I left school at sixteen and didn’t think university was for me. I was the first person in my family to go to university, but my wife had studied, and I was around a lot of people who had been to university, which opened my eyes to it.” 

Anthony was living in the United States at the time, but decided to return to Ealing to study a humanities degree. 

I chose my course because of the variety. I could study psychology, history, English, and wound up focusing on organisational psychology. 

I knew it was the arts I wanted to do, rather than tech, and my course gave me a flavour of everything.” 

After graduation, Anthony moved into consulting, where he worked with large companies in change management around large technology programmes. 

Organisational psychology had given him an interest and the requisite skills to help get the best out of people. His wife was working for a large company at the time, securing him an interview for a post that saw him travelling around the world, visiting the US, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Singapore and Chester. 

It was at this point that Anthony was headhunted by major consulting company PwC, where he has been working for the last twenty five years. Throughout all this time, Anthony has not forgotten the skills that he learned at UWL. 

There was a simple set of steps to lead me where I am, but I was always keeping the skills I developed in psychology as part of the way I work. 

I had taken some risks around the technology I’d learned about. It was the right time, and I was well supported, was very fortunate that I had a rare set of skills  that PwC were looking for. But also, I had the kind of attitude that I wouldn’t let anyone stand in my way. I felt like I wanted to prove myself.” 

At PwC, Anthony works as a Global Client Partner, looking after a major pharmaceutical company’s public sector practice. He has also recently been appointed as the Global Health Leader across the PwC. 

I’m not the kind of person who always has a plan, but I surround myself with great people and back them to be successful and to challenge me. I always envied my friends who had plans. 

If I look back, it’s always clear where I am heading, but at the time I didn’t know. Really, I was just saying yes instead of no. 

You can think yourself into something, rather than out of it. And I asked for help, and I worked hard.” 

Throughout this journey, Anthony has faced several challenges. One significant one was mixing with people who have a lot more experience than him in various fields, especially considering his working-class background. 

In the end, everything is about people. We think it’s about AI or tech or oil, but all of these things are about humanity, society, people. The focus needs to be on caring about people, including people, getting the best out of people. I’ve always tried to keep that as part of the core of what I do. You know, just trying to be a normal human being.” 

Anthony also sadly lost his wife seven years ago, which helped him to develop  a resilience, he focused on keeping moving forwards, caring for people, caring for himself and not taking it all too seriously. 

Humility is important. You must have the confidence to listen to people, to learn from people and to admit that you don’t always have the answers. 

Embrace the new - be curious about how things are changing, and always be looking for the next thing. I have an impatience to get onto the next thing, and that’s always helped me.” 

Even though Anthony is now looking towards retirement, he is always thinking about the next opportunity. 

I am still pushing myself. I expect a lot of myself. But my eye is on the future, I want to travel a bit, spend a bit more time on me rather than clients and colleagues, I’m continuing to learn, continuing to develop. 

I’m really proud of where I got to from where I started. I describe myself as a bit of an outlier. If you go back to the council estate that I grew up on, you wouldn’t expect to be where I am now. So, I’m proud of that journey, more than the destination.”