Alumnus of the month
Introduction
Phil Ward studied Classics (as it was then called) from 1963 to 1966. After a PGCE year at
Nottingham University, he spent the next 30-odd years in two large companies in the
private sector, first in Personnel Management (now called HR), secondly in Corporate
Affairs. He retired (early!) in 2003, and now lives in Devon with his wife Judith. He has two
daughters and five grandsons.
Phil Ward at UCL in 1965
Career paths post UCL
After my degree “a good 2 (i)”, with alphas in both special subjects – Greek Art and
Archaeology, I was unsure about my next step. Teaching was an obvious route; the PGCE
year demonstrated that it was not for me. I enjoyed the primary school teaching practice,
and, at an independent school, teaching sixth formers Greek and Latin. However, teaching
25 fourth formers, none of them keen to learn Latin (“what’s the point of learning a DEAD
language, SIR?”) rather deterred me. In addition, as a working class lad I was not exactly at
home in the privileged realms of public schools – and even in the sixties ‘Classics’ was
beginning to disappear from the state school sector. Sadly that decline has continued.
I chose industry instead, and joined Rolls-Royce (Aero Engines) because it was one of the
few companies which seemed to take arts graduates seriously. Initially I spent six months in
the apprentice training school, requiring me to master milling and grinding machines, lathes,
drilling machines and the like; I’d always been pretty practical, so I enjoyed this phase. In
parallel I did a day-release Diploma in Management Studies, and attended courses on aero
engines – Newton’s third law of motion and all that. I then spent time in several different
departments, an introduction to the business world. A more vivid introduction to the
business world then followed - I spent the next two years as P.A. to the Managing Director.
A degree in Classics does not prepare one specifically for writing speeches for the Managing
Director of an international engineering company. I worked for the MD from when he
received his knighthood to helping him clear his desk as he ‘resigned’ just over two years
later- an early lesson in ‘rise and fall’. I left soon after the company went into receivership in
1971, keen to pursue a career in Personnel – I had always had an interest in how people
interact, and what makes them tick. I joined a small (3,500 people) but ambitious dairy
company, and there built my career as the business expanded. By the 1990’s we had grown
to be a major food manufacturer, a FTSE 100 member, with a £2 billion turnover and over
30,000 employees across the UK and Ireland. I covered most aspects of Personnel, (graduate
recruitment, senior recruitment and head hunting, management training, salaries and
benefits, industrial relations, performance appraisal, community affairs, and diversity/ equal
opportunities) and I then spent 12 years as Group Personnel Executive. After this I moved to
head up Corporate Affairs, embracing Public Relations and handling the media; producing
the Annual Report and Annual Review for shareholders; internal communications and the
in-house newspaper; relationships with external organisations, government ministers and
politicians, quangos and think tanks; community involvement; and corporate social
responsibility. I also continued my responsibility for diversity, supporting many national
initiatives on race, gender and disability as well as introducing new policies into the
company.
What I most liked about my career
With Baroness Valerie Amos, fellow Runnymede Trustee, 1996
Looking back on my career, the diversity/equal opportunities responsibilities were the most
rewarding; I also enjoyed leading the company’s charitable giving and community
involvement. I was a trustee of several charities, including the Runnymede Trust and Oxfam
– with whom I went to Malawi in 1989 and Ethiopia in 2001 with Oxfam Chairman Lord
Joffe.
Phil Ward with Oxfam in Malawi, 1989
My first ever job
Scrubbing out huge beer barrels at Home Breweries in Nottingham during the vacations –
almost fun. Before then, from my early teens, I worked voluntarily on a farm in Derbyshire –
very definitely fun. I learned everything from how to milk cows to how to drive a tractor; at
fourteen I wasn’t heavy enough to depress the clutch without standing up. I am now.
My favourite job
As above, my involvement in initiatives to support minority groups was particularly
satisfying. For example, I was a member of the Corporate Responsibility Group Board, and
led a project to help disadvantaged young people to gain experience or qualifications, or
simply to buy equipment or books, raising £250,000 from the CRG members which we then
awarded to selected individuals. I think we helped change lives.
I also took great pride in establishing, with a friend, Mohammed Ali, a small charity called
QED, aimed at improving opportunities for ethnic minorities in Yorkshire and beyond. Some
25 years on it is still flourishing.
