Heropreneurs scholars showcase the ROI of an MBA

Warwick Business School are partnering with Heropreneurs in 2026 to offer transformative scholarships for our prestigious MBA programmes, including a 100% scholarship and significant scholarships for runners-up.

We encourage applications from veterans, reservists, and serving personnel from the British Armed Forces and their families at any stage in their careers - find out more about how to apply or take a look at our Heropreneurs funding brochure.

An MBA is more than a qualification - it’s a catalyst for long-term career growth. For WBS alumni and Heropreneurs scholars Jake and Katie, their Warwick MBA helped unlock new opportunities in their careers, from launching successful businesses to securing a book deal.

Jake Ardley - Executive MBA

My time on the Warwick Business School Executive MBA, after winning the Heropreneurs award for a 100% scholarship, was a pivotal bridge between leaving the military, starting at McKinsey, and ultimately my journey into entrepreneurship.

From the Military to McKinsey

Initially, the MBA gave me the academic credibility and commercial fluency to move from the British Army into McKinsey - translating leadership and logistics experience into the language of strategy, finance, and value creation - and leading me onto a promotion and top performance.

Gaining a cross-functional business perspective

But more than this, the breadth of the MBA syllabus gave me what I’d describe as an inch deep, mile wide understanding of how businesses really work: from corporate finance and marketing, to operations, behavioural science and strategy. Perhaps most influential was the freedom to shape my dissertation around entrepreneurship. 

Learning from faculty and peers

The teaching faculty, access to world-class research, and the quality of discussion with my classmates from diverse industries sharpened my thinking and gave me confidence. The combination of theory, community and confidence set the conditions for me to step into my own venture.

Turning insights into action

That venture became Gilded Peaks - a premium British glassware brand that features hand-crafted moulds of the UK’s most iconic mountains inside each glass (in 3D). Inspired by a love of the outdoors and mountains, and the stories tied to places like the Lake District and Eryri, the aim was to create a product that brings memories and meaningful landscapes into people’s homes.

What started as a small idea has grown into six mountain glasses now stocked by over 40 independent retailers and sold to thousands of customers across the UK.

The MBA didn’t hand me a blueprint to entrepreneurship, but it gave me the tools, perspective and confidence to begin.

Katie Muldoon - Global Online MBA

Towards the end of 2021, I took the leap from a corporate job and started my own company. I wanted to combine my military experience, corporate management consulting, and my in-depth psychology studies to offer a new kind of leadership coaching. 

I discovered Heropreneurs whilst I was working with a mentor, and realised that this initiative was offering MBA scholarships at Warwick Business School. 

The whole application process was a real moment of reflection for me, helping me refine my business proposition and cement my motivation for applying. 

After having received a scholarship, I studied the Global Online MBA and acquired such a depth and range of knowledge of key topics in business that I am now able to articulate my business offer in ways that really resonate with my target audiences.

From MBA to book deal

When I began my MBA at Warwick, I never imagined it would lead directly to a book deal. My initial goal was more practical: to test my ideas about leadership, examine the relevance of my value proposition, and explore how my psychodynamic training and military experience might translate into value for contemporary business. What I discovered was far more profound: a clarity of purpose, a refined understanding of the problems I was solving, and confirmation of an appetite for this work.

Refining my thinking on leadership

The MBA became a laboratory. Each module offered an opportunity to refine my thinking, to test hypotheses about the changing nature of leadership and the future of work.

I applied theory to practice, framing the “here and now” challenges organisations face: issues of engagement, adaptability, and identity, while also exploring how they might evolve. My research began to orbit around the intersection of human behaviour, systems thinking, and the psychological undercurrents shaping corporate life. Those ideas eventually became the spine of my book.

Learning from a global community

Equally transformative was the experience of working with peers from diverse sectors and cultures. Conversations with engineers, financiers, entrepreneurs, and public service leaders brought lenses I would never have found on my own. 

Finding strategic clarity and confidence

The largest gift of the MBA, though, was clarity. Through rigorous reflection and constant testing, I was able to answer the most vital strategic question: What problem am I really solving, and for whom?

Once I understood that, once I could articulate how organisations could harness psychodynamic insight to navigate the complexities of modern business, particularly in an age of AI, the book started to emerge. I became confident in pitching the idea to a Publisher, and I am now submitting the first draft to my editorial team. 

From insight to impact

Looking back, the MBA was not a detour from practice but a distillation of it; a bridge between experience, theory, and purpose. It gave me the tools to test my thinking, the community to challenge it, and the confidence to share it. The result is more than a book; it’s the expression of an integrated journey, from the military to psychology, through business, into authorship, each stage building on the next.

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