User:Bethan889

Doug Strycharczyk

Born May 26, 1949 Govan, Glasgow, Scotland Nationality	British Alma mater University of Wolverhampton Occupation	Entrepreneur, Psychometric test Publisher Known for	Mental Toughness

Religion	Christian Spouse(s)	Pauline Strycharczyk

Doug Strycharczyk is an entrepreneur who has developed AQR into an international test publishing business operating in more than 80 countries. AQR has pioneered the application of mental toughness into almost every activity with which people are engaged. Early Life Doug was born Douglas Wojciech Jacek Strycharczyk in Govan Glasgow. A stone’s throw from the birthplace of Sir Alec Ferguson. Parents Jan and Zosia Strycharczyk were Polish refugees who, like many of their generation found themselves unable to return home to Poland after the war. Zosia had survived working in an Austrian forced labour camp and had escaped to Switzerland. Jan had survived two years in a Russian gulag before joining the army and fighting in North Africa and Monte Cassino. Although poor, both were determined tomake the most of their new life in Scotland.

In 1953, a brother, Kuba, was born. He is now a solicitor and partner in a major regional law firm.

The family moved first to Dumbarton where Doug attended St Patricks primary school and then to Carlisle where he attended St Margaret Mary’s Junior School. At 11 he won a scholarship to Austin Friars School where he completed his secondary education.

Career

Initially Doug went to Hull University to study Biochemistry but found he had little interest in the subject and was asked to leave. However he met his future wife Pauline at the university.

He then worked for United Drapery Stores, Decca (where, aged 24, he ran a factory of 350 staff), Goodyear, Wedgwood and West Midlands PTE in a variety of HR, Training and Work Study roles before joining Castrol, part of Burmah Oil, where he spent 10 formative years.

During his employment with Goodyear he resumed his studies and earned a 1st class honours degree in Economics which has emerged as his real interest and passion. He started a journey towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof George Bain at Warwick University but soon decided that an academic life didn’t interest him.

At Castrol his career surged and he handled several major projects including disposal of major land and property interests. By 1989 he was Head of Operations and Head of HR for the Operations Division in the UK. During this period he developed a lifelong interest in psychology and psychometrics successfully pioneering the use of Assessment Centres in improving the company’s succession planning processes.

In 1989, with a colleague Pat MacKenzie, he established TCA Consultants which later became AQR. It was success from the first. In 1991 he recruited a young psychologist, Dr. Peter Clough. This started a lifelong friendship and collaboration. In 1993 Peter left to join Hull University as a lecturer. Soon afterwards Mackenzie left to pursue her own interests.

There Peter began to pursue an interest in mental toughness, then a concept well known but poorly defined and which was confined to the sports world. Over the next 8 years, working at times with Dr Keith Earle, Clough began to define mental toughness. From 1995 Doug began to become involved in this work particularly in supporting the development of a valid and reliable psychometric measure. However Doug’s interest lay in applying this to the world of work where he mainly operated.

By 2003, a valid and reliable measure, the MTQ48, had emerged and was published. TCA Consultants was effectively re-named to AQR to provide a new home for a psychometric test business. The next 10 years saw firstly the acceptance of MTQ48 as one of the more robust explanations of mental toughness as well as, importantly, that the concept was a narrow personality trait which applied to everything that human beings did.

Working together Peter has become one of the leading authorities on Mental Toughness as a concept and Doug is widely now accepted as the leading authority on its application in a myriad of settings – health, social work, education, sports and the world of work.

Doug authors (often with Dr Peter Clough) several books and chapters in books which explore mental toughness and its application in a variety of settings.

Since 2005, AQR has also emerged as a highly innovative psychometric test publisher which is focused on developing measures and materials which help users to improve performance, wellbeing and positive behaviour. In 2007 AQR published the ILM72 which is a unique measure of leadership style and effectiveness.

Doug remains CEO for AQR steering it towards becoming a global player. In recent years a key driver has been the desire to create a foundation that supports the development of young disadvantaged people.