Less altruistically, I did enjoy my time as PA to the MD of Rolls-Royce; I had to learn very
quickly, and the role was high profile – the adrenalin flowed often. I never knew, as I went in
to the office, what would hit me –though tasks could vary between “get this letter to
General Ziegler in Sud Aviation, by this evening” (plane to Paris within hours), to checking
that the boss’s brief case had everything he might need before a trip to the USA, right down
to spare shoe laces.
In what way did your studies help with your subsequent work?
In a whole variety of ways, but primarily around a) an ability (I hope), to research and obtain
information, to process it effectively in a logical order, and then to write convincingly. And
b) to understand people, how they interact, why they behave as they do. Think about Greek
and Latin literature –it’s all about people after all, in all their human frailties and
weaknesses (is that hendiadys?) - jealousy, anger, hate, ambition, pride, insecurity, greed,
and of course hubris!
What do you remember most about your time at UCL?
I’d echo one or two of the other alumni/alumnae, who have suggested that UCL slightly
lacked a sense of cohesion, an over-arching sense of belonging. However, the Classics
Department provided that to a degree, with friends including Johnny Butterworth, Pete
Woodhead, Stu MacNeil, Mira Ghosh, Sue Woodward, and James Willetts. Bentham Hall, in
Cartwright Gardens, where I lived for three years, provided a different sort of base, and a
wider circle. Memories of UCL’s internationally renowned Classics staff also stay with me –
Messrs Webster, Skutsch, Handley, Kells, Winterbottom, Morris and Browning, and the sole
female, Miss Cunningham.
Bentham Hall lounge when the ceiling fell in!
The attractions of London were clear from the outset, but a problem I hadn’t foreseen was
that the costs of travelling to places and events were high, and even on a full grant, and
working every vacation, money was always tight. A major highlight, though, was seeing
Laurence Olivier as Othello at the National Theatre - unforgettable. And working at
Twickenham, thus getting to see international rugby matches for free was great.
Who at UCL has most influenced you?
Professor Webster was a leading Classicist long before I applied to UCL. I was in awe of him.
One to one tutorials were nerve wracking for me, I was painfully aware that he had probably
forgotten (actually, he probably hadn’t, he was possessed of a formidable memory and
intellect) more than I would ever know about Greek literature. I regularly felt that he must
have concluded tutorials with “o tempora, o mores” feelings. But he had very high
standards, and shared with me his love of the subject.
Rather differently, I was greatly influenced by Roger Lyons, President of the Union, who
went on to become a very successful trade unionist. His leadership of UCL’s campaign to
help get Nelson Mandela released was inspirational. I got very involved in Anti-Apartheid
marches through London, ending up in the House of Commons or on other occasions
outside the South African Embassy. In later life, enjoying cocktails inside said embassy, I
admitted to my host that 30 years before I had been demonstrating noisily outside, with
4,000 others. We laughed.
Of what are you most proud about UCL?
Many aspects – its prestigious place in international rankings; its origins as “the godless
institution in Gower Street”, which welcomed all comers; its values and liberal traditions,
from Jeremy Bentham et al – e.g. the first University to allow women students on equal
terms to men; its impressive list of alumni; its regular appearances in the media for leading
edge research across a wide spectrum.
From chats with a recent UCL Archaeology/Anthropology graduate, I have been impressed
by how much UCL has changed since the sixties: the much greater international mix of
students compared to my day is particularly striking.
What is your favourite part of UCL?
My favourite part of UCL has to be the Institute of Archaeology - in Gordon Square, which
was home to the Bloomsbury Group. Coming from Nottingham, from good mining stock, I
revered D H Lawrence, so the Bloomsbury connection was especially fascinating. So much
has changed in the last 50 years, but Bloomsbury in general I loved –the Courtauld Gallery
(where I fell in love, with Monet’s Cap d’Antibes, breath-taking amongst the gloomy old
masters); the British Museum, particularly the Elgin Marbles; and Dillon’s and Foyles – the
latter both amazing and infuriating “imagine Kafka had gone into the book trade”.
Pete Woodhead, Johnny Butterworth and Phil Ward
outside the Institute of Archaeology, 1966
What would improve UCL?
I really don’t know; perhaps trying to develop a more collegiate feel to the university – but
in an institution of 30,000 students, in London, that’s far from easy.
Tell me something about yourself that most people don’t know.
Two things: I’m a budding novelist (still); and I have just turned 70.
With Prime Minister John Major at 10 Downing Street, 1994