CAE's Chief People Officer, Natalie Hailey, shares her thoughts with us.
Why are CRN’s Women in Channel Awards so important to you and CAE?
CRNs Women in Channel Awards plays a huge role in promoting women all across the channel, at all levels and stages of both career and personal development. It offers so many opportunities for Women in the Channel to be recognised, which is inspiring and motivating.
Being nominated was a very proud moment, and being in the role I am, it’s a great opportunity to promote Women in channel and, I hope, inspire the women of CAE.
The entire process has created a greater sense of unity between the women at CAE supporting and promoting one and other #GIRLPOWER
How do you think we can get more women into technology?
For me it starts at a young age. As children, we dream about what we will be when we grow up. I don’t know about anyone else, but I never dreamt of working within the Tech Industry. In all honesty, I fell into it – and I am so glad I did.
With technology being so prominent in our day to day lives, we can all do our part in educating children about the ‘behind the scenes’ of technology and the exciting evolution.
Technology is taken for granted by those that have never lived without it – appreciating that it has no limits, and one day the hi-tech we know now will be embarrassingly (for my daughter anyway) out of date!.. now that’s a scary thought!
If we capture young imaginations, we will inspire.
What do you think should be done to enable more women to rise through to the more senior roles in the IT sector?
Remove prejudice. Create policies and initiatives that actively go against what is currently the status quo… challenge one another confidently to remove that unconscious bias that exists in us all. Don’t assume that an engineer is male, and a receptionist is female for example, by doing that we have already created a bias.. its down to us (every single one of us) to work hard at undoing the way we think, before we think.
By promoting and celebrating successful women who rise into senior roles we can showcase the possibilities which will in time, become the norm.
What’s your one piece of advice for younger people looking for a career in the IT sector?
Think outside the box… technology hasn’t evolved by doing what we always did and thinking what we always thought. Be bold & brave. COPY here
NATALIE HAILEY, CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
Role Model of the Year Reseller/Solution Provider Finalist
Natalie has been instrumental in keeping CAE’s most important asset, our people, in the spotlight. Since joining CAE as HR Manager, from what was almost a standing start, Natalie has invested a monumental amount of time, effort and energy in creating an industry leading HR function to be proud of. Now as Chief People Officer, Natalie relishes the opportunity in working together with passion to make sure there are no limits in what our people and CAE can achieve.
