Katharine Fuller
Kath Fuller is COO at TechWM, which is a community interest company focussed on advocating for and uniting the ecosystem around the West Midlands tech community.
She is a passionate about solving prosperity challenges of business and economy through the right collaborations of resource, expertise and leadership. She has lead many innovation programmes, designed regional initiatives and supported hundreds of tech businesses to progress their own ambitions.
- Tell us a little bit about your business… / or the organisation you work for.
TechWM is a community interest company focussed on connecting, amplifying and transforming the West Midlands tech ecosystem by coordinating the right support, investment and skills development for tech businesses and individuals and representing those community professionals in a unified voice for the region. We create impact and profile to support our vision of making the West Midlands Tech ecosystem a global superpower.
- How did you get into the industry?
In general how I got into tech is that I followed the money! I was a project manager and bid writer – I worked mainly in new emerging environments – bidding and winning resources to fund innovation in these areas to progress our expertise and economic growth in those areas. At one point the ‘new emerging areas’ were smart cities and IOT…which led me to digital tech in general. I still work with emerging innovation – but as digital is so often referred to as ‘the golden thread’ I’ve never had to give up the tech element to do that!
- What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
Tech provides huge opportunities to many industries. For all AI and quantum computing offer huge innovation potential globally. Locally, we can take advantage of these macro level opportunities but also we have our own strengths having their moment – e.g 5G, Healthtech and Cleantech. Additionally, we have challenges with creating more digitally skilled professionals, encompassing more diversity in tech and drawing increased investment to tech innovations in our city.
- How would you describe your leadership style? (if not in a leadership role talk about your working style)
My leadership style is essentially just to align agendas and encourage others to see the value of what their contribution makes to the whole. To try to illuminate the bigger picture for others in a way that speaks to them. Everyone comes to work for different reasons and gets satisfaction out of the job different ways; I think if we can incorporate the diversity of those motivations into our delivery, passion follows and that really raises the quality of what we’re doing as a result.
- How do you get the most out of the people who work for you? (or work with you)
I try to set wide boundaries and empower others to use their own initiative within those. We are in a fortunate position to be considered an advocate and a trusted partner and hub of the tech ecosystem and I hold reverence in that and expect the team too. There is an element of creativity though in how the team bring their own skills and passions to the table in the way we approach initiatives, design our response to challenges etc that too much structure would undermine.
- What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
Communication and strong leadership. I’m new to the team, CEO Yiannis Maos is an absolute rockstar at communicating the vision and his values. The team are absolutely awesome at communicating where we’re at, what’s next and what’s blocking our way. All of us try really hard to listen to the community and translate what we’re hearing into our work, that’s a big part of communication for us that gives the foundation for how, what and why we communicate and the messages we use.
- How has the past 12 months been for you?
Fantastic! I absolutely have the best job in the best ecosystem and this year I was really shown how supportive and special our community is, professionally and personally. In Jan 2024, I started a new role as COO of TechWM and am absolutely inspired and every day by businesses we work with, our partners and patrons, board members and by the team and CEO.
- What will the next 12 months look like for you or your business?
TechWM has a transformative and busy year ahead! We are developing our operational structure. Raising our aspirations as a second-city global tech ecosystem and delivering some amazing projects in that spirit. We also have Birmingham Tech Week 2024 in the making, a festival we run every year to celebrate all things tech and this year is set to be incredible!
- What are the highlights of your career so far?
So many highlights its difficult to list them – broadly speaking, the travel I’ve done, the experts in their field I’ve worked with and the collective passion for shared goals are the highlights that have given me the best work memories and everyday wins!
- What’s the biggest professional / business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
I have been part of projects that achieved their objectives but not their goal though. As a hypothetical example, in trying to reduce unemployment, one town created courses for the unemployed and trained 150 hairdressers and 150 plumbers. However, no small town needs 150 hairdressers or 150 plumbers…so it didn’t actually reduce unemployment. Good project design is absolutely vital, in every situation and it pays to spend time at the design phase to get it right.
- What’s the best piece of professional / business advice you’ve been given or would like to give?
When I graduated to have the aspiration to match my wage with my age – I think it was actually Meera Syal who said that, she was an alumni of my high school. I didn’t have an obvious career path in front of me like a plumber or a doctor might. So I used that as a broad route to continually learn, stay ambitious, find the next challenge and push myself out of my comfort zone in my early career.
