Letina Connelly. Photo courtesy IBM.

Letina Connelly BSc '86

Alumni then and now

Her career has taken her far and wide around the world, not following a typical path. Ross Peake reports.

Letina Connelly says her ANU Bachelor of Science degree with majors in maths and statistics really stretched her.

“It’s almost like being an athlete – you come in as good raw material and you come out as a really sharp, top-class thinker,” she says. “I remember when I graduated I thought, ‘Wow, I’m a finely-tuned engine now, ready to roll’.”

Her advice to students? “Stretch yourself, see how good you can be, you might surprise yourself.”

Letina has worked for IBM for 32 years – including 18 years overseas, living across four countries – and is now Vice-President Asia Pacific Strategy and Business Development, based in Sydney. “After that length of time overseas, I thought I would anchor back in Australia.”

Stretch yourself, see how good you can be, you might surprise yourself.

The key themes of her career are creativity, adaptability and flexibility. These were mandatory capabilities for centring a career at the very edge of IT disruption, focused on emerging technology and markets. “I’m the person to explore the implications and seize the opportunities (and in some cases threats) resulting from emerging disruption,” she says.

“However, I did this by a series of accidents – when I started my degree, I had no clue what career I wanted.

So I thought, be open and just do something you’re good at and let’s see what happens.

“I started out as a technical specialist, transformed through nine career changes from product management, service delivery, marketing, and strategy at country, regional, global and corporate levels – reinventing myself consistently.”

In her three decades at IBM, Letina has travelled the world. “Initially, my whole career ambition was to travel overseas, beyond Australia and New Zealand, ” she says.

“After short trips to Thailand and the Philippines, I wanted to relocate. So began 18 years when I was fortunate to be assigned to Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and New York, and I spent seven months in many emerging markets – Middle East, Africa, India, China, Brazil.

“I love travel, cultures, accents and watching just the way people interact – you have to be adaptable to learn how to get things done.”

Letina says she has a constant strong curiosity to learn about new ideas and concepts.

“I’m always working on the new and emerging frontiers of IT and emerging economies,” she says.

“From a market point of view, I look at emerging technology. I’m looking at the application of the technology, not so much the technical level of the bits and bytes, but more about what would be the real benefit if you implemented the technology, and how transforming that could be to an economy, a country or an industry.

“I really like the whole global, international way of thinking – sometimes the world is a small place and you’re limited only by your imagination. Often on a long-haul flight I used to consider ‘What is the economic value of Australia? What is Australia’s unique value to the rest of the globe, how can that transform Australia’s economy in a sustainable way?’”

Letina has a passion for photography and bush walking and would love to have a bash at film making or directing.