On the morning of September 11, 2001, under clear blue skies, terrorists from Al Qaeda carried out unprecedented attacks by hijacking planes. They targeted the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, as well as the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane, believed to be aimed at the Capitol building in Washington, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit, overpowering the hijackers. The events of the day marked a profound shift in our world.

During this eventful morning, OC Alistair Lester C92, then a 27-year-old working for Aon, was in New York for the first time. He was attending meetings at the Aon offices located on the 100th floor of the South Tower.

At 0903, approximately 20 minutes after the initial plane struck the North Tower, a second Boeing 767 appeared in the sky, sharply turning towards the World Trade Center, and collided into the South Tower above the 70th floor.

Aon tragically lost 176 employees in the attack, but remarkably, many survived, including Alistair Lester.

Now, twenty three years later, Alistair (currently Co-CEO of M&A at Aon) has graciously agreed to share his experiences of 9/11 with a large audience at Canford's Festival of Ideas for only the second time in public. None of our current pupils were born at the time but he believes it's vital for them to hear firsthand what it was like to be at the epicenter of an attack that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and profoundly impacted world history. The events of 9/11directly led to the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. declaration of the 'War on Terror', and subsequently, the invasion of Iraq, triggering a series of tumultuous events and conflicts worldwide which arguably continue to this day.　

We are immensely thankful to Alistair for accepting this opportunity to talk and hope you can join us.