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Diversity and Determination

Diversity and Determination

In my lifetime, I have been privileged to enjoy a rewarding career spanning three different industries. I have done this at a time when many individuals had just one professional vocation, and many women had none at all. As an active business leader in the property development sector, I am regularly asked, what gave me the confidence to pursue this unique path.

In the day to day, we are caught in the details of our work. We stand so close to the painting of our own lives, yet when I step back to take a macro-view of my profession, I see two clear factors which have enabled me to thrive.

Above all else, it has been the diversity of experience, and my determination to keep going. Even when the odds seem stacked against success, these two qualities have allowed me, along with my co-directors, Christopher Paul and Peter Lechte to continually grow the Lechte legacy.

But how has diversity manifested itself in my career, and why has my determination ensured that this experience has been harnessed to its full capacity?

Read on to find out.

DETERMINATION.

  • My mother was a champion sportsperson. An educated, powerhouse of a woman she was well respected, both in the rural Victorian town we grew up in and farther afield. With her example set, it wasn’t asked of us to be high achievers – it was expected.

  • Coupled with my mother’s renown was my father’s success as a medical professional and business owner. With their example, from a young age I was determined to succeed at whatever I put my hand to. Coming from a well-respected family in a small town, I felt like a big fish in a small pond and was eager to take on the world in whatever profession I chose. This foundation of confidence that my family instilled in me has continued to stoke the fire of my professional determination in each of my vocations as an educator, marketer and property developer.

  • To enhance my determination, I have had the good fortune of being surrounded by great professional mentors. People like John Elliott, Richard Pratt, Leon L’Huillier and Gil Hoskins all saw my tenacity, taking it upon themselves to encourage me in my vocation.

DIVERSITY.

  • The diversity of my career experience set me up for success in my transition into becoming a founding Director of one of Melbourne’s foremost property development companies – Lechte Corporation.

  • The first chapter of my working life was as a physical education teacher. My work as an educator took me to England where I accepted a senior role at a challenging school. This tested my ability and determination in every way, but when I returned to Australia I knew that I would be able to successfully handle anything that came in my direction.

  • Returning to Melbourne I accepted a role at Templestowe College. It was here a chance turn of events with two Australian Football League representatives became the catalyst for my progression to becoming the first female Marketing Manager for an AFL club in my work with the Fitzroy Lions, and then later as the Marketing Manager for Carlton Football Club. My time as a leader in the AFL both tested and honed my expertise, giving me the business acumen, agility and drive to excel as a leader in property development.

Property development has yielded both the greatest challenges and the most profound rewards in my career to date. It is a diverse vocation which requires the utmost dedication to excellence. To work collaboratively with family and long-standing partners is true success. To date we have come together for more than 25 years to envisage new and better ways of living for our purchasers. Our work has changed the landscape of Melbourne’s real estate sector. It continues to give myself and my valued compatriots great pride, which only serves to fuel the fire of Lechte Corporation’s purpose.



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