The Spotlight Series - Don’t just survive, thrive‪!‬ Nicola Steel

Embark on a captivating journey with Andrew Beitz, a tech guru who has boldly navigated the ever-evolving landscape of the technology industry for three decades, and now sits with us to peel back the layers of leadership, innovation, and strategy. Andrew imparts his wisdom on how to strike that elusive balance between advancing a career and nurturing a life, all while sharing his rise from a curious software engineer to a visionary executive. This episode isn't just a trek through Andrew's career—it's a roadmap for embracing the discomfort that comes with growth and the thrill of leading teams to uncharted success.

As we peel back the veneer of corporate transformation, Andrew offers an insider's look at the trials and triumphs faced when reengineering a company's soul. Through the lens of his experience with Vasco Data Security and other global ventures, he reveals the foundational pillars of fostering an effective team culture: shared vision, celebrating quick victories, and the magic of mentoring. Andrew's anecdote about applying his tech leadership finesse to Major League Baseball strategy is a testament to the versatile nature of true leadership. For anyone at the helm of a tech team or simply aspiring to lead, this discussion is a treasure trove of strategies, anecdotes, and insights that transcends industries.

Anthoney Rimmer is the Co-Founder of Edsure, a growing edtech startup which specialises in student information and management systems.  Prior to Edsure, Anthoney lead a large R&D team at Technology One where he worked for over 17 years.

In this episode, Nicola Steel, Founder of JJP Talent Solutions, discovers more about Anthoney's personal story and career highlights including growing up in Toowoomba, moving to Brisbane at 18 and travelling the world.  

Anthoney discusses the challenge of being a technologist dealing with non-technical people.  Overcoming this challenge and learning to communicate what was going on with non-technical people is one of the reasons for his success as a technical leader as he progressed his career to Director level at TechOne.

Edsure specialises in student information and management systems with the mission to make universities in Australia more successful and students to get on the right study pathways.  

Edsure's core values are:
Be respectfulBe creativeHave funAnthoney discusses how founding a tech startup compares to working for a large corporate organisation.  His advice to potential startup founders is ensure that you really know what you are getting involved with.

Michael Collet has over 30 years technical leadership expertise including over 8 years at Super Retail Group as Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations and then Head of IT Procurement & Asset Management.

Michael talks about his career starting in the 1980s in South Africa and how he secured his first leadership role.  He migrated to Australia in 2004 and struggled to find a role initially because he was considered to be overqualified. He eventually secured a role at Super Retail Group through his connections.  After 8 years at Super Retail Group, he started a successful career in property development.

Michael is highly engaging, positive and optimistic in this podcast episode with Nicola Steel from JJP Talent Solutions.

Andy How has extensive technical leadership experience in SaaS startups and scaleups as well as corporate environments. In this episode, Nicola Steel, Founder of JJP Talent Solutions and Andy How talk about the start of his career in the late 1990s as the world moved from analog to digital. 


Andy provides advice to people starting out in their tech careers. He talks about the important lessons he has learnt along the way.  Andy also explains what he thinks makes a great leader which includes:
👀 Vision 
❤️ Compassion 
👄 Communication

He provides some critical advice on work/life balance together with his book recommendations: 
📖 Atomic Habits by James Clear 
📖 Mindset by Carol Dweck 
📖 Dare to Lead by Brene Brown 
 

Scott Lawry is a Senior Leader with extensive expertise in Digital Transformation and Programme Management.  He has worked in a variety of sectors including over 10 years at Rio Tinto.


In this episode, Scott talks to Nicola Steel, Founding Director of JJP Talent Solutions. He explains how he secured his first role in IT back in 1999 - the year the world faced the Millennium Bug!  He provides advice to graduates and emerging professionals who are looking for their first tech role and also for those aspiring to be tech leaders.


The biggest challenge for Scott over the last 25 years has been the pure velocity of change in technology.  It is next to impossible to remain qualified across everything!  Instead, he believes that it is important for leaders to have enough knowledge of the technical changes and impacts to provide the business with informed advice.


We also discuss how flexible working has been an incredible opportunity for everyone. It is a great way to retain valuable employees.  He believes that making it work for both employers and employees is crucial although he does believe that employees can become disconnected from the business. 

Nicola Steel, Founder of JJP Talent Solutions, speaks to Luke Vear, the CTO of YQueue, a startup which is tackling the challenges faced by the Food and Beverage industry.
Luke begins by explaining how he was drawn to tech and how he secured his first role in software development.  His advice to aspiring leaders is to make sure taking on a leadership role is something that you 100% want to do and to grab every opportunity that presents itself.  

Luke explains that his biggest challenge is the non-engineering elements of being a CTO including managing  relationships between individual team members.  Retaining people in a small team and ensuring that you've got buy-in from everyone within the company, not just direct team members and colleagues, are the things that really keep him up at night.
What he loves about working in a startup environment:
Freedom to experiment  Can get feedback quickly so can iterate very quickly Intimate knowledge of how the business working   What frustrates him about startups:
The rush to get something out of the door so solutions can sometimes be band-aided together  His top productivity hack is to avoid tacking shortcuts!