The Star: October 05, 2017
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20<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Thursday <strong>October</strong> 5 <strong>2017</strong><br />
Our People<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
Leeann Watson<br />
Setting an example for<br />
NEW DESK: After working at Canterbury Employers’<br />
Chamber of Commerce for 20 years, Leeann Watson is<br />
set to step up into the top role as chief executive next<br />
month.<br />
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER<br />
Leeann Watson is set to take over the reins at the Canterbury Employers’<br />
Chamber of Commerce next month – the first female chief executive in the<br />
organisation’s 158-year history. She spoke to Gabrielle Stuart<br />
So tell me a bit about your<br />
background?<br />
I’ve actually been at the chamber<br />
for 20 years, for the last seven as<br />
general manager. I started as an<br />
international trade adviser, and as<br />
I identified opportunities along the<br />
way I just put my hand up for them,<br />
and worked my way around the<br />
whole company. So you could say<br />
I know the organisation inside out<br />
and back to front.<br />
What was your very first job?<br />
My first job was working for an<br />
exporting company in Dunedin,<br />
hence the international trade work.<br />
International trade, sounds<br />
pretty glamorous – is it?<br />
It certainly wasn’t glamorous. It<br />
was a lot of paperwork, a lot of export<br />
documentation looking ahead<br />
at all the potential hurdles and<br />
making sure everything is where<br />
it needs to be, so your orders get to<br />
their destination. But it was a really<br />
exciting job, because the company<br />
went from strength to strength and<br />
brought other companies along the<br />
way, so I ended up working across<br />
New Zealand.<br />
It’s becoming unusual these<br />
days to work in the same company<br />
for 20 years – what’s kept you<br />
there so long?<br />
I ask myself the same question<br />
sometimes. But it’s a very unique<br />
environment to work in, there is<br />
never a dull moment here. We can<br />
host some amazing people here:<br />
Rod Drury from Xero, we had<br />
Hillary Clinton over a few years<br />
ago, and we’ve hosted the prime<br />
minister, so you get to have some<br />
amazing conversations.<br />
But it’s also being able to really<br />
see a difference when you’re helping<br />
a local businesses. In my role as<br />
general manager I haven’t had as<br />
many of the day-to-day interactions<br />
with businesses, but I do spend a<br />
lot of time making connections for<br />
people, introducing them to people<br />
who can help them. That’s what<br />
makes it satisfying, when you know<br />
you’ve done good, and you’ve really<br />
helped these people.<br />
Other thing is that there is a very<br />
empowering environment here.<br />
My job has been what I’ve wanted<br />
to make it, and if I want to make<br />
something happen we don’t have to<br />
write a whole lot of reports, I just<br />
duck in and have a chat to Peter and<br />
he says: ‘Yeah, let’s make it happen.’<br />
You’ll be the first female chief<br />
executive in the history of the<br />
chamber. How significant is that<br />
to you?<br />
I’m really proud of that, but I’m<br />
more proud of being the right person<br />
for the role regardless of gender.<br />
<strong>The</strong> numbers clearly show women<br />
are under-represented in leadership,<br />
so I do hope this will send a signal<br />
to other women that if you work<br />
hard and take the opportunities<br />
you get, you can reach the top.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are fundamental differences<br />
in the way men and women<br />
tend to operate in life and in business,<br />
and as women I think we tend<br />
to hold ourselves back. We won’t<br />
apply for a position if we have only<br />
80 per cent of the qualification.<br />
So I’d like to see more women<br />
encouraged to aspire to leadership<br />
and governance positions. But I<br />
think playing up the whole women<br />
in business thing can work against<br />
women, too – it’s not about making<br />
it a women’s club, because then<br />
you’re doing the very thing you’ve<br />
been fighting against.<br />
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