Declan was born to industrialist, Edmund Ward, and his philanthropist wife, Blanche Ward née Herzfield on August 8th, 1981. The Wards are a wealthy family with strong ties to the U.S. government and U.S. military dating back to the 1910s. They rose to prominence during the first World War by engineering and producing the lion's share of the U.S. Army's radio technology and equipment. The Herzfields also come from wealth. Declan's grandfather, Anton Herzfield, built a real estate empire in New York in the 1950s.

Declan was a childhood prodigy, displaying a remarkable aptitude for patterns and mathematics by the age of 3. By the age of 8, he scored a perfect 1600 on the SATs. At 9, he tested 143 on the IQ test. His mother, unwilling to risk deviant social behavior, insisted he remain in school, but permitted him to advance into middle school by the age of 8 and hired a fleet of tutors to keep him occupied.

Dec spent most of his formative years studying and being studied. Between the ages of 4-8, he was part of a psychological test group at Harvard for gifted children, Project Zero. He would spend the weekends at the university being administered aptitude and personality tests. On the weekdays, he attended school. On top of his regular classes, Declan also studied with his tutors. From theoretical physics to dead romance languages and classical instruments, his parents drilled in the standard of overachievement. They began grooming Dec at an early age to take over the family corporation, molding him to be the walking epitome of their success and achievement.

His upbringing didn't encourage affection. Intelligence, rationality, and propriety were the only things that mattered in the Ward household. Emotional outbursts were looked upon with outright contempt. As a result, Dec and his parents were never close. Dec and his father especially always had a contentious relationship. It badly deteriorated during Dec's college years. He'd grown restless and bored under his family's regime and college afforded him the opportunity to cut ties with Ed's influence and Blanche's expectations. The cold war between them peaked with Dec's enlistment in the Army after graduating Harvard in 2000.

Dec adopted his middle name, Donovan, as his last in the military to avoid any connections with his father's name. For the first time in 20 years of living, he was completely unknown. His privileged upbringing had no impact on his ability to train and achieve and fit in his fellow soldiers. On the merit of his own intelligence and discipline, he excelled in the military. He tested into the Special Forces within a year of his enlistment and rapidly advanced his career, first with the Green Berets before eventually accepting placement with Delta.

In September of 2007, his military career was cut short with the shocking murders of his parents. He was granted emergency leave when his father and mother's bodies were discovered strangled in the family's Boston estate. Dec remained Stateside in the weeks immediately following the murder to help his siblings deal with the media circus and fallout. He was ultimately granted an honorable discharge in January 2008.

During the murder investigations, Dec took his father's place on the Board of Directors at the family corporation, Ward Industries & Technologies (WIT). He did a remarkable job in his father's stead and threw himself completely into learning how to run the business, incapable of dealing with what was happening at home. In the course of 18 months, he structured the IPT and Weapons Systems Branches of the company before taking over the R&D Department in 2009.

To date his parents' murders remain unsolved.

In 2011, he was named CEO and voted Chairman of the Board of WIT. He aggressively continued to pursue advancements in GPS and satellite technologies and artificial intelligence. In 2013, he started WIT's clean energy branch and began investing heavily in renewable energy research. Since his takeover, the company's market cap has doubled and Dec continues to helm the corporation while expanding additional interests in cyber securities and AI programming.

In 2014, Dec founded EXO, an industry pioneer in dynamic and exoskeleton robotics, with the intention of rehabilitating disabled veterans. In 2015, one of his WIT brainchilds spun off into an indenpendent research company named ALPHA. In 2016 he co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk to develop brain-friendly implant technology. In 2018, Dec was awarded the Edison Achievement Award for leadership and achievements in making lasting contributions to the world of innovation.

He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Celine, and their dog, Stay Puft.