Featured in this week’s spotlight is Leslie Robinet, Services Director & CSR Ambassador for MEGA International.
Leslie Robinet has been committed, throughout her career, to supporting organizations to achieve successful Enterprise Architecture (EA), and Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) practices.
Leveraging her foundation of an Industrial Systems Engineering specialization from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and process optimization experience with Lean Management in the US, she has since been delivering and managing services in Europe, Africa, and now worldwide.
Currently, she is driving the customer experience on services related to MEGA HOPEX’s EA and GRC software solution, through knowledge management, and enablement for improving methods, processes, offers and skills.
Below, Robinet shares some of her insights about her successful career and what she sees in the future.
Question: How did you get your start in the industry?
Answer: As a preteen, I chose Enterprise Architecture as my vocation, upon an informal conversation with a family friend about his university major. Before then, I didn’t know EA and GRC existed as professions or specialties. As he described it, I had a wow moment of how perfect a fit it was for me, and chose that path. I therefore pursued a holistic engineering degree, with a systems approach, including courses and projects stretching through various engineering specialties, business architecture, application and solution architecture, infrastructure, risk management, human factors engineering, software & computer science…
My professional start was with a process-focus, in industrial contexts, as an intern at a Pittsburgh-based company. We were focused on increased productivity, improved quality, and changed culture, applying Lean workplace, work measurement, workforce optimization, and engineered standards.
My start in the industry is thanks to knowing about it in the first place, having access to higher education providing useful theoretical and practical knowledge, and work opportunities to apply methods and gain experience in the field.
Q: What is your current responsibility and what is your typical day like?
A: Architects often wear many hats. I’m not an exception to the rule, as I have multiple roles.
- As Corporate Services Director, I enable the worldwide services team of engineers, business analysts and project managers, key partners, and customers, to get the most out of their EA and GRC practices, with the approaches implemented in the software MEGA HOPEX. This means leading capitalization, skills management & continuous learning, and providing the toolbox to facilitate delivering qualitative results. Through our connection on the field with companies, we carry a voice back to the R&D for our software, to continuously better how we serve current needs.
- I maintain an operational role in sales and delivery as Services Director for two regions, that allows to connect with customers and their contexts, as well as consultants and engineers accompanying those customers. I enjoy pre-scoping projects with a use case, business outcome driven approach. I am happy to be able to be directly involved in providing solutions and making a difference for the project teams.
- I’m a Corporate Social Responsibility Ambassador for our company, and a member of our multidisciplinary Sustainability committee. Together, and involving internal and external stakeholders, we lead the strategy and execution of the sustainable transformation of our company, directly applying our skills on Architecture and Governance. Passionate about sustainable development, this role allows drive responsible values in our organization.
A typical day and week for me involves 75% engaging with prospects, customers, project teams, partners, and members of other departments in our company, and 25% solo strategy and formalization.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Four things that stand out to me about my job: human connection, variety, purpose, and innovation.
- I enjoy working in services because it’s about relationships.
- I love the diversity this ecosystem provides, in the activities, customer contexts, and departments with whom I collaborate. It’s multifaceted with a big picture view but also concrete business cases.
- I am motivated by the purpose-driven nature of Architecture.
- I revel in the opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity for novel solutions.
For those who are familiar with the concept of “ikagai”, this is mine.
Q: What trends in architecture are you looking out for the rest of 2024 and 2025?
A: Architects have a key role to play in accompanying into the business model, and underlying information systems, effective and value-added usage of Artificial Intelligence, sustainability considerations and responsible practices, as well as IT security with increasing regulations and vulnerabilities. Arming organizations to stay resilient when facing disruption is more than necessary right now, and Architecture brings the interconnected vision, critical for pertinent decisions.
Q: What is one thing we can do to support or increase the women in architecture?
A: I encourage our proactively animating what brought me to be a woman in architecture: the trio of awareness, training, and experience. Spark inspiration by bearing witness and setting an example that being a fulfilled woman, in architecture, is possible. Invest in university programs and collaborations, enabling the skills for the future architects the world needs. Provide equal opportunity employment for internships and first job experiences. All these phases of building an architect rely on that throughout those steps, the person is respected and valued. I benefitted from this from family, teachers, mentors, and colleagues, male and female.