» A HANDS-ON APPROACH

Amel Gardner, VP and GM, Infor Middle East & Africa speaks about what has driven her on her professional journey

What made you choose technology your professional path? How has this journey been so far in terms of achieving professional success and personal happiness?

I started out as a civil engineer. I was drawn to this career path because I’m an execution-focused person: I like to see concrete things happening as a result of executing a plan.

I gained my first experience in the technology sector when I became a senior sales engineer for the fibre optics company, Corning, in the United States. Learning about fibre optics from scratch and growing the business in South America, Europe and Asia made me realise that you can learn anything, and should not be intimidated by taking on new challenges.

Through this role I also became interested in technology, and particularly Information Technology which I knew would transform the world. I wanted to be part of something that was cool and high-growth, which for me meant the IT industry – and so I made that leap. I joined Dell as international development manager in Texas, and later had the opportunity to move to the UAE, where I gained further experience of leading technology organizations in Middle East and Africa, before taking on my current role with Infor in January 2021.

I true believer that you can learn anything and you should never be intimated by the idea of trying something new. For example, when I became involved with complex technologies such as high-performance computing at Dell it was a completely new field for me, as was fibre optics at Corning. Every time I find myself in a new field I think ‘OK, I have a brain, there are a people who will help me, and there are lots of resources for learning, so why not? Let’s do it!’ You truly find out what you’re capable of when you expand your horizons and push your limits.

Does gender matter in technology leadership in terms of expectations and recognitions? What are some of the common attributes as key differences between women and men in such roles?

This is an important question and is related to one of the core challenges we face in encouraging women in the sector. There is a certain stereotype in the technology sector that you need to be aggressive to succeed. This may deter women from taking on roles that they would in fact be very good at, and it may also deter recruiters and hiring teams from hiring or promoting women. This fits with what I have seen during my time in the industry. A lot of people think that you need to be aggressive to succeed, but it’s not true.

Each of the women I have worked with in IT have brought strengths in their own way, and that is one of the reasons why – in recent years – I have hired and developed many account managers who are calm and collected, and know how to get results without the stereotypical aggression. Success is far more about strength of character and traits including determination, confidence, empathy, and perception. This is how I am trying to break the stereotypes in the industry – by revealing them to be false indicators of success, and by demonstrating that other traits are in fact far more important.

Has hybrid work mode been rewarding or taxing? Describe your experience from last year onwards in adopting to the new normal at work? Especially as face-to-face meetings have been difficult to do, how does that impact your work?

The new normal at work has been a common experience for people around the Amel Gardner

VP and GM, Infor MEA

world. Of course, it brought challenges, including adapting to remote and hybrid working, and maintaining good contact with customers and partners, but technology proved to me a remarkable enabler that helped to keep business, and indeed society, moving. In the past year, the team at Infor in the UAE has adhered to a hybrid model of working which has, in many ways, given myself and the team the best of both worlds – plenty of opportunities for face-to-face meetings and more time working remotely from home. The important thing was to ensure that we continued to work towards our goal of delivering industry specific cloud solutions to organizations in the region, especially in industrial manufacturing, distribution, automotive, and healthcare sectors.

On the road ahead in your professional journey, what are the ambitions that motivate you?

It’s an exciting time in the technology industry in the region, with cloud, AI, edge computing, data analytics and 5G converging to offer enterprises immense opportunities to transform the way they operate, and offer new levels of innovation to their customers. The demand for digital transformation among both public and private sector organizations has never been greater, and our industry-specific cloud solutions are the ideal fit to help customers on their transformation journey.

I aim to contribute to the region’s digital transformation journey by leading our team to execute on our business strategy and ensure that customers in the region are able transform successfully and experience optimal productivity gains from Infor solutions.

I also hope to continue to encourage more women to enter the industry and move up the ranks. Organizations operate more successfully when they have a diverse workforce, and that includes greater gender diversity. Having a greater diversity of skills, insights and opinions at the table will improve all areas of business, including the ability of organizations to digitally transform.