For our Alumna of the Month interview, we spoke to Simran Mcmullan (nee Sehmi), Director of Licensing – Luxury Brands and New Business at The Walt Disney Company.

Simran studied at Bromley High School between 1983 and 1995, and studied maths, physics, art and design at A-level. She studied BA (Hons) Fashion Communication with Promotion at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design and went on to work at luxury fashion brands including Gucci, Burberry and Michael Kors.

 

Please briefly describe your current role
I am responsible for planning and negotiating consumer product collaborations between Disney Intellectual Properties and a number of luxury fashion brands, across Clothing, Accessories and Homewares. The IPs comprise all of our franchises, from Disney and Pixar to Marvel, LucasFilm and National Geographic.

I work with several lines of businesses within the organisation, in order to create unique product ranges, custom animation and bespoke marketing activations for key licensing partners.

 

How did Bromley High School help shape your future career?
I was able to pursue a variety of design-related interests, both within our scheduled lessons and as extra-curricular activities to begin investigating what really drove my passions. At the time, we had a very enthusiastic Art teacher (Mr. MacPartland) who encouraged us to push the boundaries of our creative ideas and creative thinking.

 

What aspects of Bromley High School did you most enjoy, and find most rewarding?
As someone who is a naturally introverted person, I never felt out of place or that I didn’t have a supportive community around me. It was very easy to find one’s tribe at Bromley High and there were very many diverse personalities within our year to engage with.

There was opportunity to create your own space, your own identity and forge your own distinctive path.

 

What is your favourite memory of being at Bromley High School?
I was involved in organising and participating in the Lower Sixth fashion show. I did everything from persuade the shops in The Glades to lend us clothing and shoes, design the program and tickets and also star in the show. It really brought the whole year together and it was something that was both very creative and a lot of fun. As someone who was never a natural leader, this brought out the bolder side of me and was one of my favourite memories!

 

What value do you get out of your connections with your fellow alumnae?
Having a similar outlook, education and set of common values, has kept many of us bound since we left school in 1995. The relationships we formed at school and our shared experiences at such an important age, keep us rooted in a common sisterhood.

I very much enjoy keeping up with everyone on social media, as well as the monthly Zoom catch-ups that I have with my Bromley High besties!

 

How have you benefited from being part of the wider GDST community?
I believe it is critical to have strong networks in one’s life, whether personal or professional. If you can firstly collect the dots (i.e. make 1-to-1 connections with a broad variety of people), then you can connect the dots (i.e. build beneficial networks, friendships, partnerships).

Collecting dots is something that I have done over the course of my life and there are people from the old girl’s network that I have benefitted greatly from knowing, both as friends, as a support group of fellow working mothers and as colleagues.