New Years Honours for Michael Delaney, Class of 1977

Old Waconian, Michael, left CHS in 1977 to complete a degree in Geography at University College London. In June 1980, he obtained a place as a trainee Chartered Accountant with Deloitte but asked to defer start to July 1981 so he could have a “gap year”. After spending 6 months travelling around Brazil he fell in love with the country. Fast forward to 2025, he is an Honorary Consul based in Porto Belo, Santa Catarina, Brazil and has been recognised in the New Year Honours list for his work in the country.

We caught up with Michael to find out how it felt to be recognised with an MBE. "I think that having been out of the UK and the British way of life for so long, I didn’t realise the full significance of the award until I started receiving congratulations from friends iand relatives back in England. It was their generous words of praise and acclaim that really made it all sink in! When your work is doing things you really love, as I am lucky mine has been, you tend to focus on the enjoyment of the journey, rather than the attainment of the destination, and so to be recognised with an MBE redresses the balance between these complementary drivers of my career and life adventure in Brazil."

Former teachers are often name-dropped as inspiring our Old Waconians in their future endeavours. This was certainly the case here. "I think that my interest in geography, nurtured and developed throughout my CHS years by my inspiring Geography teacher, Ian ‘Noddy’ Ray definitely gave me itchy feet and a voracious appetite to explore new lands and new cultures. I should also mention that studying languages at CHS (including O Levels in Ancient Greek and Latin!), without doubt, not only helped me to master the Portuguese language here in Brazil, but also gave me a solid understanding of how language, particularly grammar, actually works – invaluable in my chosen field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) - thanks are due to Mrs Moore and Mr Greenhalgh for that!"

Michael also sent a message for pupils attending our recent Let's CHat: International Careers event...