My role is to build digital products that help our exhibitions customers generate new leads or find new suppliers, build their network and gain new insights about their industry. Central to this is building and developing a fantastic digital products and tech team

I have been with RELX 11 years. When I was head of strategy at Elsevier, another RELX business, I realised that digital product development was critical to the future of the company. I asked for the opportunity to join the Elsevier research product team and set about learning the craft of data-driven, customer-centric digital product development. I was mentored by some wonderful technology and product leaders who helped me gain the skills I needed to succeed. 

Our customers have complex information problems that require smart, creative and often technical solutions. Therefore, it’s obvious that we need to bring people with different skills, experiences and perspectives together to understand those problems and come up with the best solutions. Gender diversity is just one aspect of the many types of diversity that will help us to do that and to have fulfilling and fun team experiences as we do so. I want everyone to be able to bring their full selves to work, so that they can achieve their maximum potential. Women in Tech initiatives are part of that journey.

We have many wonderful female leaders especially in the RX leadership team, but we continue trying to help more women into leadership positions around the world. We have company-wide efforts in mentoring, training, recruiting and community-building to support this. I’m also looking forward to engaging with our customers on diversity by increasing visibility of these topics at our events and exhibitions. 

Technology and product are fast moving fields with many sub-disciplines that require different skills. So, there is a role for every kind of person and because these skills are in high demand, you can learn fast and grow your career quickly. The skills are hugely transferable across industries and geographies so tech gives you many options of places to work in the future.