Great Scot April 2019 Great Scot_156_April_2019_Online | Page 90

OSCA
LEFT TO RIGHT: SIMON MGREGOR (’85), CHESTER HART (’98), ADRIAN LI (’09), WILL TANDERS (’09), ASHLEY VIDINOPOULOS (’98)
After 21 years at the Bar, SIMON
MCGREGOR (’85) has been appointed as a
Coroner. He now leads a multidisciplinary legal
and scientific team who look for prevention
opportunities amid Victoria’s unexpected or
unexplained deaths. During his time at the Bar,
Simon has appeared in a range of matters,
including the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and as
counsel assisting the Coroner in a number of
inquests.
Congratulating Simon on his appointment,
the then Victorian Attorney-General, Martin
Pakula said Simon was a barrister with extensive
experience, who will be a valuable addition to
the Coroner’s Court of Victoria. In his welcome
speech at the Court, Simon paid tribute to early
mentors JACK WINNEKE (‘56) and GEOFF
CROXFORD (‘66). Simon and his partner, Dr
Julie Debeljak, have two boys at Scotch: Giles
in Year 6 and Mac in Year 8.
CHRIS WINNEKE QC (‘85) is counsel
assisting the Royal Commission into the
Management of Police Informants. The Royal
Commission is due to report its findings before
December of this year.
Chris’ father, JACK (‘56) was President
of the Court of Appeal, his grandfather SIR
HENRY (‘25) was Governor of Victoria, and his
great-grandfather, HENRY (1893) was a Judge
of the County Court. Chris’ wife is Supreme
Court Justice Jane Dixon.
1990s
CHESTER HART (‘98) has published his
first book, Screwed – A Prison Story. After
school and studying for a degree, Chester spent
many years working in Japan, where he met
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Great Scot Number 156 – April 2019
and married Tomomi in Kyoto and completed
a Masters degree in the environment from
RMIT. He returned home and started work as
an Environmental Officer at Dhurringile prison.
Dhurringile is 160km north of Melbourne, near
Murchison.
Chester’s book is fiction, based on his
experiences working in Dhurringile prison, a
workplace and an environment very few people
get to encounter. In partnership with his school
friend, NICK ROBSON (‘98), Chester has also
established a website for people to practise
other languages. Chester, Tomomi and their two
children live in Euroa, and Chester has his own
website: https://chesterhart.com.
ASHLEY VIDINOPOULOS (‘98) is a
chartered civil engineer with postgraduate
qualifications in renewable energy. Ashley is
currently based in Singapore, and is working on
several infrastructure projects across South-
East Asia.
He told Great Scot ‘My principal work is
as a consultant, mostly in procurement and
planning major infrastructure projects, and I have
worked outside Australia for about five years.
In particular, I’ve had some great experiences
in railway construction, maintenance and
operations. I’m proud to say I’m still great friends
with a number of old Scotchies.’ Ashley married
Minh in 2015.
2000s
ADRIAN LI was co-Dux of Scotch in
2009. He went on to study engineering at
the University of Cambridge, specialising
in Electrical and Information Sciences, and
received his BA (Hons) and MEng in 2014.
Adrian also spent a year on exchange at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
where he conducted award-winning robotics
research as part of MIT’s Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He
now lives in San Francisco, California, where
he works as a software engineer in robotics at
X, the ‘moonshot factory’ of Google’s parent
company, Alphabet.
Adrian has co-authored several papers
that have appeared in international robotics
conferences and journals, and is an inventor
on six unpublished patent applications.
In his spare time, Adrian enjoys hiking and
rock climbing around the Bay Area, as well as
singing with Resound Ensemble, a chamber
chorus based in San Francisco.
After leaving Scotch, WILL TANDERS
(‘09) returned to Singapore for two years’
military service, during which he trained as an
air warfare officer and as a combat medic. He
travelled in China and Indonesia, learning the
languages, then he came back to Melbourne to
study for a Bachelor of Science degree at the
University of Melbourne. He took six months
off, learning to sail, but is still working on his
Yachtmaster qualification. Deciding to take up
teaching, Will completed a Master of Teaching
degree, also at Melbourne University, and taught
Chemistry, Biology and General Science at two
schools while finishing a Diploma of Education.
Next he decided to study dentistry, and
is now in third year DDS, back at Melbourne
University. Teaching is still a longer-term
prospect, and Will plans to complete a Master
of Teaching degree, simply because he loves
teaching. In his spare time, Will enjoys traditional
rock climbing, growing herbs and playing music.