Gabriella Vavrasek, Managing Director & Global Head of HR at Roscommon Analytics, Top 10 Inspiring Women Leaders of 2022 Profile

Heather Lockhart
Chief Marketing Officer
Compucom


Gabriella Vavrasek, Managing Director & Global Head of HR at Roscommon Analytics, Top 10 Inspiring Women Leaders of 2022

Advancing the Hybrid Workplace in the Digital Age

Former College Soccer Player Heather Lockhart Gets a Kick Out of Building a Game-Changing, Customer-Centric Brand for Leading Managed IT Services Provider Compucom

When Heather Lockhart played college soccer – and later as a semi-professional female athlete competing abroad – she understood the importance of sizing up opponents, working collaboratively to advance the ball up the field toward the goal, and having the vision to see openings for teammates to seize advantage and score.

Sensitive to fusing strategic thinking with laser-like tactical execution, Lockhart believes her growth as an executive in the B2B technology industry is in large part due to understanding and embracing “the hybrid model.” After all, with an obvious acknowledgement of the hyphen, what’s more hybrid than being a scholar-athlete?

Lockhart, now Chief Marketing Officer at Compucom, explains the environment of a specific sport has its unique rules and requirements, just like today’s current work environment.

“When you’re a scholar-athlete you must excel in BOTH environments. Companies must straddle the line with today’s distributed workforce working in a variety of places and with a variety of technologies,” Lockhart said. “It takes adapting to that unique environment, whether on the field or the board room, to compete at the highest levels.”

Post-Covid, the Hybrid Workplace and Digital Technology Take Hold

The past couple of years shed a new light on the term “hybrid.” No longer just the domain of eco-friendly passenger vehicles, it also now applies to how we get work done.

“Following the world’s massive involuntary experiment in fully remote and hybrid work models, the results are in: people are going back to the office, people are staying remote, and there will be everything in between,” Lockhart said.

A hybrid workplace model mixes in-office and remote work. In doing so, it can offer flexibility, autonomy and better work-life balance – which can lead to more engagement as a result. Employers benefit by building a more productive, healthy, stable workforce.

However, the hybrid workplace is not a simple formula or a panacea for all workplace challenges. Today’s hybrid workplace must be implemented strategically, taking advantage of modern technologies that engender connection, collaboration, productivity and employee engagement.

But how does a company know what technologies are best and how to improve the employee’s digital work experience?

Building a Bold Brand

That’s where Lockhart, possessing some 20 years of marketing management experience at technology-savvy companies such as Disney and Volvo, and Compucom get involved.

Lockhart and Compucom have easily embraced the changing work world, taking a leadership position in all things digital employee experience. One of the biggest transformations the company has gone through has been a complete brand recharge. In early 2022, Lockhart led the charge of transforming the brand, taking a bolder, more innovative and entrepreneurial approach using bold, vibrant colors that invoke confidence.

“We must continue to evolve as the market evolves. Our new brand identity evokes confidence, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Lockhart. “We now have a fresh look to go with our forward-thinking mindset, focus on being agile and innovating for our customers.”

Leading with Purpose

Just like Compucom, Lockhart has been a leader in tech. According to Deloitte Global’s estimates, women’s share in the overall global tech workforce has increased 6.9% from 2019 to 2022, while their share in technical roles has grown by 11.7%. Notably, the fastest growth—an estimated gain of nearly 20%—has occurred in the proportion of women in leadership.

Lockhart’s leadership skills, no doubt, were formed by her ‘hybrid’ scholar-athlete experience, her education which includes an undergraduate degree and an MBA in international marketing. But perhaps an equally valuable component to her rise as a female executive in the tech world has been her listening skills.

“When you work alongside very smart professionals and do more listening than talking, success is much easier to achieve,” she says.

Lockhart recommends to young women aspiring to achieve leadership roles in the tech world that they purposefully choose to join customer-centric companies with diverse workforces that fuse strategic thinking with flawless tactical execution, as well as those that appreciate collaborative employees with excellent listening skills.

In addition to mentoring female leaders locally, she serves on the company’s Operations Committee, made up of C-suite executives, is the executive sponsor for the associate-led Women in Technology Affinity Group (WiT), and mentors those not just on the marketing team but also throughout the enterprise. The WiT Affinity Group, the company’s largest and fastest-growing affinity group, was established to help inspire, educate and promote equality in STEM disciplines.

Compucom Kudos

According to the industry analyst firm Information Services Group (ISG), Compucom is a leader in the highly competitive managed service provider (MSP) space for both Large Accounts and Midmarket categories. ISG noted the company’s focus on overall employee experience as a strong reason for recognizing Compucom as a Leader in the 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work - Services and Solutions report.

“Compucom has been ahead of the digital workplace curve and leading the future of work for 35 years,” Lockhart says. “We’ve continued to innovate and automate. To think about what a wide spectrum of enterprises needs today and anticipate what they will need tomorrow and the future. Compucom is a leader in advancing the digital workplace while listening well to the needs of each enterprise customer as we work to earn their business every day.” WL


Company

Compucom

Management

Heather Lockhart
Chief Marketing Officer
Compucom

Description

AT COMPUCOM, WE CREATE BETTER WORK EXPERIENCES. We deliver experience-enhancing solutions that power today’s digital workplace. Connecting people, technology, and the edge with a seamless experience. Delivering everything you need for real-time collaboration, connection, and support.


Inspiring Women Leaders Special Magazine