Recently, the same week I turned 62, a colleague of mine commented on an article I’d published saying, “I had no idea you had such a fun background!”. The birthday, and that comment, caused me to reminisce a bit. Yup, I feel like I’ve led one heck of a life! So, I decided to try to sum it up briefly, in a nutshell. (OK, sorry, it’s a little bit bigger than a nutshell):
1. I grew up the son of a world famous sportswriter, Gene Ward, on Long Island and met a whole bunch of amazing sports stars…
(my dad with Muhammad Ali)
2. From 1978-82 I studied acting at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts (I was in the same graduating class as Juliane Moore but nowhere near as talented) and got my Equity Card as an intern at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
3. Returning to Boston, I directed my first play as a professional The Blood Knot – about two brothers of different races – by the prodigious South African playwright Athol Fugard. We opened the show the same night as what eventually became known as The Langa Massacre and as a result, the interest in our show and its powerful indictment of apartheid, skyrocketed locally.
4. In the early 1980’s I worked as a professional Actor/Director/Writer/Producer in New York City during the 80’s, directing new plays at the 13th St. Repertory Company and Roundabout Theater among others; eventually I became the Associate Artistic Director of the American Shaw (as in George Bernard) Festival (now defunct).
5. In 1986 I fell into a job as a specialist trainer using professional theater to train NYPD officers on how to manage emotionally disturbed persons (EDP’s); the program was considered groundbreaking, and it was the first time I got the sense that my work as an artist could make a real difference in peoples’ lives.
6. In 1988 I moved to the UK, talked my way into serving as a theater and film critic for the new broadsheet newspaper Scotland on Sunday, eventually worked for five years as a feature writer and correspondent on the “arts and culture beat” for various UK media including BBC Radio Scotland, The List, the Scotsman, The independent, and the Times of London. I covered the fall of the Berlin wall (I still have a piece).
(my piece of the Berlin Wall, it isn’t much, but it’s priceless to me)
7. While in the UK I co-founded a professional theater company called “American Connexion” and produced/directed our tours of the UK doing American classics (Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and the first national UK tour of the Pulitzer Prize winner, ‘Night, Mother). I worked with a number of great UK actors and designers including the wonderfully talented and great human being Robert Cavanah and the amazing artist and designer Bryan Angus
(Photo of me with Robert Cavanah, circa 1991 when Cavanah was the lead in “The Deal,” a play I directed and produced in Edinburgh by the extraordinarily talented Matthew Witten who thankfully remains a good friend)
8. In 1990, my play Boardroom Shuffle won on a Fringe First Award (a very big deal in terms of selling tickets) for during the Edinburgh Festival and with the help of Canadian empresario Chris Warrick we eventually transferred the show to London’s West End for a 3 month run.
(poster for Boardroom Shuffle)
9. I returned to the US in 1993 and worked as the Producing Artistic Director of a non-profit educational theater company in New York City called Plays for Living (now closed) where I directed and produced a short play about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It quickly took off with major corporations and quadrupled the organization’s annual revenue in four years.
10. In 1997, I left that job, moved to San Diego, formed my own company Orlando-Ward & Associates, Inc. with the excellent actor Donna Orlando, and featuring live theater as a training tool on DE&I for clients including Ford, Ericsson, Kaiser Permanente, Nissan NA, Qualcomm and Hewlett-Packard and many others.
11. In 2001, I joined the first cohort of students in the Executive Coach training program at San Diego State U, run by Jordan Goldrich, eventually becoming a Board Certified Executive Coach and a Master Certified Executive Coach with (ACEC) founded by the indefatigable CB Bowman.
12. After 9/11, my business lost all of its (mostly east coast) clients and I decided to self-publish my first book in 2002 – Bad Behavior, People Problems & Sticky Situations: a toolbook for managers and team leaders It’s still available!
13. In 2006 and 2007 I co-Founded and Co-Produced with the Urban League the first major DE&I conferences in San Diego history with the amazing Maurice Wilson, Executive Director of National Veterans Transition Services
14. I rebranded my company in 2014 as the Gregg Ward Group
15. I was incredibly fortunate to have John Wiley & Sons publish my second book The Respectful Leader in 2016. It became an immediate bestseller and won the Gold Medal in a major business book award competition in 2018
16. In 2019 upon the recommendation of marketing guru Maresa Friedman, I founded the Center for Respectful Leadership in 2019 and now have an amazing team of colleagues, staff and advisors.
17. At CRL we’ve developed a top-notch series of e-Learning programs called The Roadmap2Respect which has zero talking heads, lots of animation and interactivity and is a really useful place to learn about respect and Respectful Leadership.
18. These days, I’m working on my next book and preaching the gospel of Respectful Leadership wherever I can with whomever will listen.
(Gregg speaking to the Texas Association of School Boards in 2021)
Looking back, I can enthusiastically say that I am incredibly fortunate to be able to do all the things I’ve done, with very few regrets. Life is so exciting when you’re offered opportunities and you have the chance to fulfill your passions while making a real difference at the same time. Yes, it takes a ton of effort and focus, and a whole bunch of people willing to give you a shot. But don’t listen to anyone who says, “you can’t,” to you. Just do it anyway.
