You are a former co-owner of Auldhouse and have been with the company for over two decades now, which is a fantastic achievement. How have you seen the business grow and evolve during this time and what role have you played in this?

I have experienced a lot of change. Auldhouse was created by a husband-and-wife team over 35 years ago, sold into BlueStar Group and then became part of Wang, later known as Gen-i.

Gen-i was sold to Telecom NZ, which in due course became Spark, before the shareholders executed a management buyout 9 years ago. And of course, we have now been acquired by DDLS.

It’s been fascinating to partner with many vendors such as AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, VMware and Red Hat, and see how the market has adopted their technologies over time, for example, during the shift from on-prem to cloud.

It’s also been incredibly exciting to lead the evolution of training delivery since the pandemic. Traditionally, Auldhouse was an in-person training organisation with a small (but expanding) online delivery solution.

We were forced to pivot to a complete online delivery format during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns. This format proved to be extremely successful and still accounts for a large percentage of our delivery now.

The adoption of virtual training has opened many new training opportunities for our customers.

 What is the secret to staying with a business for so long and what do you specifically enjoy about working with Auldhouse so much?

The secret for anyone in any role is change, diversity and tangible results for you, your team, and your customers. I have been lucky to have held roles in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney and of course being an owner for 8 years brings even more challenges and rewards.

We have an incredibly talented and loyal team, and a small but mighty workforce of 25 in NZ, which affords us the closeness of a family-type business whilst still producing outstanding results.

How did you get to your current leadership position and were there any pivotal moments in your career?

No one wants a leader who will come in and take charge without properly understanding the business. During my tenure at Auldhouse, I have been lucky to start at the ground level and work my way up. I understand the business from a grassroots level, had great mentors and developed the knowledge of what it takes to lead a successful IT training organisation.

I understand our customers’ needs and what it takes to make every training engagement successful. Working in sales in our Sydney office was a pivotal time in my career – very much a man’s world during that time and a different way of working and selling. This was a great experience and I very much enjoyed the 5-years working in Australia before being asked to head home to lead the Wellington team.

What was the experience of Auldhouse being acquired by DDLS like and what have the benefits been so far?

Auldhouse and DDLS have had a long-standing collaborative relationship. DDLS understood the complexities of running an IT training organisation, which was an important factor for shareholders. It has been a ‘perfect’ acquisition.

Whilst Auldhouse enjoyed being the largest privately-owned IT training business in NZ, the benefits of the acquisition were obvious from day one. There is no other IT training provider that can match our geographic reach (across ANZ and Philippines), breadth, depth, and regularity of publicly scheduled courses.

We have been able to leverage and expand our NZ offering significantly with DDLS course offerings, including its industry leading cybersecurity training. This has been a huge win for our NZ customers.

Were there many women in the technology space when you started your career, and do you think that’s changed since then?

Personally, I have noticed a downward shift in women joining the technology sector. However, it is great to see vendors such as Microsoft and AWS recognise a need to build a community to assist women entering the tech sector.

These vendors have been proactive in rolling out programs to entice women into technology and Auldhouse are enormously proud to have been able to participate in these – such as the Microsoft #10KWāhine initiative, which aims to equip 10,000 women in New Zealand with new skills that help them secure digital roles, and the AWS SheBuilds CloudUp program, a flexible 8-week, community-based learning program for women.

Why is it important to have women in business, and particularly in leadership positions – and how do you think diversity can bring wider business benefits?

Good teams are built on diversity. The most valuable asset to any organisation is its people. Diversity gives your business balance and ensures you have a team that can service your customers who are equally as diverse. We need to be promoting more women to balance leadership styles and offer new points of view, so it’s essential to understand what women bring to leadership positions.

How can we inspire more women to be in leadership positions, especially in male-dominated fields such as Technology?

While we still have a way to go, we have more women than ever in key leadership positions in companies, on boards, and in government. Women need role models in these positions of leadership, and I am continually inspired by local leaders such as Vanessa Sorenson – Microsoft’s Global Partner Solutions Director for ANZ & Country Leader for NZ. Vanessa has displayed tenacity and passion for the tech sector and her incredible rise from sales to her current role is nothing short of inspirational.

Do you think COVID and flexible working arrangements have had any specific impacts for women in business?

Initially during our long lockdowns (particularly in Auckland), the strain on working women who are also mothers would have been enormous. Covid has presented us with a unique opportunity to evaluate our working environment.

It has forced businesses to reassess and reinvent the way we work. With flexible work arrangements becoming the norm (and long overdue), employers need to place greater focus on managing employees’ engagement and wellbeing.

Ultimately, the pandemic has been a great reminder that whilst the work we do is incredibly important, so is work/life balance. It has been fantastic to witness many NZ organisations creating an environment that recognises that working women (and all parents) can still contribute meaningfully to a workplace without conforming to traditional working hours.

Having said that, flexible working arrangements that include some in-person engagement with your team is also key, as energy creates more energy