Ramsay switches on Avocent

When Leanne Ramsay was appointed managing director A/NZ for US KVM switch vendor, Avocent, she was given the task of driving growth in the region, managing channel partnerships and handling all trans-Tasman licensing and marketing programs.

Her appointment in April was part of Avocent’s Cyclades a US privately-held data centre management company in March for US$90m.

Ramsay was Cyclades MD at the time of the deal and was kept on by management at Avocent.

At the time Ramsey said, “Avocent was still determining how it would deal with channel partners, Ramsay said. “We are now in the process of creating a ‘go-to-market’ strategy for our channel partners. It should be out by sometime in July.”

During her time at Cyclades, Ramsey helped to establish the organisation’s sales and marketing operations in Sydney in 2003 and managed the growth of the company’s local partner network.

With around 25 years experience in the ICT industry, Ramsey’s appointment at Avocent was another notch on her belt and a validation for her decision to come out of retirement and recommence her career.

“During 2001-02 I started to lose the passion for work and I wanted to say at home and play mum,” she says.

“However I found sitting at home offered very little brain stimulation. I wanted money for renovations around the home and saw a job for Cyclades and applied with great results.”

Ramsey credits her former Cyclades boss ? for making work “fun again” in the industry. She says “he backed me up one hundred percent and now I have a boss that’s not blinkered shared my vision and grow business”.

She believes it’s important in this industry to work with an employer that believes in you and often credits her first employer, Jim Rowe as giving her first taste of the ICT industry.

“During 1980 I was a training technician at Dick Smith Electronics. Rowe gave me an opportunity be a technical director and took a risk in me during a time when the ICT industry was a mans world,” she says.

“I had no formal qualifications, but he saw I had an ability to do an electronic trade. Those were halcyon days and the industry was a lot more conservative. Certainly technology has gone through a lot of changes thanks to industry cowboys.”

Her interest in technology stems from a initial desire to study medicine, which Ramsey didn’t pursue because she “didn’t make the grades”…fixing computers was the next best thing.

Ramsey stayed at Dick Smith Electronics for three years, leaving the company in 1983 to work at BS Microcomp.

During her four years with the company, she worked as an account manager LAN, connectivity, systems engineering supervisor and technical support engineer.

Her career in the ICT field followed the traditional path, she held various positions for various ICT companies including account manager for DACA Software, sales executive CASE Communications, NSW dealer manager MPA International.

After five years in these various positions Ramsey made her first foray into the channel with a national sales manager position at distributor LAN Systems.

Staying for two years in the organisation, Ramsey made the conscience decision to leave for then voice hardware vendor Scitec (which has since been taken over by ASX-listed VeCommerce).

Starting out as a NSW branch manager and then moved into a sales manager role, finally settling into a senior sales executive role in 1997 says Ramsey.

“During this time I took six months maternity leave and came back into the senior sales role and I remember being thrown into the Qantas account which was a hostile account that needed a lot of work to regain credibility,” she says.

“By the time I finished with them, it ended up spending around $800k with SCITEC on additional Maxima TDM equipment, MDX Statistical, multiplexers and services.”

After a two year stint at Scitec, Ramsey moved onto Fujitsu Australia, working as a business development manager until 1998.

From there she moved into diverse roles with Eclipse Telecommunications as business development manager for a year, before moving onto Clarent Corporation as a regional manager A/NZ for two years.

In February 2002 Ramsey accepted a NSW branch manager position at Allied Technologies. However she only stayed with the company until December of that year.

“I decided to leave Allied to ‘semi-retire’ for health reasons, I gave 3 months notice to ensure we found the right replacement,” she says.

“My goal in life was to work until I was 40 and then retire. At the time it was challenging trying to balance a young family with work. So I made a conscience decision between career and lifestyle.”

However her semi-retirement was short lived and after two and half years as a stay-at-home mum, Ramsey chose to return to the ICT industry.

“My boys understand that it’s better to have happy mummy then cranky mummy. I couldn’t sit at home any longer and my husband and I wanted to have extra money for renovations for our home,” says Ramsey.

“I chose to have a full time career again. I work 14 hour days now and find fulfilment in what I do.”

Ramsey credits her supporting husband of 18 years with providing her the opportunity to work and have a home life.

“We work as a tag team during the week and make sure we spend time with my two younger sons on the weekend,” she says.

“It’s easy when you are passion about what you do, when that passion goes then it’s always hard to maintain that drive in your career.”

With her reinvigorated view of the ICT industry, Ramsey believes there are plenty of opportunities for women in this field.

“Doesn’t matter what gender you are anything can come to you in ICT. However more ladies in technology would be great,” she says.

“This industry is always changing and creates an entrepreneur in you. It helps peple to develop a “what if” complex, where they see a problem and work on a solution to sort it out.”

Despite the progress made by some women in the technology field Ramsey believes there are “managers with blinkers” on.

“I have always been forthright and some people predominately men find it challenging. I have learnt to bite my tongue in some situation and I have seen peers with less experience get promoted ahead of me,” she says.

“But good things come to those who wait and I have never used being a female to advance my career and I never will.”

Ramsey believes it’s vital to have strong work ethics and never cross the line to advance in the workplace. This industry, says Ramsey also goes by word of mouth and you don’t want to develop a tarnished reputation.

“I’m a hard bitch but fair and what you see is what you get. For some young women they do what they are good at and they deserve a pat on the back,” she says.

“However in some situations you see women in this industry at events and you wonder at what they are thinking when they behave the way they do. Honesty and being upfront with people and they will get to know you as a trustworthy person.”

Ramsey says she will never be part of the “old boys club” because she can’t play golf and has no interest in the sport.

“There have been suggestions made that I learn, I reply by declaring I have no time. In fact the closest I have come to the game, was around 15 years ago at an event, I even tried but just ended up carrying drinks around,” she says.

After 25 years in the industry a lot of the old faces, Ramsey, knew have gone and the industry has become more focused on core competencies, giving the market the ability to be direct with convergence developing in telecommunications and triple play multimedia.

“I think it is an opportune time and the vibe in the industry is positive. I hear US slowing down but I haven’t seen it,” says Ramsey.

“Doing what I do as a job is challenging because it is demanding. Anyone with drive, ambition and passion, ICT is a fantastic market to get into.”

With so much time spent at work Ramsey makes sure as soon as she gets home her “children gets lots of hugs, kisses. We also have a house on the coast and we try to get there once a month to relax with them”.

“I’m also a soccer mum and my two boys need to be driven from one end of Sydney to another. It’s joyous to see son kick a goal, I enjoy laughter and my kids are what brings me to ground zero.”