'Focus on finding your purpose,' inspirational alum tells WBS students

Disability campaigner Sami Dar returned to Warwick to share his inspirational story with students at the University’s summer graduation.

Almost 1,000 Warwick Business School students attended their graduation ceremony this week at the University of Warwick’s Butterworth Hall, with Sami joined by two fellow WBS alumni as speakers: Jeffrey Scott, a former US soldier who held senior leadership positions at Lexus, Jaguar, and Aston Martin; and Payal Jain, a former executive at a FTSE100 bank who now works as a management consultant and chairs the Women in Data global community.

The 959 Warwick Business School Undergraduates and Master’s students also saw eight honorary degrees being awarded, with BBC journalist Clive Myrie, author Tracy Chevalier and YouTuber Colin Furze among them.

Sami overcame numerous challenges to earn a BSc Management from Warwick Business School, before founding the charity 10,000 Able Interns to create more employment opportunities for fellow disabled students.

A brain injury when he was born left Sami with cerebral palsy, but he encouraged the new graduates to focus on finding their purpose, rather than comparing themselves to their peers.

He said: “I found it challenging to live independently and balance things like academia, job applications, my social life, and extracurricular activities.

“I felt like I was falling behind my peers when it came to my professional development. They would submit endless applications and I would struggle to put in more than 10.

“My advice would be, don’t compare yourself to others. When I was working on the charity alongside a full-time job, my friends had much more glamorous jobs than me, but I knew my time would come.”

Closing the disability employment gap

As a wheelchair user, Sami found opportunities were limited.

He said: “I noted that other students were able to access opportunities in the workplace that I couldn’t, even though we’re equally capable.

“I saw that rates of disabled graduates entering the workplace were disproportionately low. I felt as if there was a need for a process that would better streamline applications for disabled students.”

This idea inspired Sami to set up his own charity to help other disabled students who faced similar challenges to him and 10,000 Able Interns was born.

The charity has helped more than 300 students with disabilities to access professional work placements at some of the world’s biggest companies.

Sami left students with the message: “Don’t let your ambition deprive you of the joys of the world. We don’t live to work, we work to live.”

Using AI to do things differently

Payal Jain, who graduated in 2000 with an MSc Management Science and Operational Research, is a Managing Director at JCURV, a management consultancy focused on enhancing company agility.

“My experience at Warwick has taken me to where I am today,” she said. “The connections I made, the lifelong friends I gained, have given me the platform to do things that I had never dared to dream of.”

Payal, who is also on the Strategic Advisory Committee at auxmoney, was recognised in 2016 as the most influential data professional in the UK by DataIQ and in 2019 she was listed in the HERoes Top 100 Women Executives.

“As the use of AI becomes more widespread, disruption will become the reality,” said Payal. “The characteristics that make us human become more even more important, and the only way we will win is to continuously learn.

“This is not about using AI to get faster; as humans we need to reimagine and learn how to use AI to do things differently.

“My greatest learnings have come from failures; we need to accept that this will become the norm. The small and frequent intentional steps forward need to be celebrated and shared. We need to learn not to be afraid."

The value of an MBA at Warwick

As a 17-year old US soldier, Jeff Scott first came to Europe as part of NATO before moving into the car industry, reaching senior leadership positions at the likes of Jaguar, Aston Martin and now Ford. 

“I could have never planned this journey or foreseen the true value I gained from the University of Warwick,” said Jeff who gained an MBA at Warwick Business School 20 years ago.

“Together with my amazing wife, we opened and operated our own Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Jeep dealerships. In an exciting career that led me from Tokyo to Detroit, from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, from Cologne to Warwick, the only constant in my life was a stack of cardboard boxes in the cellar. But what an amazing adventure it has been.” 

He added: “Through your studies, you have the tools, the knowledge and the energy to do anything you put your mind to. Think of your future challenges as unconfined horizons, and define your path with direction and speed of travel.”

Further reading:

Change maker: Sami Dar is improving inclusion for disabled graduates

Butlin's CEO inspires Warwick graduates with lessons from his MBA journey

School celebrates women's campaigner with Honorary Doctorate