On 20th February 2015, St Louis High School had the honour of receiving an inspiring presentation from the young Scottish entrepreneur Fraser Doherty. Fraser is the CEO of the international food company SuperJam, and in our high school building the students had the opportunity to hear all about Fraser’s rise to success from the SuperJam owner himself.

In his presentation, Fraser told us all about how his business was formed off of his own grandmother’s recipe, and how he grew from a schoolboy cooking and selling jars of jam on doorsteps to a now experienced owner of a well-known international company. We were given an insight into countless other business projects that Fraser is currently working on, as well as an understanding of how SuperJam is continuing to develop. A highlight of the presentation was when we were told that Fraser was the youngest ever supplier to a major supermarket chain when he started supplying shops with his jam at the young age of 16!

Students also took part in a challenge set by Fraser to come up with a new Superjam idea. The finalists then had the opportunity of pitching their idea on a one to one basis with Fraser.

Congratulations to the shortlisted students:

Marcelo di Gregorio, Eduardo Curti, Geneva Ferrari, Virginia Gofferdi, Christian Erba, Viola Varinella, Veronica Petrone, Ricardo del Sasso, Shalini Ranasingha, Maleesa Sepani and Jesmin Joseph

It was very difficult for Fraser to choose a winner as he was extremely impressed with the standard of the presentations and ideas. The winning entries, which won a signed copy of Fraser’s book, were Marcello di Gregorio and Shalini, Maleesa and Jesmin. Congratulations to you and enjoy making the jam.

Fraser’s visit was informative as well as highly entertaining, and all of us can take a great deal of inspiration from his presentation and advice. On behalf of the school community I would like to thank Fraser himself for giving us his time to share his story, and also Mr. Bartlett and Mrs Vescovi for organising this event.