REP student delivers inspiring speech
Mith Sivapalan - RREF Dinner Speech
On 18th June 2025, Mith Sivapalan delivered an inspirational speech at the RREF Dinner. As a current Henley Business School student who by attended the RREF Pathways to Property Summer School in 2020 and now receives the AreYou? Bursary, Mith has been supported by RREF in many guises. His speech is below for you to read.
I’m unconscionably fortunate to be the first recipient of the AreYou? Foundation. I’d like to briefly share what it’s meant to me.
Over the past two years, I’ve benefited from Richard’s mentorship, tutelage, I’ve visited his home, and have gotten to know his family.
The award relieved not only my financial concerns, but also that of my mother’s.
The greatest guilt that consumes a parent is the underlying belief that they weren’t able to provide for you as someone else might have. And consequently having to grapple with the possibility that they have conferred to you the same existence they encounter: a life riven with uncertainty, meagre pay and dwindling agency. It’s a life some live, others have witnessed and yet - - all of you have removed it as a possibility for me; for that I am indebted.
Throughout sixth form, I worked two - sometimes three-jobs concurrently. Going to university sounded far-fetched. But I was lucky. I grew up in what was voted the ugliest town in the UK - - Hemel Hempstead. Let’s just say I had a few thoughts. Eventually, my geography teacher, Martin Macdonald, got fed up and he signed me up for Pathways to Property.
I fell into Pathways. Then into work experience at Savills, thanks to RREF. And then I fell into Richard’s bursary. Today, having just finished my second year, I’ll be interning at Principal Asset Management in their European data centre fund. Following that, Kennedy Wilson, underwriting equity and credit investments across the living sector.
My expected outcomes at 16 diverge completely from my reality today. That delta - - is entirely attributable to Richard, RREF and their staff, my university lecturer’s (Christopher and Gianluca), and of course - - all of you.
Thank you for the opportunity. It’s one I intend to pay forward.
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