Gemma Acton Interviews IT Leader Karina Foley- Game Changers

From a trophy winning musician in a big brass band to reshaping the future of tech in the education sector, as the leader of it for Western Sydney University, and an advocate for diversity and inclusivity Karina Foley has definitely broken the mould. With the move to cloud-based platforms front of mind, Karina and her team of engineers are pivotal in enabling the university to accelerate its own transformation. For this dynamic mother of two, who started building home computers with her dad when she was in kindergarten, coding is a cinch.

So is she a game changer? Let’s find out. I’m Gemma Acton. Welcome to Game Changers, in partnership with Logicalis, the architects of change.

Gemma

Karina, welcome to Game Changers. It is wonderful to have you here. Let’s go back to the very beginning. These days, a lot of people are interested in careers in tech. But you’re really one of the originals, you can trace it all the way back to your early childhood. Tell us about how your interest started.

Karina

In kindergarten, my dad pulled me out of school for the day, to help him build our first computer at home. And I think he was like one of the first on the waiting list to get the computer. So I remember, plugging stuff into the motherboard, and we had to feed it through the TV at the time. And so, he got me interested in computers and taught me not to be scared of technology.

Gemma

So your dad gave you the first stepping stone? And where did you take it from there?

Karina

Well, all through primary school, he would buy me coding books to learn how to code on computers. I actually got into music in primary school and high school, and back in the day, that was when you had CD recording devices, and people would purchase their own sound cards for the computers. And a friend of mine wrote a piece of software which allowed you to actually write music on the computer. So I would write music. And and I was like, oh, wouldn’t it be cool if I could play the music on the computer and record on the CD? And so we read all the manuals about the motherboard and the sound card and the CD player and even called up the manufacturers and they’re like, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ And then one day dad and I realised we could solve something between the motherboards and I got to record really music on on the CD. And so then I wrote down what we did. And I faxed it off to the sound board manufacturer.

Gemma

You really make me feel like I’ve wasted my childhood. Tell us about the link that you see between music and technology. Is there one? And how has it helped you? If so?

Karina

Music was a passion of mine for many, many years. I think it’s a like a language. Music is based on science. And so it gave me an avenue to understand creativity and a different way of communicating.

Gemma

Tell us a bit about your musical background. As I understand it wasn’t just messing around with a couple of instruments at home, you actually had a very established amateur career in music.

Karina

Oh yeah, I was a brass player. And did three unit music in my HSC and I was in Sydney Symphony orchestras and jazz bands and marching bands and concert bands and travelled around a lot of Australia. New South Wales Education Board of Studies had this big music program when I was at high school so I got to visit lots and lots of schools and sort of mentor other kids learning how to play music.

Gemma

And does it still play a role in your life? Is it an escape when it all gets too much?

Karina

No. I don’t play music anymore. Okay. I’d love to but with two kids and working full time, it’s like it was a full time job being a musician. Life gets busy.

Gemma

But hopefully later on down the track, you can come back to it. Your interest in tech, as we just heard, started very organically from a very young age. At some point along the way. You must have noticed that there weren’t that many other women involved in the sector. When did you realise that and did that change the way you felt about technology or make you more or less determined, for instance?

Karina

My first career was in marketing and fundraising and event management as a career, and it got to a point where I could only ever really move sideways. And I really wanted a career and I was like, well, tech would be awesome, because there aren’t many women in technology. And they’re not very extroverted, at least the people that I knew, and so I thought that I could add value. And so I jumped into technology.

Gemma

So you found it a motivating factor that there was a dearth of women, and what have you done in your current role and your current position in the sector to try to encourage more women to join the space?

Karina

It’s really, really difficult. I work in software development and applications, and I have not been able to hire a female into my team in almost a decade, I’ve worked with HR to write copy for job advertisements that should attract women, and you know, the education sector is really a good place for women. And it’s, yeah, it’s very difficult.

Gemma

How do you think you can work with employers to try and bring women on board?

Karina

So I have a program in my team where we hire students, and I always have an equal amount of females and males.

Gemma

Now, Karina, tell us about your current role at Western Sydney University and your team.

Karina

I lead a team of software application developers. We develop and support bespoke applications for the university, about over 100 different applications, from content management systems, event management systems, digital signage displays, and that sort of stuff. And we run projects as well. So resource projects. Most work we like to offer is like monitoring as a service to the university. We offer development to other areas of the university and run projects like recently, our migration to the Azure Cloud.

Gemma

It’s a real testament to your leadership that you’ve held on to the same team for nine years, particularly when they weren’t your hires in the first place. What do you think has worked about your leadership style?

Karina

I think it’s a being people centric and always looking after my team.

Gemma

Tell us about how you think about risk.

Karina

I used to be really risk adverse actually. But I had a health event a number of years ago. And the outcome of that was that I realised that I had a lot of inner strength. And I was open to taking more risks. And I’m not scared to take risks.

Gemma

Would you call it an epiphany?

Karina

It was it was when I realised how much I did to help myself. It changed my life and gave me so much more confidence.

Gemma

And let’s talk a little bit more about what you do on the job itself. Now you partner with Logicalis. What are some of the projects you’re working on? Why do you like partnering with them?

Karina

So we just finished our migration to cloud. We moved 300 servers, in about two and a half months to the Azure Cloud. That was the best project I’ve ever worked on. The the people from Logicalis have amazing technical skills. And they really balanced the Western Sydney University team members out, they were open to change the way they were doing things as well. So because Logicalis comes and they have their own processes, they have their own practices, and they work right. But we’re like, okay, but at Western Sydney University, we also need to do it this way. And so we were able to blend our processes and practices. And what it meant was that my team, the Western Sydney University team, were very comfortable with the way the project ran.

Gemma

And tell us a little bit more about your role as a female? Did you have a female mentor along the way? Do you mentor people now?

Karina

In my very first, like real job, I had an amazing female director who taught me a lot when I was very junior in my career. And we’re still in in touch today. And I’ve just been lucky throughout my career that as I’ve moved jobs, I’ve had really strong leaders. And you identify what they do really well, and try to learn from them. I do mentor people at the university and provide opportunities for students with internships and you know, project roles, etc.

Gemma

Let me ask you one more question about your partnership with Logicalis. And then one more to finish Logicalis says one of the aims they have is to empower their clients. Do you feel that’s been the case with the projects you’ve done with them?

Karina

Oh, 100%. I, I have a really, really, really great relationship with all of the people I’ve met at Logicalis. And they show us how much they value and respect all of the skills that come from staff members in Western Sydney University. And when we have had challenges, you know, all projects have challenges. They’ve been there as much as emotional support for us as technical support. You know, and when you have other vendors in the room, and they can’t solve technical problems, but someone at Logicalis steps in and solves it, it’s magic.

It’s a good outcome.

Gemma,

I love the idea of you being risk taker and pushing the envelope. What’s next for you? Where would you like to see your career going? What would you like to see for Western Sydney University for where you can drive women in the IT sector?

Karina

I was thinking about this question actually. And for me, it’s more important for me to see success with my team. Like it’s my job as their manager to help them succeed in what they want to do in their career goals. So when they do show the confidence and or build the skills to stretch what they’re doing in their role, or if they take a secondment to another area, you know, like, that’s the most valuable thing to me. Like, that’s what I’m proud of achieving – building up capabilities in my team.

Gemma

Spoken like a true leader. Karina, it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you, thank you so much for joining us here today. Game changers. Thank you.