In the Spotlight with HPE | Paula Lender-Swain

[Alex_Podmore]

What makes our team tick?

Our Spotlight series introduces some of our team members across our UK & Ireland business, exploring their roles and how they arrived where they are today, while delving a little deeper into what makes them tick.

We sat down with Paula Lender-Swain, UK Public Sector Sales Leader, Higher Education and Healthcare. Paula has been with HPE since late 2022, and runs the sales team for UKI, focusing on healthcare, education and devolved government. Prior to HPE, Paula worked for a handful of leading technology organisations.

Why public sector?

With a passion for technology, Paula’s specific interest in public sector came from an understanding that public sector services affect everyone, and can be improved through developing technology. Incorporating hospitals, schools, social services, transport, roads, and so much more, these services are used by every person, throughout their lives. Paula explained how public sector services have directly touched her life, and the impact that technology can have to advance and enhance these departments and processes.

“I’ve adopted two children, so I’ve been part of the cycle with children’s services and social services, and then services for older people, with my parents in law going into care. So I actually understand where technology in the public sector can impact lives in a real way, seeing it first hand. After COVID, the healthcare sector, like many others, is going through real transformation, digitising, so if we can land those changes in a meaningful way, we can actually change lives for the better – and save lives.”

Paula’s focus has recently shifted to higher education within the public sector. Innovative and fast-moving, higher education is full of dynamic people with a drive to push boundaries and create solutions to the world’s problems. Paula told us why she loves working with higher education.

“There's a fantastic link between the kind of problems that we're dealing with as a country, as humanity, and the kind of research that people are doing in the higher education sector. And we are delivering technology to make that happen. Whether it's mapping of the genome or finding a cure for cancer or getting somebody to land on Mars, those are the kind of things that these higher education research departments are grappling with and we’re providing the technology to help them do that.”

Overcoming gender bias

Having worked in the technology industry for 30 years, Paula has witnessed the evolution and rapid growth in the sector. However it wasn’t an easy start for her, as a girl in the eighties, she experienced unfair bias, with teachers favouring the boys in science classes. Girls were asked to sit at the back and given art to complete, and similarly when schools had computers, the girls were only allowed to take one typing exam. Paula explained how she managed to eventually steer her career towards technology.

“When I left school, I was working to become an accountant and I answered an ad in the paper, which was an offer by the government to retrain girls into sciences. The offer was to do a B-Tech in software engineering. I went and did an interview and a test, and I got onto a B-Tech course. And from then on, I've never looked back.”

Paula’s graduate group consisted of 100 men and three women, and she’s passionate about increasing the diversity within the tech industry. Championing flexible working and part time working as well as women returning to careers, Paula has seen the importance of looking outside the typical field at more creative applicants and those who don’t necessarily thrive in an academic environment; key considerations to enhance the rich talent of the tech industry. Listening to people already in the sector and bringing everyone along on the journey is vital, with broad layers of thought and continuing conversations, to avoid positive discrimination and to achieve a balanced industry.

Why public sector?

With a passion for technology, Paula’s specific interest in public sector came from an understanding that public sector services affect everyone, and can be improved through developing technology. Incorporating hospitals, schools, social services, transport, roads, and so much more, these services are used by every person, throughout their lives. Paula explained how public sector services have directly touched her life, and the impact that technology can have to advance and enhance these departments and processes.

“I’ve adopted two children, so I’ve been part of the cycle with children’s services and social services, and then services for older people, with my parents in law going into care. So I actually understand where technology in the public sector can impact lives in a real way, seeing it first hand. After COVID, the healthcare sector, like many others, is going through real transformation, digitising, so if we can land those changes in a meaningful way, we can actually change lives for the better – and save lives.”

Paula’s focus has recently shifted to higher education within the public sector. Innovative and fast-moving, higher education is full of dynamic people with a drive to push boundaries and create solutions to the world’s problems. Paula told us why she loves working with higher education.

“There's a fantastic link between the kind of problems that we're dealing with as a country, as humanity, and the kind of research that people are doing in the higher education sector. And we are delivering technology to make that happen. Whether it's mapping of the genome or finding a cure for cancer or getting somebody to land on Mars, those are the kind of things that these higher education research departments are grappling with and we’re providing the technology to help them do that.”

Aside from the day job…

Committed to helping the public sector modernise and digitise, Paula’s interests outside of work are a little more practical; she loves walking her dog in the hills and baking at home. However, you’re most likely to find her working on a Lego project. A self-confessed ‘Lego Technic nerd’, Paula’s built Formula One cars, many Star Wars pieces and is currently working on a bulldozer set that her wife bought her for Christmas.

HPE is a diverse team with broad interests, passions and skills. If you’d like to find out more HPE and the careers available here, visit https://careers.hpe.com/us/en/lifeathpe

Public sector services are constantly developing, touching the lives of every person daily. Find out more about how HPE is working with the sector and our projects to support them here https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/solutions/public-sector-industries.html

Alex Podmore
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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