Read about the Westminster Alumni Award finalists in this category and vote for who you think deserves to win. Voting closes at 11.59pm BST on Monday 20 July.
Vote nowGo to the alumni awards voting form
Finalists
Professor Andrew Pithouse MBE
Business Studies National Diploma, 1965
Professor Andrew Pithouse MBE has made an exceptional contribution to family support and child protection services through his career in higher education. He has published widely and championed innovative research methods such as using multimedia sources with young people. His experimental work on blending cognitive behavioural and values-based training for foster carers is cited internationally.
His work as a ministerial policy adviser in the Welsh Government was pivotal in promoting the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which reshaped social care services. He also initiated Social Care Wales, a new regulatory body, and encouraged policy development and support for the National Adoption Service in Wales. Between 2022–2024 he gathered support for a White Paper proposing a National Care Service for Wales. His work was recognised in the 2026 New Year’s Honours List with an MBE. Now retired, he continues to publish as an Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University.
Filipa de Mira Godinho Grego Leal
Media Studies - Print BA, 2000
Filipa Leal started her career as a journalist in Portugal 25 years ago. She worked across radio, newspapers and television, including writing, reading and presenting on five cultural TV programmes for the national channel RTP2.
She is considered one of the most important Portuguese poets of her generation and has published 16 books, which have been translated and published around the world. She has represented Portugal twice at the Berlin Poetry Festival and one of her poems has been displayed on the Warsaw Metro. In 2016, Filipa participated in a European sound installation at the British Library with the poem Today the Cars Too are Dancing.
She is also a screenwriter and her screenplay for the film Jogo de Damas won Best Screenplay Award at the Cyprus and Copenhagen Film Festivals. She has published several short stories, including Isabel, which has been translated into English.
Jeffrey House
Marketing Diploma, 1974
Jeffrey House was working at Benton & Bowles advertising agency in Knightsbridge when he was studying. He emigrated to San Francisco in 1977 and set up Thames America, importing Fuller’s and Greene King beers to the United States. Fuller’s ESB and London Pride yeast helped stimulate the $15bn American microbrewing industry. Thames America were the first to pour Californian wines at the London Wine Fair in 1982 and imported Taunton’s Dry Blackthorn cider to British and Irish pubs nationwide.
In 1993, he founded ACE Cider in Sebastopol, California, where they opened their first cider pub and garden, helping to revitalise what is now a $2bn US cider market. ACE led the way with fruit ciders and its ACE PINEAPPLE variety became the number one fruit cider in the US. House sold the company in 2021 for $56m and published an autobiography titled The Cider King: How I Aced It! in 2024.
Rakesh Patel
Management Studies PgDip, 2004
Rakesh Patel’s postgraduate studies provided the strategic, financial and leadership foundations that directly enabled a lifetime of achievement within the global rail and metro industry.
Since graduating, Rakesh has delivered sustained impact across five major rail projects of international significance: the Jubilee Line Extension in London; the Dubai Metro Green Line; the Dubai International Airport Automated People Mover; Etihad Rail in Abu Dhabi; and, most notably, the Riyadh Metro.
Rakesh's greatest achievement is his leadership role in managing the Riyadh Metro project from construction through operational readiness to commercial operations. The system was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world's longest fully automated, driverless metro network, spanning 176 kilometres across six lines and 85 stations. His contribution supported one of the most complex urban transport programmes ever delivered.
Rakesh's career demonstrates how postgraduate learning can translate into global leadership, public value and lasting legacy.