Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

I would like to think that my biggest success is as an enabler for my team to thrive individually and succeed together. This involves being bold and ambitious, having the right level of flex and stretch and a team culture that is supportive not competitive. We’ve done this through a period of substantial change, transitioning our team into a fully agile operating model. My team genuinely sees the change as an opportunity for us to go from good to great, and that is something I am proud of.

In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

A diverse mix of top talent including culture, gender, experience and more, thinking big and thinking forward, clarity on purpose and the team’s role in delivering the organisation’s strategy and ambitions. There should also be a culture of fostering trust, care, inclusiveness, psychological safety, accountability and radical candour.

What is the biggest risk to your industry or organisation and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

Our team has identified five areas that we consider to be ‘must wins’: firstly, sustainability and climate, next are vulnerable customers, digital inclusion and First Nations, thirdly security, safety, privacy and scams. The fourth area would be data and artificial intelligence and the fifth area is enabling experiences (including the Metaverse).

We have established ‘squads’ who will bring thought leadership to each of these areas by staying in-tune with the broader landscape (externally and internally, globally and domestically) and proactively considering what it means for our organisation and the role that we play in it. Provocative and strategic thinking on these issues is what we’re striving for.

Driving a step change in our corporate reputation and customer experience are also two big priorities for our company. Our team is proactively engaging in this by challenging our stakeholders when something may be legally compliant but might fail to meet our customer experience design principles, our company values or the standards we should hold ourselves to. We’ve been transparent with our senior executives about this, and the response we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive.

What challenges have you overcome to get to the position you are in today?

I would have to say that the biggest challenge has been responding to, and thriving in, a period of significant and persistent change. At a time when I was very new to leadership, our organisation announced a significant transformation program, which was one of the biggest in corporate history. We were fundamentally redesigning and rebuilding the aircraft mid-air, and the team we had to do it was shrinking. It naturally created a lot of uncertainty, disruption and at times resentment. We have had to make significant changes, lean into tough conversations and think boldly. I am better for it, and so is our team, so no regrets!