What's your background?
I grew up in rural New Zealand on a large sheep and beef farm with my parents and 2 sisters. It was an amazing place to grow up, but I was ready for a little more civilisation when I moved to a coastal city when I was 13.
I completed high school and started university but struggled to really know what it was I wanted to do. I started working in hotels and was made the Food and Beverage Manager of a 4-star hotel when I was 25. During this time, I also gave birth to my daughter (now 20). The huge hours weren’t conducive to a good work-life balance, so I left the industry altogether and became an account manager. This led to a role with Ventia NZ working in telecommunications.
I was fortunate to have some amazing mentors who helped develop my skills. I held a number of roles within Ventia over my 11-year tenure with my final role being the Project Director for a $120million rural fibre rollout.
I joined NEC NZ in October 2020 and have recently been seconded to the Managing Director role which is an amazing opportunity!
What's your job about?
My current role focuses on the Field Delivery aspect of the New Zealand business. We have engineers across New Zealand who look after New Zealand’s largest telecommunication company along with many other key customers such as New Zealand Police.
As General Manager, I need to ensure that we understand our customers’ needs and provide them with the best possible outcome as well as ensuring that we add value to their business. It’s also important to think strategically about the long-term direction of the business – for example, who should our main customers be? What training do we need to ensure that my team stay relevant?
I spend a large amount of my time building and maintaining relationships with customers and working closely with the Sales team to identify potential opportunities. We need to ensure that we are working profitably and managing our costs.
I also focus on ensuring that my field engineers are working safely with clear processes in place, to ensure we deliver high-quality service at all times. We get involved in some pretty cool things. When an earthquake cut off access to Kaikoura (a town located near the top of the South Island of New Zealand) our engineers helicoptered in and ensured that communications systems were up and running as soon as possible. This included some pretty ingenious solutions from the team on the ground!
Did you always know you wanted to work in this field?
No, I was always a little vague about what my future would hold. I almost fell into telecommunications by accident, but I love the fact that it’s always changing with new technologies coming onto the market.
What is most rewarding about your job?
I have a large team of approximately 50 – mainly field engineers who have the incredible work ethic and customer focus but who can sometimes be a little in the ‘she’ll be right’ camp when it comes to looking after their own wellbeing.
A standout moment for me recently was hearing one engineer tell another that being connected is important and they just need to pick up the phone. That showed me that the work we are doing around mental health awareness was getting to the right level of the conversation.
And of course, I love hearing feedback from our customers. We get customer feedback on a regular basis that provides validation that my team are just as amazing as I think they are!
What were some of the challenges you faced in getting to where you are now?
During my career, the biggest challenge was finding the balance between work and life. When my daughter was younger, I was fortunate enough to have the flexibility to attend her school assemblies or performances but the flipside of that was that I was often distracted by a phone call or email when she was talking to me.
When working in roles where the work that is carried out is a high risk from a safety perspective, it can be challenging to know that if the processes that you put in place aren’t solid and actually being done, then someone may not be going home to their family.
3 pieces of advice for you would give women who want to work in your industry?
Take every great opportunity that you are offered, even if it feels a little scary to do so. There is never a perfect time to get that promotion or take on new responsibilities, so grab it with both hands and do your best. You were offered it for a reason!
It's also really important to stay true to who you are and what you believe in. You don’t need to change who you are to try and fit into a group of people, it can be tempting to be ‘one of the boys’ when working in a male-dominated industry but bringing something different to a group of people is hugely valuable.
Lastly, don’t forget that balance is the most important thing. Make sure that you are taking time to do the things that you enjoy and spend time with people you love. It can be really easy to fall into the trap of only focusing on work but that only leads to you burning yourself out.