COMMENT | Growing up in the UK in the late 1970s and 80s when prime minister Margaret Thatcher was leading the country, I thought it was quite normal for a woman to be in a leadership role. By the time I was eight, my tech career was already being mapped out for me – I just had no idea at the time.
I was blessed to be born into a family where my father loved to play with the latest technology and worked for the new ‘IT department’ of British Telecom in the 1980s.
He gave me all sorts of inspiring high-tech presents. The best was a Commodore 64 – and I was quickly addicted to Donkey Kong. It would be the longest 45 minutes of my life waiting for it to load from a tape drive and I still remember the disappointment of seeing a ‘syntax error’ when it failed.
At nine, my father taught me how to code a simple program that would flash my spelling homework on a green screen for me to type in correctly. My sister and I very quickly became top of the class in spelling and everyone wanted to know our secret.
My father encouraged us to learn computers all through school and during holidays I used to earn pocket money by doing data entry for him at the office – skills I didn’t think twice about at the time, but which paved the way to my success.
I left college with no idea what to do with my life, no money or burning desire for a career, but knew I had computer skills to fall back on. I took a role as a trainee IBM AS/400 operator until I worked out what to do with my life – a decision that changed it forever.
A few years later, after travelling the world, climbing mountains and catching trains across Siberia, these skills led to a sponsorship to live and work in Sydney.
The day I arrived in Sydney nearly 20 years ago with a suitcase and $500 in my pocket, I stepped off the plane and thought I was the luckiest person alive. It felt like I had finally arrived home.
In my first week I met the CEO of KAZ, who was growing a very successful company. Peter [Kazacos] offered me the job at the interview. I grew up in Peter’s company and learnt more than ever. It’s where I experienced a culture like no other: caring people with very smart technical skills and a natural curiosity for gadgets.
For six years I lived, worked and played as if it was my purpose. I really wanted to make a difference and felt very fortunate to have the new lifestyle. As my career continued to move forward to Microsoft, this opened my eyes to a new way of doing business: a science in sales and marketing, or a “Microsoft MBA” as we like to call it.
At the same time my personal life was also blossoming. Meeting my very talented, wonderful husband (who only proposed to me because he couldn’t beat my highest score on Donkey Kong) and having two beautiful children.
Today I am fortunate to be the CEO of MOQdigital, a company that loves to make a difference to people and businesses through the smart integration of technology. MOQdigital has won global awards for innovative solutions: we get to play, create and innovate every day to drive outcomes for our customers.
But what I love most is being able to apply the best of the skills and experiences we have learnt from others. We nurture the creativity in our technical staff and grow relationships with our colleagues and customers because we care about them as people. While our passion is technology, it’s the people that matter the most.
A message to fathers and mothers
Please know that even a small amount of time spent with your daughters playing with technology can open up a whole new world of opportunity. We know boys naturally gravitate towards games and devices, whereas girls may need a little more encouragement and your time is the best gift ever. To my wonderful Dad, happy father’s day and thank you for my career!
Nicki Page spoke at the Women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and maths) event at Stuartholme School in Brisbane on 27 June. This is an edited excerpt of her speech to gifted girls from years 7 and 8.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
