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What did you study at university and why?
When I was finishing school in Ballarat in 1980, all I wanted to do was a
science degree at the University of Melbourne. I had a brother and sister who
had both done exactly that before me, one majoring in Physics and the other in
Chemistry. I ended up with a double major in Maths and Statistics! I guess I had
always been strong at maths, since about Grade 2 and it had become a passion for
me.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Father Christmas always came to our Primary School on the back of the local fire
truck with the siren blazing and lights flashing, which I thought was pretty
cool. So, yes, I wanted to be a fireman. In Year 10, my eldest brother helped me
to decide I should be an actuary, and that was it.
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Why did you join Watson Wyatt?
The main thing that enticed me to Watson Wyatt was the terrific opportunity to
build a business from almost scratch. When I joined, the Melbourne office only
had about ten staff and a couple of clients. As you can imagine, it was losing
truck loads of money. Looking back, it was quite a risk at the time. But, being
young, I decided to give it a go to see what happened. It was a great learning
experience.
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How long have you been at Watson Wyatt?
15 years. It sounds like a long time, but the thing is, Watson Wyatt has kept
throwing me new challenges each year and I have never been bored.
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What does your role involve at Watson Wyatt?
I have gone through quite a few changes in roles during my 15 years here.
In my previous role as head of the Actuarial and Employee Benefits Practice in
Melbourne, the two most important things were technical expertise and client
relationships. Now, the most important thing to me is our employees. Everything
I do now in my current role must help Watson Wyatt to either attract, recruit,
develop, reward or retain the right people to help our business grow and
flourish. Day to day, this means making the right strategic decisions to help
achieve our long term goals, not just for one practice, but across the whole
business. Of course, I still get heavily involved in business development and a
top priority right now is to help build our brand in the market. As a result,
developing new ideas and thought leadership are also very important to my role.
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What do you like best about working at Watson Wyatt?
The best thing about Watson Wyatt is, and always has been, the people. Wherever
I have gone in the Watson Wyatt world, one thing is always the same—everyone,
everywhere, is focussed on helping our clients to find solutions to their
problems. Not only that, but they all seem to enjoy working with each other as
well as with our clients. I am really pleased that the company has recently
articulated everything that is special about Watson Wyatt in three words—Relationships
Define Us. It says it all..
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What things do you do outside of work?
I guess I have two main passions away from the office. The St Kilda Football
Club and my family. Through my children, I have become very active in junior
sport in recent years. During the winter months, I am the team manager for the
Malvern Knights Footy Club and I have just finished my first season coaching an
under 13 netball team.
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How has Watson Wyatt supported you with the things you’re involved in
outside of work?
Watson Wyatt has always been flexible, and encourages employees to be involved
in other things. That flexibility enables me do some of my work at different
hours so I can leave the office most Fridays in winter at 4.30pm to get to footy
training with the boys.
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If there was anyone in the world you could have dinner with, whom would it
be, and why?
Tony Blair. He has been involved in a number of critical events that have shaped
the world today, and I would love to hear his private perspective. I saw him
being interviewed recently by Michael Parkinson and he seems like such a genuine
person who you could just have a chat with.
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