What was your first job?
My first job was as a youth worker, at a frightened childrens’ home in Melbourne. I moved onto teacher training, then later I went and did a business degree – so I moved from a helping profession into the commercial world.
How did you end up in the IT industry?
I’d moved into the teaching thing, and there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for advancement unless I was older. I was ambitious and an opportunity presented itself, and I thought “yep, let’s have a go at it”. By that stage, I’d had my first child, and it was back in the early days of the IT industry, so it was an exciting area to move into and it fitted my ambitions.
What do you like about your current position?
I love the diversity of it. Essentially, every day I can do something totally different. Any one day it could be marketing, or it could be doing a deal, managing staff, setting a strategy, interacting with suppliers, or talking to journalists. Every day is different and I really love that aspect of it. What do you dislike about the IT industry? We deal with a lot of international companies, and international companies don’t think too much about the time in Australia. The thing I dislike most is the fact that I am often required to be in teleconferences at 2am or 3am, and working the vagaries of the middle of the day in Europe.
Do you get to travel much as part of the job?
I do – I go to Europe twice or three times a year, and I went to the US once last year. What are some of your travel highlights? I love the whole of Europe, but I really like Croatia, which I hadn’t been to prior to 2008. We took a few days heading up the Croatian coast, and it was just magnificent. The other area is New Zealand – I’m there quite a lot, and the south island of New Zealand is amazing.
