Henley Alumni Stories - stories from our community
Pamela Gardner, a postgraduate business student at Henley Business School, reflects on a lifelong learning journey defined by curiosity, professional growth, and continued contribution beyond retirement.
It is debatable whether my atypical experience will be of value shared: study has always come from a curiosity stimulated interest, not career advancement. And business study came at the end of my professional career, whereas others may find such study invaluable at the start. In brief, (after several youthful years in the Civil Service and a career break when children came along) I studied and qualified in dietetics, followed by post-grad study in health promotion. My final post (before officially retiring, 1997) was as a manager of a health promotion service in a university, NHS hospital trust.
Our contracts included those outside of the NHS. Hence, the particular path of post-grad study of business with Henley. It was distance-learning, but I was fortunate in having the Director of Finance as my mentor, with whom to discuss the study material. Important lessons learnt were the need to satisfy, as far as possible, multi stakeholders (for example, in food everyone is a stakeholder); collaboration is vital in setting and achieving goals; and good communication is paramount (mixed messages had been the early trigger for my own study of nutrition - and then the academic study of dietetics).
The learning continues to enhance post-retirement activities. These have included voluntary work with Citizens Advice. Currently, I have a voluntary role as a member of the FSARoS (Food Standards Agency, Register of Specialists) for a singular topic. I continue to write (mostly under the name Pamela Theophilus Gardner - Theophilus being my maiden name), sometimes for pleasure, sometimes out of a sense of responsibility to make use of the opportunities offered. Undoubtedly, learning has a continued relevance.
What is one piece of advice you would share with a current student at Henley to inspire them in their career journey?
Insights gained will always be relevant, even if not fully appreciated at the time of learning.
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