Alex Coates ─ AWS Partner, Datacom, energising strategic growth and performance optimization…
November 29, 2021 • 3 Minute Read
Alex Coates
Managing Director, Australia
Datacom
Are you looking for an AWS Partner with a leader who energises strategic growth and performance optimization with customers? We know the person—Alex Coates!
Nominated to participate in IT Wondrous Women™ by the AWS Partner Field leadership, Alex Coates is Australia’s Managing Director for Datacom, an AWS Partner, where she is responsible for Datacom’s growth and performance. She strongly believes collaboration and strategic partnerships with customers are fundamental to helping shape their future and make a lasting impact on the communities we live and work in. Her focus remains on harnessing the strengths, scale, and abilities of Datacom’s ecosystem to solve customers’ complex challenges. When she is not managing Datacom’s business, Alex enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters and passionately supporting her favored English sports teams.
Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Alex Coates!
Our 10 Questions for this IT Wondrous Woman.
Fun Facts
1. What’s the one thing about you that your business colleagues don’t know about you?
I’ve got an Australian passport and citizenship but I’m an avid Brit.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
A lot! I would travel often from Australia to New Zealand and the UK to see the family, and with the job also comes a lot of travel across Australia.
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
Not a question for someone who is trying to lose the COVID curves grown during Melbourne’s 200+ day lockdown!
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
Joining Datacom as the youngest Director at 29-years-old was an achievement and a challenge. I had to build a team around me that could help to bridge the gaps in my knowledge.
The other was moving from the UK to Australia. Career-wise, I was told it was a terrible decision but I prioritized my life and it was the best thing I could’ve done. By prioritizing life, I found that everything else will come.
5. Did you have a mentor in the early part of your career and, if so, what is the biggest lesson you learned from your mentor or influencer?
My mentor gave me the generosity of his time. We would spend hours in the office in the evening where he would impart knowledge. I would trail him to meetings and soak up as much as I could. Today, the generosity of time is how I can pay it forward.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
Don’t narrow your career too early on. You can narrow later - by staying broad you can get a diversity of experience and figure out what you’re good at and what you enjoy.
Stay true to yourself, who you are and what your leadership style is. Don’t feel that you have to change to suit the environment that you’re in.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
Always be available and approachable. You can always find common ground with people - that’s what will help you connect and add value.
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
Designing the Datacom company values for the next 10 years. It was a significant cultural piece of work mixed with working with a strong group of our people. I felt that I could deeply connect with the work that we were doing and the future we wanted to build as a team.
Our values of - Exceed customer expectations; Look beyond today; Thrive together; Everyone has a part; It’s the people; and Courage to act - underpin the behaviours that we want to work towards as a company.
9. What skills are you currently developing or refining (in yourself) that will make you a more successful leader in the digital economy?
I’m working on becoming a better storyteller - translating the role that we play in technology and articulating the impact that we have in the communities we’re working and living in.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
People! We’re in an aggressive hiring market and have a brand that largely flies under the radar, meaning we have to work really hard to attract the right people to do the best work of their lives.
