Having a dedicated space for teaching, alongside a personalised private tutor, makes for an extraordinary learning experience. Account Manager, Joanna Dunckley Phillips is a former Sea Tutor and can attest to the benefits of having a classroom on board the yacht:
“I was very fortunate to have a designated air-conditioned classroom onboard, and was on hand in New Zealand to help provision the classroom with all the resources I needed, including a smartboard! We maintained a good routine and timetabled classroom learning in the mornings and then activities and excursions in the afternoons.
“Teaching on a yacht makes for lots of very memorable moments, but teaching my students about volcanoes and being able to stand on the edge of an active volcano in Vanuatu while it steamed and spluttered, was definitely one of them.”
Tutors International: The Role of Full-Time Private Tuition
Tutors International are a private tutoring company specialising in finding the perfect full-time residential tutor for UHNW families. As well as conducting customised recruitment processes to find perfectly matched tutors for each Client, their ability to innovate in the tutoring market has set them apart from other high-end tutoring companies. Aside from launching ventures like Sea Tutors and the Mentorship Programme, their core function of sourcing high-end tutors is exceptional in itself. The fact that they cater for the specialist requirements of UHNWIs means that they have recruited for micro-school coordinators in the Puerto-Rican mountains, tutors for educating on film sets, specialist SEN tutors, and academic-vocational hybrid tutors who double as sports coaches or performance mentors. This highly specialist service, tailored approach, and exclusive client base earned Tutors International the epithet, ‘the Dom Perignon of tutoring companies’ (The Good Schools Guide).
The Forum gave Adam Caller the opportunity to express the importance and efficacy of personalised private tuition in educating the next generation of global influencers. Tutors International advocates strength-based tuition, where the personal goals of each child and family are incorporated into their learning experience wherever possible. This idea of letting individual talents, goals and values fortify each child's education practically tackles a lot of the issues discussed at the Forum. From prioritising wellbeing and being ecologically conscious to learning how to responsibly inherit and manage wealth, Tutors International’s approach to education can incorporate these aspects into curricula.
Joanna Dunckley Phillips explains:
“Adam’s contributions on the panel and our opportunity to speak with so many interesting people really increased our visibility as an excellent bespoke alternative to a traditional, location-constrained education.”
Connections and Synergy
The Forum opened up numerous opportunities for Tutors International to make meaningful connections. The platform allowed three key opportunities for the Tutors International team: to be educated on how they can position themselves within the most important issues facing UHNWIs and the world more broadly; to utilise their network as a catalyst for collaborations that have the potential to create positive change; and to showcase the nature of what Tutors International does and its expertise in tailored full-time private tuition.
COO, Victoria Gibbs, reflects on the Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum:
“It has inspired us at Tutors International to think about the impactful connections that we could facilitate. It's opened our minds to thinking of ways to introduce our clients to other clients in order to form fruitful professional relationships. Our network already includes extraordinary and influential individuals who can collaborate to become great change-makers. Lord Anthony Tudor St John gave a galvanising closing speech on the Wednesday night, which emphasised that talking is no longer good enough when it comes to making a better future. The Family Office and its adjacent industries are responsible for taking action. If we can help forge the connections that will result in tangible change, we too have to step up and take action.”
Various disciplines, professions and companies were present, and were advocating the practice of collaboration and synergy to make positive change: Francesca Agostinelli spoke on the importance of developing women in entrepreneurial roles; Kai Chen from True North advocated deploying capital for social impact; Amin El-Gazzar from Yieldster spoke on the future of implementing blockchain technology for Decentralised Finance (DeFi); Journeys With Purpose explained how they are reinventing ecotourism in a way that promotes an exchange of knowledge between Amazonian natives and their company, as opposed to imposing Eurocentric ideals upon foreign land. In all of these synergetic ventures, education and creative thinking are the motivating forces.
Adam Caller concludes, “the Forum was an exceptional two days. It was a privilege to be the only representative from the education sector. I am looking forward to an ongoing involvement with Prestel & Partner.”
Mr Caller and Tutors International have already committed to a 30-minute slot at the next London-based Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum, which will take place in 2022.
Tutors International has always been more than just a tutoring company. Its commitment to inventive and rigorous academic excellence has been combined with projects like the mentorship programme, philanthropy, the tailored approach to tuition, sea-tutoring and other unique ventures, to earn itself a reputation for being an esteemed voice in global education. More than that, the Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum helped Tutors International's team realise its potential to serve as a nexus in facilitating collaborations amongst the world’s most wealthy and influential people. It consolidated the importance of the role of education in underpinning the most pressing issues of the modern world, from environmental crises to personal and financial wellbeing. The forum also provided a platform for Tutors International to showcase the exceptional nature of what they do, and why personalised private tuition has positioned itself as a significant and contemporary practice within the context of educating for the future.
