Spotlight on... Simon Bralee

What is your role and what does it involve? 

I recently started a secondment role as Senior Communications Officer in VPEE, where I am leading on programme comms for EASE. The EASE programme is an initiative designed to work with each Faculty, to review and improve their Education Administration and Student Experience operations and identify ways to bring more consistency to each department and faculty by reducing variation and improving efficiency. 

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role? 

My previous role was managing communications in Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science (LCCOS). Before this, I worked in research impact at SOAS. During my career in higher education, I have supported different customer groups including students, academic staff and NHS staff. It’s been an inspiring experience to work with so many talented and dedicated people. 

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of? 

Supporting the Library Liberating the Collections Group to produce reading lists linked to key awareness dates. These are great initiatives to inspire people across UCL to read new books, and are also a small part of the important work happening to make the university’s collections more representative.  

I am also cheered to see the work of colleagues across UCL to support important social causes like Library Services’ response to Ukraine. It was led by students and colleagues from SSEES Library, but everyone from senior managers down supported it.  

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list 

As I am still new to the team, my current priority is learning more about the role and meeting people across the university. 

What is your favourite album, film and novel? 

• Currently Harmonielehre by John Adams.
• Smoking / No Smoking is brilliant, although I also have to mention Plein Soleil. Alain Delon is smouldering in this.  
• Strange Heart Beating by Eli Goldstone or The Anathemata by David Jones – both absolute genii working at the top of their fields. 

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)? 

I don’t really have any appropriate jokes, but during a lull in conversation I may pose a conundrum or two for people to solve:  

Riddle me this, 
   a box, no hinge, no lid,  
  look inside 
 golden treasure hid ... 
What am I? 

Who would be your dream dinner guests? 

A dinner party sounds terribly serious, but I like the idea of a Bill and Ted inspired day out to the mall with important historical personages. I would invite: Anubis, the Empress Livia, radical preacher John Ball, Alain Locke, Constance Markievicz and Bob Dylan. It would be great fun and we’d all learn a lot from each other. 

What advice would you give your younger self? 

“A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man”. 

What would it surprise people to know about you? 

I was a member of UCL’s University Challenge Team in 2016. We didn’t get through to the TV rounds that year, but I still like to consider myself part of the team.  

What is your favourite place?   

The Petrie Museum remains a favourite place on campus, full of intriguing items from Egypt and Sudan with complex histories. A particular highlight for me is the small terracotta that may depict the ruler Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (known as "pot-belly”) wearing a diaphanous robe and displaying his ‘juicy’ body.  

I also have a soft spot for a good house museum, so off campus some of my favourite places include the Freud Museum, Handel Hendrix House, Dennis Severs’ House and further afield, Kettle’s Yard.