Louise Runyard ─ STEMinist leader expertly curating and managing initiative roadmaps and project lifecycles......
September 30, 2021 • 3 Minute Read
Updated September 15, 2022
Louise Runyard
General Manager of Technology
Waddle, From Xero
(Previously—Head of Business Engagement
Lonsec)
Are you looking for an innovative STEMinist leader who excels at managing strategy into project roadmaps, IT delivery, and project lifecycles? We know the person — Louise Runyard!
Louise is the Head of Business Engagement for Lonsec. She works to enable business executives, their product managers, and their business teams to curate project roadmaps, as well oversees the Program Office to ensure governance over the project lifecycle. She has a passion for making things happen, and as a critical thinker and change advocate she is driven by the question, “How can we do this better?”. As a STEMinist, Louise volunteers with a not for profit, Passionately Curious, to provide access and spark curiosity for STEM with young minds.
Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Louise Runyard!
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 have 3 patents! I was part of “patent jam” team for a few years where we’d brainstorm hundreds of weird, wonderful and wacky ideas. This really encouraged my natural problem-solving mindset across all aspects of my life.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
At one point I was travelling from Makati city, Manila, back home to Sydney for 36 hours and then back, every fortnight for 3 months. Since then however, most of my airmiles have been for holidays!
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
I was definitely exposed to some adventurous foods when living in Qingdao, China – the most memorable would be pig tongue (surprisingly okay) and donkey soup (I’m not going to recommend this!).
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
The first achievement is being promoted to a senior leadership position in Amsterdam as a relatively unknown 27 year old from Australia: I led 6 teams, 130 people across 7 countries – it taught me that my preferred leadership style is Servant Leadership, where my role as a leader is to serve my team to enable our collective success.
The second is from a more recent failure where I learnt that there is nothing more impactful than setting a project up early for success. Trying to push through project initiation and delivery concurrently does not serve the greater purpose. I also now recognise that I should trust my gut more; our instincts are rarely wrong.
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?
One great piece of advice from a mentor when starting a new role: How would you want your team to describe your legacy after this role? Then, strive to achieve it.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
From experiences in my personal life I now fully understand you learn and develop the most when things aren’t going smoothly; my advice would be to learn to embrace discomfort as opportunity for growth.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
One of the best ways that I’ve found to help people is to describe for them what “good” and then “great” look like; explore the journey and help them understand what the steps are to get there. It’s then important to regularly check-in on development progress; course-correct as needed so the path they are on always suits their current needs.
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
A whole of business transformation to improve both client & employee experience, and enable product/services scalability through automation, machine learning, natural language generation, microservices, graph databases, etc.
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 currently working to enhance my product management skillset and ensure effort is anchored to business value. I’m exploring how to better leverage data-driven decisions – whether that is through success metrics or customer feedback loops.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
The shift from more ‘waterfall’ to ‘agile’ delivery methodologies requires whole of business cultural shift that needs top-down investment to enable people to adapt.
