Standard’s man keeps it in the family as stepson gets on banking’s first rung

An Evening Standard distributor today spoke of his pride after his stepson won an apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs.

John White, who gives out the paper at Oxford Circus, and his stepson Jack Saunders now both have jobs linked to the Standard.

Jack featured in the paper on Friday, and Mr White spent the day handing out copies, telling commuters to read his stepson’s story. Mr White, 51, said: “The fact that I work for the Standard and Jack got his job through the Standard is amazing. I told the guys I work with and some customers stopped me to say they had read it.”

Jack, 18, started work yesterday. His apprenticeship is one of hundreds created as part of our Ladder for London campaign.

He underwent training with the Standard’s campaign partner City Gateway before beginning his “life-changing” stint with the investment bank’s corporate services and real estate team.

He said: “My stepdad was proud that I was in the paper, let alone being proud that I got the job. My mum and all my family were too.” Jack was helped by City Gateway after searching for a job for five months. He moved to Spain with his family at the age of 10, but when he came back to the UK at 15 his GCSEs suffered.

Goldman Sachs was first to sign up to Ladder for London, offering 10 places for a year. “When I heard I was in at Goldman’s, I felt like I had jumped on three or four planets and then floated back to earth,” said Jack. “What a rush!

My stepdad is over the moon, too, not least because it happened through the Standard. It’s one of those really weird coincidences.”

Mr White has been working outside Benetton at Oxford Circus for more than three years and has seen first-hand the increase in the Evening Standard’s popularity since it went free in 2009.

He said: “Previously I’d sell about 250 papers in five hours. Now I get through 4,000 in four hours.”