INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
and friends, time for myself to rest, be creative, be at home and learn about the things I want to learn about. And lastly, and importantly, I want to be able to help other people find their most true to themselves version of themselves, whatever that looks like. What advice would you give a new female entrant to the industry? Advocate for one another in micro instances. Allyship. Sponsorship. Have each other’s backs. When I’m in a meeting and a woman tries to say something and a man cuts her off, I’ll interrupt and say, “Excuse me, can you just finish what you were saying first and then we’ll come to you?” Now my female colleague isn’t the bossy, sassy, defensive one who said, “Guys, I was talking and you interrupted me.” I can take some of the ownership for helping her have a voice in that moment. What I have seen is that when I do small things in the day-to-day, other people without realising, start to do the same. Systemic change happens with big loud disruptive voices; it also happens in small authentic instances. If I get asked to go speak on a panel, or I get asked to run a meeting, and there’s going to be an executive audience, I’ll delegate that to one of my female leaders because it creates an opportunity, you can be an ally to one another. That’s the future for us. That’s how we’re going to create change.
weaknesses, things we aren’t great at; AI is going to help us all to fill our own gaps so that things are equalised. Based on that, I feel like the future is exciting for women for a few reasons. We’re big doubters and we’re our own worst enemy as well as we are for one another. But just know that technology is going to fill my gaps, which will give me confidence. We’re going to start to see job descriptions evolve and shift. Women are adaptable; my view is we are probably better able to adapt and shift roles. In the UK, there’s a lot of consolidation happening across the Altnet space, which also means they’re looking for the right people to do the job. They’re looking for people who are really efficient and organised and can say, here’s the plan, and here’s how I can execute it . Women are great at multitasking; we have intuition and we’re really efficient. That’s underrated. What’s more, coming in and getting on with the job without ego, will be very valuable in the coming years. Where will we see you in five years’ time? I would love to be doing the things I love to do, helping companies build an incredibly strong, efficient, high-functioning sales team that has this healthy, authentic, autonomous culture of sales, and also helping companies build their brand. I would love to be able to do that in a way where I have capacity in my own life to also spend more time on my hobbies. So maybe there’s some consulting in there; I am open to what is next. As long as the pillars that are important to me are the foundation. I have time with family
People who have been in the industry for a long time need to shake off their perception of what the right candidate for a job looks like. Especially in our industry. If we stop seeing gender and just see the role, the experience, the quality of the interview, the references - and hire the person based on that. What are you most proud of in your work? Once a year, Calix take every leader at the company away for a two-day leadership retreat. At one of those events, I had the opportunity to share my leadership philosophy. I believe that the experiences you have at work directly impact the experiences you have at home. If work is stressful, inauthentic and ego-driven, you go home and you’re tired and grouchy. That translates to not being a great parent, a great friend, not having energy to go out for a glass of wine with the girls. But if work is where you can learn, grow, fail, practice and actually have sounding boards, there’s capacity to ask your spouse or your friend or your mom or whatever how they are. I’m proud that the experiences and influences I’ve had made it possible early in my career to establish this philosophy and have the confidence to cascade it down the chain. What is the future looking like for women in 10 years’ time? I’m optimistic. I think it’s exciting. The introduction of AI into the broadband industry is going to equalise a lot of opportunity, because we all have to learn a new way, every single one of us, at every level, every stage in a career, every mindset. We all have big gaps,
Volume 48 No.2 MAY 2026
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