From soldier to strategic leader: how a degree apprenticeship transformed Matt’s career

“I used to be tactical,” says Matt Deeks CMgr MCMI, a Maidenhead-based warehouse operations manager for consumer healthcare business Haleon. “I was stuck in the day-to-day. But since I took the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship, I’m thinking more strategically. I’m thinking long term about the company’s strategy and how what I’m doing aligns with that. 

“It has helped me in my current role, but I can also see how it will help me in the future. The course has made me more reflective, too. I think about how I come across to others and how I work on a daily basis.”

From Grenadier Guard to degree apprentice

Haleon was spun out of pharmaceutical giant GSK, a company Matt joined in 2005. Haleon produces brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol and Advil painkillers and Centrum vitamins. Matt currently works at the firm’s Maidenhead production facility, which manufactures oral healthcare products, and where 230 million units were made in 2023.

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Matt credits GSK (and then Haleon) with supporting him on his Chartered Manager journey. He started his Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) with the Open University in 2020. He completed it in 2024, also achieving a BA in Management Practice, and then became a Chartered Manager.

He’s come a long way since leaving school to join the famous red tunic and bearskin hat wearing Grenadier Guards. The unit is tasked with, among other things, guarding royal palaces, as well as Trooping the Colour. Matt spent eight years with the Grenadier Guards; he completed overseas exercises in Canada, Kenya and the US and served in Northern Ireland.

Becoming an accidental manager

While in the army, Matt received two promotions, both of which involved learning new skills, such as adaptability, decision-making, time management and teamwork. And he learned a lot about leadership. But his time in the army came to an end when he met the woman who is now his wife. 

It was decision time: the security and comradeship of the army, with all the travel and separation that comes with it, or call it a day? He left in August 2005 and a month later he had a job with GSK.