Mandy Haeburn-Little ─ Business leader recognized for creativity in finding solutions to business dilemmas…
March 30, 2022 • 3 Minute Read
Mandy Haeburn-Little
Executive Chair
Business Resilience International Management (BRIM)
Are you looking for a decorated business leader recognized for her creativity in finding solutions to business dilemmas? We know the person—Mandy Haeburn-Little!
Mandy Haeburn-Little is the Executive Chair for Business Resilience International Management (BRIM), the nexus of cyber resilience between law enforcement and business. She has worked extensively with companies facing significant challenges, and has been recognised for her creativity in finding solutions to business dilemmas. Mandy has a strong knowledge of the international cyber and socio-political landscape, and has helped her team of directors deliver a network of cyber resilience centres on behalf of the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) since 2019. When she is not working, Mandy is an exhibited artist.
Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Mandy Haeburn-Little!
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?
A trip in my first car with me was once a prize in a competition.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
My airline time is almost non-existent, but before the pandemic I was rapidly becoming an expert in rail travel as I was all over England and Wales.
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
There was one dish in Bilbao in Spain. They were called goose barnacles- seafood and regarded as an amazing and rare delicacy. Sadly, their appeal was lost on me.
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
- I had the chance to work in radio when I was very young. We had absolutely breath-taking opportunities - from interviewing really interesting and unique people, taking part in documentaries and winning national awards with a team, and also I had my own series. That experience has been fundamental since then to my taking a risk on young people always.
- Balancing that, I would say that not every job you have will work out. Don’t worry about that, but think proactively what you can learn from it. The world is full of people who will tell you why you can’t do things. Ignore them, trust your judgement and don’t spend time with naysayers.
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 boss in radio was extraordinary. He would just tell me to do things, and somehow I always managed! He was George Mackintosh, Head of Programmes and an amazing comet of a man.
One of my favourite roles was in a water authority, and my manager then gave me a business mentor to work with. From him I learnt about the power of possibility and how to have no limits to learning.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
Know when to call it a day in a role – sometimes you may not fit in a long established or archaic structure. And that’s okay.
Remember every day that how people respond to you is more a figment of their own thinking, than the truth about you.
Travel, travel and travel. I would now work overseas if I was starting again.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
For many years I have been working directly with the student population and I have learnt so much. Many of these students have left working with me and gone on to utterly amazing roles worldwide and they almost all keep in contact with me still.
Always ask a younger person in the team what they think and treat them exactly as equals which is what they are.
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
Every project or role I have been offered breaks a barrier or a model and I love that. I don’t always listen to barriers. My current role working with National police and delivering 9 police Cyber Resilience Centres, and also a National company to support them.
9. What skills are you currently developing or refining (in yourself) that will make you a more successful leader in the digital economy?
I am expected to understand how the digital world will fit together and how we transform it. Again, I learn a lot of this from young people and asking them how things will change.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
Time, time and time.
For all the skills and management tools and tech people show me, I never have enough time.
I am finally learning that my own time is very important too. You can’t retrospectively grow time back, so you must use it now.
