Alumni stories: Changing lanes with Adam Parr

How motor racing boss Adam Parr found a new direction through UCL.

At the age of 48, Adam Parr signed up to do a PhD at UCL. Given he’s best known as the former chief executive and chairman of the Williams Formula One team, this may seem surprising. But Adam has never let himself be defined by any one role. 

In fact, he has fearlessly forged his path through different industries – pursuing his passions and taking opportunities which have come his way, provided they fit with his personal outlook. “I don’t want to do stuff for the sake of it,” he says. “If in five years time I can look back and say, I’ve made a real difference then I’ll be very happy. That’s my number one goal.” 

Variety is the ...

Adam embraces change. Since graduating from Cambridge University in 1987, he’s held top positions within the fields of investment finance, law and sport, and now, education. 

Starting his career with investment bank Barclays de Zoete Wedd in London and Tokyo, Adam then moved to global mining group Rio Tinto, where, over 11 years, he worked in senior executive, operational and corporate positions across London, Australia and South Africa. During this time he also undertook his law training at the Inns of Court School of Law – now known as The City Law School – in London. 

In 2006, Adam was approached by Sir Frank Williams CBE, founder and team principal of the Williams Formula One team, to take over as chief executive and chairman, leading a team of around 500 people. A curveball for sure, but a challenge Adam relished. 

“When I’m asked what’s been my favourite role in my life so far, it’s difficult,” he says. “I always enjoy what I do but I think running a Formula One team is top of the list. Not for the obvious reasons, but because it’s actually really rough stuff – it’s brutal!

“The downside is that you’re very much in the public eye – it’s like having a job review every two weeks in front of up to 80 million people. I used to come home and my grandparents used to say ‘well you did a pretty lousy job last weekend’. And they’re in their nineties!”

In 2012, Adam left Williams, inspired to tell the world about his experiences. He wrote The Art of War – Five Years in Formula One and co-authored Total Competition – Lessons in Strategy from Formula One with Ross Brawn.

A passion for learning

After 25 years of working, Adam took a year out to assess his next move. He’d always loved learning and after a fortuitous conversation with his former Cambridge tutor, Professor Lisa Jardine, Adam decided it was the perfect time to pursue a PhD. 

Lisa was in the process of moving to UCL, so Adam decided to join her here and take his PhD in eighteenth-century history and literature. He says:

“To be able to do something which just depends on you and your brain is very liberating, challenging and fun. If at some point in your career you find yourself with some time and money, then just do it. It’s a wonderful experience – especially at UCL! Choosing a good subject and having great supervisors are really important factors though. In this case, UCL had the ideal make-up.”

Lisa sadly died of cancer in 2015 – just two months before Adam was due to submit his PhD thesis. “Lisa was an amazing supervisor and overall we had 30 years of friendship. If I take any advice from her it’s to listen to your supervisors on every angle of your work. Lisa also insisted that you write first and then discuss your work, which forced me to put pen to paper.” 

Adam has always felt a strong connection to UCL so any time he’s been able to give back to the community, he’s taken the opportunity. In 2018, he was part of a panel for the UCL Connect: Engineering the Future event, and spoke to students about the factors that are shaping careers in this vibrant sector. 

As he wasn’t able to attend the graduation ceremony for his undergraduate degree, Adam was delighted when he was asked to graduate and at the same ceremony speak to the 250 students graduating in September 2019. Giving up his time to inspire new graduates at the ceremony, Adam describes as being both a pleasure and an honour.

To maintain his involvement with UCL into the future, Adam has been keen to lend his skills to our new Strategy for a Sustainable UCL. He says: “I’ve been involved in thinking about sustainable development and climate for years, and there’s such an amazing community here at UCL for climate action. I’m hoping there are going to be more opportunities to take people’s research from around the university and make it happen.” 

Change is about people

One of the questions that Adam gets asked the most is: how can you step from one industry to another? His answer is that it’s all about your network. 

“If there’s something you’re interested in, find someone who’s in that world and ask them how they got into it,” he says. “It’s about learning what people enjoy about their job. And if you get on really well with the individual, you might find that they naturally ask you about working in their field or for the company they work in.” 

For any person looking to change their career path, Adam also believes in being realistic about the concept of the ‘ideal job’. He says: “It probably doesn’t exist. So when it comes to changing points in your career, try to get lots of offers then choose between them, instead of waiting for your ideal job to arrive.”

Looking to the future

Adam is currently at a transitional point himself. Recently, he published his third book based on part of his PhD, The Mandate of Heaven – Strategy, Revolution, and the First European Translation of Sunzi’s ‘Art of War’ (1772). He says: “I think it’s an amazing story – a priest writing a book on strategy and why he did it, how he did it and the impact. He changed the course of history as a result.” 

He’s also been working as an adviser for global resources company BHP, investing in technology start-ups – including four spin-outs from the University of Oxford – and teaching at the University of Western Australia’s business school.

Work is never really typical for Adam Parr. Above all though, he sees himself as an active participant in the fight against climate change. He says: “I feel like if climate isn’t your day job, it should be your afternoon or evening job. It’s not going to get addressed if people don’t do things differently... or stop doing things. So I think we really have to get our minds around the fact that it’s a time of change. We need urgent action, so perhaps the F1 experience will help.”

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