It's often interesting to see the human behind "whatever it is they do to influence the world". The best of them get involved and get their hands dirty doing real things. Funny also how they do all the groundwork because they believe in their idea, and do it for the love of it, then pass on the results for a tidy sum, and then go do the fun stuff all over again!
I knew a guy called Bob Jones (a name made for anonymity) who was a leading light in modem development in the UK. He worked for Dowty, I think it was, but he was more of an inventor and that wasn't the thrust of the business he worked for. So he left and pursued his passion, surrounding himself with the right people, and just lived this more exciting life of creating new things. He formed companies such as Mayze, who were well regarded back then, and sold the company back to his ex-employer when he'd done what he wanted with it - by selling the company he also severed any commitments to stand by the work he'd done so that he could move unfettered on to the next project with a few millions in his back pocket.
Max Ward sounds like the same kind of personality, someone that grew something from nothing and, when he'd banked some proceeds from it, simply went on to make another one - in this case airlines!
I have quite a few images of Wardair aircraft near Manchester, taken from roads I'd walk along when going to the flying club on the South Side hangars. I also breathed some of the tire smoke from one of their 747 arrivals when taking off on runway 28 immediately after their landing on 24, and we passed right through the plume of rubber smoke with our air vents open. I don't mind admitting that it was almost a loss-of-control incident to fly though that noxious cloud.