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advice and they said, ‘It’s about your experience and commitment, so why not apply here?” As one of the older students, she worked flat out to fit study and formal classes two nights a week around her job. “You have to be bonkers to do an MBA like this,
profile of the Commission to a much wider audience, so that people realise what we do. It’s very much what I’ve done in the past – taking a brand and elevating it to a level that it deserves.” As a non-profit organisation funded by six Commonwealth
volunteering to defend their nation, and their stories need to be told.” As well as raising brand profile, she aims to secure funding to maintain graves long into the future. “My challenge is how to ensure that people continue to support us, that these graves and memorials are
If you’re looking to super charge your career, our in-person or online MBA programmes will enhance your leadership skills as well as your earning potential. The Warwick MBA
but many of us were in the same boat and we all wanted to learn.” What kind of a student was she? “A last-minute one – that’s why I don’t have an MBA with honours! I didn’t have as much time to study as much as I would have liked. I ran a large organisation operating 18 hours a day, seven days a week, lived 60 miles from Warwick and I spent most of the rest of
maintained to levels that they are today.” While promoting peace isn’t part of the charity’s remit, it can play a role in revealing the human cost of war. “How can we play our part in trying to educate wider audiences on the perils and consequences of war? It’s timely to think about that.” Her greatest professional achievement is her turnaround of Battersea, now one of the top 10 best-known
my time driving there and back.” Modular work during the second year suited her much better. “Being able to leave work to one side for a whole week’s residential, and all the focused working on problems together, was brilliant.” She honed her management style at Warwick, and today makes it look easy. “I’m afraid it isn’t – it’s harder than it sounds. I have to work at it like everybody else. But learning to be a better manager is something we all should do. “You are never going to be all things to all people, but you can show you have integrity, and promote a positive culture where people can develop. They start to realise their potential and do the same with their own teams. Then the whole organisation lifts.” Claire has big plans for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which she joined in January 2021. “The challenge is getting the
governments, the Commission commemorates 1.7 million men and women who died in the first and second world wars, operating on 23,000 sites across 153 countries. “We look after some of the world’s most iconic memorials and manage those big military cemeteries with the gorgeous white headstones, that everyone recognises. But most people don’t know who owns or cares for them. “It’s a challenge to get that out more widely, especially to future generations, to ensure the sacrifices of nations are never forgotten.” Claire looked up the history – the Commission has a vast database – of the tiny Lancashire village that she comes from, to discover two of her own family members who died in the world wars were marked by war graves in the local cemetery. “If we look back in our own families and communities, you’ll probably find someone who lost their life – these are ordinary people, mostly conscripted or
UK charities where volunteer numbers have soared, and the charity has achieved international clout. Transformational growth and “waking sleeping giants” is her ‘thing’. But, on a personal level, it’s her graduation from WBS that still brings her to tears – her late father and family were able to attend. “And they were as proud of me as I was of myself, as I was the first person in my family to go to university and I never thought I would. “It probably sounds as if I’m sucking up to Warwick by saying this, but my MBA means an awful lot to me. Ultimately, it helped make me the leader that I am.”
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