Pete Ward

About Pete Ward

I am a positive change agent. After three successful CEO experiences, I learned to help owners, investors and managers scale, transform and determine which partnerships and acquisitions are right for their long-term growth strategy. My own leadership journey began with my first job, as a rock climbing rescue ranger, providing emergency medicine and evacuation to injured climbers in high-risk environments. At only 19 years of age, I learned to save lives when the stakes were high and there was no margin for error. From there, I studied the mathematics of Neuroscience in university, and learned the incredible power of data to inform decision-making. Those two formative experiences have shaped my career as a leader with a combination of uncompromising intellectual rigor forged in the hard sciences and a fearless commitment to results developed when lives were literally on the line. My approach to leadership is therefore transparent, disciplined and adaptable. Results are what matter to me and I hold myself accountable to the best possible outcomes regardless of the challenge, industry, or context.

Experience

1. Partner

   Rise Above Consulting

   Jan 2025 — Present · New York, NY, US

   Rise Above is the first full-service management consultancy focused on accelerating the performance of the climbing industry-Executive-Level Advisory & Stakeholder Collaboration: Enabling clients to bridge the gap between financial vision and operational execution by aligning capital providers, founders, and operators-Sector-Specific Leadership Advantage: Leveraging deep domain expertise and network access to create a sustainable sourcing and insight edge for the firm-Tech-Enabled, Strategic Control of Revenue: In partnership with the industry-leading software company, conceived, developed and launched the CoVER™ score, an industry-first financial performance ratio delivering unparalleled access to their most meaningful membership insights & a single metric to measure the success of their revenue activities.

Education

• IMD

  Executive MBA, International Business

  2015 — 2016

• IMD

  Advanced Management Concepts

  2015 — 2015

• Hampshire College

  Bachelor's degree, Neuroscience