Heropreneurs to begin their courses at Warwick Business School

Two of the finalists in this year’s Warwick Business School Bursary Awards run in partnership with Heropreneurs are set to start their courses this month.

Clare Otridge, who leads a specialist research agency operating across the food and agriculture sectors, will embark on the Warwick Executive Diploma in Behavioural Science at WBS London at The Shard. Holly Henderson, a former Royal Navy officer whose passion for sustainability has led her into a role supporting companies in their transition to greener energies, will start the Executive MBA at the University of Warwick campus.

WBS has a long-standing partnership with Heropreneurs, a military charity which, as part of the Forces Employment Charity, supports the business ventures of the Armed Forces community.

“The opportunity to do an Executive MBA couldn’t have come at a better time for my career,” said Holly.

“I recently made a move from primarily public sector roles in defence to a role in the private sector in global energy. The scholarship awarded by Heropreneurs has enabled me to enrol on a really high-quality MBA at Warwick with the sustainability focus I was looking for.”

Looking at the challenges of sustainability within organisations and in the global economy as a whole forms part of a programme that is ranked by the Financial Times as the top Executive MBA in the UK – and the second best globally – for career progression. QS, the global higher education analytics firm, ranks the School's Executive MBA as first in the world for career outcomes.

Holly is confident the two-year programme will help her better understand the new context she is working in. It will also “expose me to a peer group with a broader business perspective and enable me to share my knowledge and experience from the Royal Navy and defence,” she said. 

After completing a degree in Geophysics from the University of Edinburgh, Holly served as an officer in the Royal Navy for 14 years, primarily managing logistics for ships, helicopters and land-based operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East. 

After the Navy she went to Amazon UK as an operations manager before being tempted back to the Ministry of Defence as a civilian. Here, her passion for sustainability led her to work embedding these principles in UK defence forces before she decided to move to the energy and resources sectors – working most recently for Worley Consultancy – to support transitions to lower-carbon technologies and fuels.   

Meanwhile, Clare is hoping the one-year Executive Diploma in Behavioural Science, part of a suite of Executive Education Open Programmes ranked 30th in the world by the Financial Times, will add to her “practical experience of behavioural science” in her role at a research agency.

She leads Grounded Research, one of the only research agencies to operate the length of the supply chain from grower to consumer in the food and agriculture sectors, delivering insight led trends and behavioural analysis. With its roots in a family-run business, and her own career in marketing and branding, the agency works with start-up innovation brands looking to launch, through to the biggest names in food supply, public sector, agriculture and retail.

“The cutting-edge learning and theory I will get from WBS is going to support me in some of the larger projects and the challenges facing food and farming we are working on, as so much of it is focused on behavioural change,” said Clare.

“I look forward to learning with a cohort of other like-minded professionals to enrich the experience and see beyond my own sector too.”

Both Clare and Holly are among six finalists to be shortlisted for the WBS Bursary Awards, which will be announced at the Heropreneurs Awards ceremony at WBS London at The Shard on November 14.

The other four finalists are:

• Richard Da Gama, who served for 15 years in the Grenadier Guards prior to his current role as a director within a consultancy company supporting team performance in complex project environments.
• George McCrea, who has spent 18 years in the Corps of Royal Engineers and is currently working in the field of data analytics, visualisations and business insights.
• Rob Reed, whose path, marked by both military service and personal hardship, now fuels his entrepreneurial drive to reshape the future of personal financial management.
• Mike Wilmot, who, following a 12-year career in the British Army, has spent the past two years driving the adoption of AI in the defence industry.

The first prize winner, whether they are starting or developing a business, or moving on to the next stage of their career in the military or other employment, will receive a 100 per cent scholarship to study on one of the School's MBA or Executive Diploma programmes.

The Heropreneurs Awards Night in November will also honour achievements in other categories including Heropreneur of the Year, Start-up of the Year, Product of the Year and Technology Business of the Year.

Learn more about the Change Makers at Warwick Business School.