Grandfather becomes oldest ever student at The Shard

A 78-year-old grandfather who left a notorious Irish institution with no qualifications has become the oldest person to study for a Doctorate at Warwick Business School’s London base at The Shard.

As the business school celebrates a decade at The Shard, Pat Ward is inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs with his remarkable journey to business success.

Pat came from a broken home and was placed into a Christian Brothers Institution at the age of three where many cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children were subsequently exposed. He remained there until he was 16.

“I left the institution with nothing,” says Pat. “I fled to England to escape the stigma of that place and got a job as a labourer in a steelworks factory. As I came to terms with my new world I began to feel that I could do better than labouring. 

“I dreamed of becoming an electronics engineer so at 18 I joined the Royal Navy in the hope of achieving my dream. They saw my potential and they trained me in electronics.”

After leaving the navy Pat returned to Ireland and in 1985 started his own electronics engineering company, Western Automation Research and Development (WARD). Three years later it was in serious difficulty and 22 people lost their jobs.

“I realised they lost their jobs because of my failure at running a business,” says Pat. “I was an engineer but I knew nothing about running a business so I decided to learn how to.”

Pat enrolled with the Open University (OU) to study for a Diploma in Professional Management.

He adds: “It taught me the key requirements of managing a business.”

With his new skillset Pat revived WARD and went on to take an online Master’s in Management Practice at Trinity College Dublin where he learned how to position his company strategically in a competitive market.

“The OU taught me how to operate a company,”  he says. “Trinity taught me how to think and plan strategically.”

“Prior to my studies with the OU and Trinity I never knew from one year to the next if we’d make a profit. But from 1995 onwards, we never made another loss.”

WARD grew into a global player, competing with electronics giants like Siemens and Schneider. In 2023 Pat sold the company to a US multinational for more than £100 million.

Despite having no qualifications when he left school, Pat has put his amazing business success down to education.

“Don’t let a bad start in life be an excuse for doing nothing,” says Pat, who flies from Dublin to study for his at WBS London at The Shard. “I am proof that if you have ambition, achievement will follow. You just need to give it a go and you’ll be surprised at what you’re capable of.

“I got a lot of help with my business and I want to give something back. I have a wealth of personal experience but I need to broaden my knowledge if I am to help others.”

How a DBA builds the right knowledge

That desire led him to Warwick Business School where he applied to enrol in their Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme.

“I was worried about my age, but Warwick didn’t see the number - they saw the person and accepted me.” says Pat.  “It has been a revelation and I have enjoyed every minute of the DBA programme.”

Pat’s research focuses on identifying early signs of business failure in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He’s tracking 112 companies across the UK and Ireland, trying to understand what pushes some towards failure and how to plan a timely intervention to avoid failure.

Pat, who has two children and three grandsons, has recounted his life story in his biography called The Runner. The book has inspired people from around the world with reviews posted on Amazon from readers in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the US and Canada.

“Everyone has an interesting story to tell and we just need to put it in writing.” says Pat. “My view is that life is a journey. WBS has added a new phase to my journey and I’m embracing it.”

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