Elisa’s childhood passion was ballet. Her parents would drive her from her hometown of Ashburton to Christchurch for lessons four times a week, while school holidays were spent traversing the country for training camps and competitions.
Her talent took her to Melbourne, where she spent two years completing a diploma in classical ballet, and then on to Europe where she attempted to break into the ranks of professional touring companies by freelancing and auditioning across the continent.
“I took ballet as far as I could but ultimately at a young age realised that wasn’t going to be the career I had mapped out. So, I needed to refocus and work out what other skills I had.”
She landed a job in England for an agency tasked with promoting investment in the northern town of Sheffield, working as personal assistant to the Chief Executive.
She worked her way up to an assistant investment manager position, developing an interest in commercial property that went as far as completing a real estate qualification upon her return to New Zealand.
“Then I just decided, no, that’s not really for me.”
Her next move wasn’t entirely away from the sector, though, as she landed a role with LINZ working initially as property rights analyst and then a business advisor and team manager.
“That first role at LINZ was when I discovered I enjoy working in analytical, data-driven roles. But it was moving into leadership where I learned that improving systems is what drives performance. That lesson motivated me to study and continue my career in performance improvement. That set me on the path to this role with Meridian today.”
Elisa’s team is responsible for the performance and maintenance of the extensive portfolio of digital platforms that deliver services to Meridian’s retail customers every day.
This includes the systems that onboard and bill customers, the technology used by Meridian’s national EV charging network and the business tools staff use every day.
“And if there's critical systems outages or incidents the team basically drops everything that they're doing and starts working on what's gone wrong, contacting the vendor, getting a plan to get those systems back up.”
As well as the day-to-day challenges, her role demands a strategic focus.
“What's coming down the line in the next quarter or the next year? What skills and capabilities do we need in this team to be able to perform effectively, not just now, but in the future?”
Elisa credits her time leading a programme of substantial change at Environment Canterbury, and the knowledge she acquired from her MBA, for setting her up for success at Meridian.
“Even though I haven’t had a traditional career path, it’s the combination of that varied background and collection of experiences that has armed me with the tools to deliver the work here.”
A company culture that promotes trust, ownership and a ‘can-do’ mentality has allowed her to thrive in her seven years at Meridian.
“Right from day one I was really impressed at the trust given to me and others in the organisation.
“I hadn’t been in that environment before where you’ve done the investigation and recommended an approach, and the response is: ‘go for it’.
“I want to empower my team to feel like that as well - so that they know they've got ownership and accountability of what they do.
“A particular thing that I've tried to do throughout my time at Meridian is create the right conditions for people to thrive and do their best work.
“Part of that is identifying systems that aren't working well or where improvements could be made and trying to drive towards a future vision that might not necessarily be present today.”
