The Interview
-   DHL
-   toptable
-   ICAP
-   RollUp Media
-   BNY Mellon
-   TC Consulting
-   MarkitSERV
-   Pinesoft
-   IDBS
-   Vertex
-   LateRooms
-   Betfair  

IT chose me, as I entered the profession by accident!  At the age of 16, I joined the Police Force - I enjoyed the idea of order and control; everything had a place and there was a clear divide between right and wrong.  I was partly out on the streets with my team members, and partly in the classroom studying.  It sounds ironic as I’m now in IT, but the Police Force was a very male-dominated industry and I suddenly became very aware that it wasn’t for me.

I subsequently joined KPMG’s Consulting arm which was still quite new, as an Administration worker which suited me very well.  I loved working closely with Clients; and even to this day, KPMG really do know how to ‘look after’ their Clientele properly.  I learnt a lot about being face-to-face with people, and my career grew from strength to strength.  I stayed at KPMG for quite some time, culminating in becoming an ISO9000 Consultant; and to this day I still remain the only woman to obtain this qualification and move ‘up the ranks’ without attaining a degree.

Looking back on my days at school, I certainly didn’t think that I would take the career path that I have - but I honestly couldn’t be happier with my choices, and love where I am now!

Absolutely not!  I can definitely say that in the last 20 years, no two days have been the same!  In the ‘live services’ industry (such as hotel bookings) things change on a second-by-second basis, let alone day-by-day therefore I never write myself a ‘to do’ list as it would be nothing but a waste of ink!

I thrive on delivering complex and sensitive major services, and stabilising and recovering exceptionally broken large programmes - it helps me stay mentally sharp and focussed.  My mantra is “keep your eyes on the future and your feet on the ground” - I apply this to my everyday life.  I love my career because it allows me to aim higher each day - and if I’m not dealing with a UK problem, I’m normally dealing with an issue in Asia or Europe!

My absolute favourite thing would be the speed and the autonomy with which I can make things happen - and always for the better.  My last position was with Deutsche Bank; being in such a huge Company really gave me the true ‘Global experience’ which allowed me to deliver great services and fix major issues on a daily basis.  Getting the organisation to ‘move mountains’ in that way, is always going to be a major plus point of any role - and getting to do it on a Global scale is hugely rewarding.  I have found that each role I’ve had has enabled me in the next, which I suppose is the purpose of keeping driven in your industry, and using each experience as a learning curve.  I can lean on the knowledge that I have obtained throughout my 20 year career, from the cultures I’ve been around and the people I’ve been honoured to work with.  The team that we have in place at Late Rooms is really strong, and the knowledge pool between everyone is resounding - I am still learning things from them every day!

I think the biggest challenge of any Company when you come in specifically to manage the Change, is the resistance from the team.  If something has been working for however many years and everyone is used to it, then you swan in and change it all, you will naturally be met with some hostility.  My job as a leader is to get everyone ‘on the bus’ so to speak, and show them that my way might be a little harder at first, but it will resonate through the business exponentially and will certainly benefit everyone in the long run.  Given that, I would say the biggest challenge is capability.

Never, ever forget that you are delivering a service to someone.  You can’t think that you are just recycling a server, cleaning a network or running a webpage - you are always delivering a service to a paying end user somewhere.  It is imperative to get in the mind frame of delivering to a ‘customer’ each time, irrespective what programme you’re working on or organisation you’re working in.  For instance, when I built the service organisation to support the NHS National Care Records (the largest IT programme in the World of its time) - I had to think like a Doctor, or a Nurse, or a Patient.  I spent months shadowing them and really integrating myself into their day-to-day lives, so much so that once I fully understood the business and their business, then I could deliver a great product for that specific environment.  So my best piece of advice?  Understand what your task is and who it’s for, before you start anything else.

As an aside, another piece of advice that I’ve found to ring true, is really give something a chance.  You have to test a career for long enough to know if you like or dislike it - it’s no good being somewhere for a week and then quitting...really stick it out and give it a fair chance, so at least if you look back you know that you tried your best.

As I mentioned before, I started my career after my brief stint in the Police Force, in KPMG where I learnt a lot about Client care.  As I moved through my career I spent time delivering large programmes into complex and sensitive organisations - for example; the NHS, the Education system and the Children’s Witness Protection Programme.  I have steadily built my career and have been lucky enough to work on some incredibly projects that really are ‘business critical’.

After KPMG, I moved onto companies such as Fujitsu, Getronics and Connecting for Health.  Prior to this role I was a Vice President at Deutsche Bank, heading up Global Technology when I was approached by a specialist headhunter to see if I’d be interested in taking up an amazing challenge that would require me to use my various experiences, talents and abilities...how could I resist?!

Two things really stand out for me.  The first would be forming a team, and watching those people in various organisations move from individuals, to a team, to a high performance team.  I pride myself in being able to pull teams together, and finding key strengths and weaknesses in everyone - I love watching them grow and become autonomous so that I can remove myself from the equation and the team still functions on a very high level.  If your aim as a leader is to make yourself irreplaceable, then you’re doing it wrong.

The second was solving a very critical problem within the NHS which had a huge direct impact on patient safety - getting that one nailed was most definitely one of the highlights of my career.

You need to be able to lead by example, really get stuck in to the problem and do what it takes to get the job done.  Don’t be above your station - if there’s photocopying that needs to be done, then crack on!

You need to be able to ‘see’ beyond the white noise of people’s problems and be able to find the issue and help get to the solution. The ability to ‘drop in’ when needed and ‘pull back’ to see the bigger picture is very important, along with being confident enough for people to want to follow you.  People need to understand, but also feel understood...your message needs to communicate to people on all levels, and you need to be logical and transparent throughout.  I promote honesty and accessibility in all the teams I’ve been a part of - especially in Change Management as it’s so important to have trust - to coin the example I used before, you need to convince everyone to ‘get on the bus’ with you; any change requires everyone to get on board.

Any challenge should light your eyes up - you have to be able to understand that learning never stops, and it’s ok to not have all the answers.  Finally, you should never believe your own press - just because some starts singing your praises, it doesn’t give you the right to take your ‘foot off the gas’ and think you’re indispensable.

I think it’s important that organisations forge strong relationships with Universities from the get go.  It’s a great way to get Graduates to look into the world of IT and see exactly what it offers.  I am a keen advocate of working with Graduates, doing open days, work experience, talents days etc - whatever it takes to showcase what IT has to offer.  It is up to the current senior appointments to ‘pay it forward’ and remember that they were all graduates once.  Growing up, unless you know someone in IT or have involvement in that arena, you could be forgiven for thinking that IT is all computers, wires and the Internet - but as we all know, IT really is the life blood of an organisation; and is instrumental in leading the organisation through major transformation.