Hewlett Packard Vice-President receives honorary doctorate
Hewlett Packard's Vice-President Mr Philip Darnell speaking at the awards ceremony
Mon, 21 Jul 2014 11:21:00 BST
Philip Darnell, a Huddersfield alumnus, returns to receive his award
In this video Philip talks about his career with HP and offers advice to future young entrepreneurs and graduates about getting on the career ladder.
Philip Darnell selected Hewlett Packard on his graduation from Huddersfield as much as they chose him. Having worked across the world for them, he is still very much up for the challenges that both the IT industry and his company, as one of the top players in that industry, can bring.
Philip was delighted to receive the honorary award of Honorary Doctorate of the University from the University of Huddersfield, where he studied for his first degree in 1975.
Philip Darnell
In 1975, Philip Darnell stepped off the train and set eyes on Huddersfield for the first time to study for his degree. Philip chose Huddersfield because of its unique marketing/engineering course. “It was that or a life at sea,” declares Philip, but his Huddersfield studies were to take him much further than a maritime career would.
Today Philip is Vice-President Marketing Operations at Hewlett Packard and he works out of its Palo Alto headquarters as one of the $125 billion firm’s senior leaders. He’s earned a reputation for being a person who ‘gets things done’ and is known for maintaining a people-first approach in an enterprise world.
Philip Darnell (centre) is pictured receiving his honorary award from the University of Huddersfield's Chancellor Professor Sir Patrick Stewart at the awards cermony held in St Paul's Hall
Philip has spent his entire career with HP – covering sales, marketing and operations at the highest level of one of the world’s most innovative technology companies – but he never forgot his roots. Over the years, he’s drafted many students from Huddersfield into the firm. “I trust Huddersfield,” he says. “I’d be so confident that I could fly over to interview students for internships and say beforehand: ‘I’ll be taking four people this afternoon’.”
Philip believes in immersive learning. He’s been known to throw people into tasks or management positions to find out whether they can do it. He says: “If you give people an opportunity and they’re motivated enough, they will close any gap to take it.”
You can find this philosophy imprinted in the story of his original application for a role at HP. “I rang up and spoke with HR to truly understand what qualifications and type of person they were looking for,” so as not to waste their time and mine.
