For our Inspirational Women Shaping The Future Of Business Education series we speak with Heather Mack – Director of Strategy and Operations for the IDEA Lab, Imperial College Business School
- Name: Heather Mack
- Job title: Director of Strategy and Operations for the Innovation, Digital Education and Analytics (IDEA) Lab
- Institution: Imperial College Business School
Heather Mack is a leader in driving business transformation and leveraging her strategic implementation and operational excellence skills.
She is currently the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Innovation, Digital Education and Analytics (IDEA) Lab at Imperial College Business School. Prior to that she worked at Meta, initially as a Project Manager in the Legal team, and then rising to become Chief of Staff to a regional leader in the Sales organisation.
“I believe that learning and education are important ways to unlock new opportunities and open doors.”
– Heather Mack
Heather began her career as a Management Consultant at KPMG and Arcadis, with a specialism in project management and change management, working with diverse clients across sectors such as financial institutions, oil & gas, big pharma and tech.
She is a linguist at heart having studied for her Bachelors in German at Oxford University. She is also an alumna of Imperial College Business School where she gained her MBA, and remained close to the business school, sitting on the Alumni Advisory Board for seven years.
Why do you work in education?
Ever since a young age, education and learning was an important value for me, instilled in me by my father. He encouraged me to follow in his footsteps and apply to Oxford University, where he had been the first in his family to attend university.
I have embraced multiple opportunities through my career to gain new skills and qualifications. I believe that learning and education are important ways to unlock new opportunities and open doors. I find it rewarding to know that I’m now immersed in a sector that is fostering the next generation of talent and setting them up for their future careers.
What is the most rewarding part of your role?
I enjoy bringing order to chaos. So much of my professional experience has centred around working with my stakeholders and helping them to bring clarity as they undergo transformation. My strengths are in acting as the connector between cross-functional teams and fostering collaboration.
Please tell us about a challenge you’ve overcome to get to where you are today. What did you learn?
In my time as Chief of Staff at Meta there was a period of leadership change and I supported three different senior leaders. I observed that each leader has their unique drivers so I learnt that to thrive in each executive office I needed to quickly work out how to partner effectively with each of them, such as taking a data-oriented approach, and flexing my style to meet their preferences.
Have you ever had a role model? If yes who? And how have they impacted your career or outlook?
Whilst working at Meta in the Legal Project Management Office I had a great line manager. She was incredibly empathetic and took a very human approach to her line management responsibilities. She encouraged and supported my internal move within Meta to become a Chief of Staff. As a result I aim to enable the growth of my direct reports so that they too can grow in their careers.
What advice would you give to others to succeed in their careers?
Build your resilience. I have been impacted by redundancy twice in my career. Each time it was devastating when it happened, but I look back now and each one has proved to be an inflexion point that took my career in a new direction. So I encourage others to embrace change and go through the doors that these opportunities present.
Interested in this series? Keep reading…