111. Portfolio career: An alternative path to C-level jobs - with Julia Cookson.
Dec 06, 2021
Julia Cookson has extensive experience in health and community support services, having worked in the broader sector for over 18 years. She began her executive career in a national genomics facility at an exciting point in time when next-gen technology reshaped medical discovery. It was this experience that sparked her passion for health services. Since she has held Executive roles in NFPs across aged and disability care, mental health, and family violence, leading their transformation through the raft of reforms. She has represented aged care businesses at the Royal Commission and been intimately involved in the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce and senate inquiries into Family Violence.
Julia has always been ambitious for her career and deliberately looked for ways to expand her HR expertise to become CEO-ready. This is how she landed in the land of interim executive roles.
Through a mix of interim executive assignments and permanent roles, consultancy, board, and advisory positions, she has expanded her expertise to include Governance, Strategy, Finance, Risk, Brand, and Digital to diversify her knowledge base. With her contacts and with the help of brokers such as Donna Burr, she deliberately moves between interim executive work and permanent executive roles. She combines this with other revenue streams in her portfolio, including non-executive directorships and Advisory work.
While interim assignments have broadened Julia’s network and exposed her to new ways of thinking and different sectors, permanent roles allow her to consolidate her know-how in a specific sector.
Listen to this episode to learn what made Julia start her portfolio career, how she gets interim management jobs and other income-generating opportunities, and her advice for executives willing to give it a go.
Timestamps:
00:53 - Julia’s unusual and unique strengths
10:06 - What made Julia start her portfolio career
16:56 - How Julia gets interim management jobs and other income-generating opportunities
21:47 - Julia’s advice for executives willing to try a portfolio career?
35:19 - What’s next for Julia?
Links Mentioned
- Interview with Donna Burr: The Job Hunting Podcast episode 103. How to make successful career transitions - with Donna Burr.
- First Interview with Jacinta: The Job Hunting Podcast episode 31. Me Inc.
- The second interview with Jacinta: The Job Hunting Podcast episode 78. Portfolio career: What is it, and is it for you?
- The Job Hunting Podcast episode 56. How to start your board director career.
- The Job Hunting Podcast episode 104. Want to become a board director? Part 1 interview with Moana Weir.
- Click here to open the transcript of this episode on our new blog.
About our Guest
Julia has extensive experience in health and community support services, having worked in the broader sector for 18+ years. She began her executive career in a national genomics facility at an exciting point in time when next-gen technology reshaped medical discovery. It was this experience that sparked her passion for health services. Since she has held Executive roles in NFPs across aged and disability care, mental health, and family violence, leading their transformation through the raft of reforms, she has represented aged care businesses at the Royal Commission and been intimately involved in the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce and senate inquiries into Family Violence. Julia became a Director on Lorne Community Health’s Board during a period of rapid growth in that business and is now Chair of Finance and Audit for Connect Health. Her early career as an HR specialist focused on guiding the people side of large-scale programs repositioning businesses. She always had her eye on becoming a CEO and so has deliberately sought ways to expand her expertise to become CEO-ready: Governance, Strategy, Finance, Risk, brand, and digital to diversify her knowledge base to shape the customer experience, business improvement, and growth strategies. She deliberately moves between interim executive work and permanent executive roles and combines this with other revenue streams in her portfolio; Directorships and Advisory work. Interim assignments broaden her networks and exposure to new ways of thinking in different sectors, and permanent roles allow her to consolidate her know-how into a sector. She deliberately looks for organizations with complex problems to solve in disruptive markets and lots of ambiguity. The different streams of her portfolio give her exposure to businesses at various stages in their growth cycle and business maturity, from scaling up to ensuring sustainability and a pathway to recovery where funding is reduced. This is truly a 360-degree perspective.
She is passionate about strengthening the organizations she works with, ensuring the voice of the customer is heard at the Board level. Her inclusive style shapes the decision-making process, improves innovation, and enables the creation of a healthy and purposeful culture.
