New House

Haig Simonian died on February 3rd at the age of 67, as his family announced in an obituary in the Neue Züricher Zeitung.

Born in 1955, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. After completing his PhD with a dissertation on The Privileged Partnership: Franco-German Relations in the European Community 1969-1984, he briefly worked as an investment banker before turning to journalism. From 1984 he worked first as a business editor for the Economist, then in 1987 he went to Frankfurt as a correspondent for the Financial Times. After that, he worked in Milan and Paris.

In 1999 he moved to Berlin as the leading German correspondent for the Financial Times, and from the end of 2003 he worked in Zürich as Switzerland and

Austria correspondent. He retired from journalism in the summer of 2012 and worked as a freelance writer. He had extensive experience in broadcasting and as a conference leader and wrote a monthly column for the NZZ am Sonntag, he also appeared regularly on German, French and Italian-speaking Swiss radio and television as well as in Germany and Great Britain.

He was also Co-President of the BritishSwiss Chamber of Commerce (BSCC) based in Zürich. The British Chamber of Commerce paid tribute to Simonian in a separate obituary as a person who brought a breath of fresh air to the BSCC with wit and brains.

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Whilst not necessarily always enjoying his time at Foremark Hall and Repton, he always held an interest and we would often talk about his time at school and his contemporaries.

After leaving Repton he qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CPA) with Hodgson, Harris and Co. in Hull (now part of PWC). He then attended Trinity College Cambridge as a mature student and following that he joined his father, Harold Needler, in the family business Hoveringham Gravels Ltd., together with various family companies in the UK and Canada. Among recent projects is the creation of Kingswood’s mixed-use development in Hull. After the early death of his father in 1975 he became a Director of Hull City Football Club until its sale to David Lloyd in 1997.

He then moved to live in Monaco where he is survived by his wife, Delphine, and stepdaughter Loulou.

4th September 1944 – 19th December 2022

Christopher sadly passed away on Monday, 19th December.

Having been diagnosed with ALS - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease - about three years ago, he gradually deteriorated until he was wheelchair-bound for about the last 15 months. Fortunately, he did not lose his ability to speak and certainly retained his memory.

Martin