As we move into 2025, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and what an incredible, and fast year it has been. I was appointed CEO at Nucleus in January 2024 - pivoting from my role as Chief Operations Officer. With over a decade of experience in the Managed Services industry, I was ready to embrace this new challenge!
To say it would be an amazing year, would be an understatement. We’ve experienced a lot of change in 2024. We adopted new tools and consolidated others. We invested a great deal of time into research and development, focusing on ways to be more efficient. We reviewed our partnerships and invested more in marketing and business development. We even started our process to obtain our SOC2 certification, which is a challenge on its own (shout out to Karl Fulljames and Jeff Nantais for leading that)! Finally, we also had numerous leadership changes in our organization. We elevated Richard Kask from Business Development into the role of Director of Client Experience, and Marvin Ekk (one of our two original employees at Nucleus) into a Director of Operations role. We also created some new and much needed leadership roles at Nucleus. Meghan McEachern was promoted to Marketing Manager and Sajith Gunawardena to Manager of Client Success. I have so much appreciation for my team and the trust they have put in me during these changes!
Industry Connections and Gratitude
I also wanted to put some gratitude out there to some old and new connections. Thank you to Todd Kane who gave me my first job in the MSP industry. He’s a leader in our industry and someone I really look up to. It is hard to believe it’s been 13 years since he took a chance on a non-technical leader, with no MSP experience. The joy I have working in this industry is incredible and I am grateful that Todd opened this door for me.
I am also grateful for all the industry leaders, that I learn from each day. Whether it is reading blog posts, listening to podcasts or scrolling LinkedIn for content, these thought leaders are working hard to put content out there to make us all better.
A huge thank you to Martin DesRosiers who has been a very important mentor to me as well. I've learned so much from him both while I was in the COO role and since taking over the reins as CEO. Martin was the CEO at Nucleus for over a decade, so he knows so much about Nucleus and its history. Having him as a mentor has been instrumental and I can always count on him to listen or provide solid advice.
I am also incredibly grateful for the connections I was able to build this year. It was an absolute pleasure to meet and get to know so many different rockstars in this community. Shout out to just a few of the amazing people I met this year- Brook Lee, Carrie Green, Barb Plicka, Joshua Hoffman Mike Campion, Mike Innis, Melissa Gould, Leila Amiralai, Adam Proulx, Elizabeth Klimova, Kyle Christensen, Lisa McWilliams, Katherine Gray, Greg Celmainis, Sarah Ahmed, Kelsey Randhawa and Ann Westerheim, PhD .
Nucleus would not be as successful without our partners. Thank you to Pax8, Lenovo, ScalePad, ConnectWise, AlertOps, ImmyBot, inforcer to name a few.
I have a lot of support this year from the Lyra Technology group community. Having over 75+ MSP’s under the Lyra umbrella, means we are instantly part of a vast peer group. I'm constantly bouncing ideas off of other leaders, asking questions. I am also paying it forward, helping some of the CEOs who don’t have as much experience in the industry, answering their questions or pointing them to other connections who can help. We're all learning from each other. It is really inspiring to have such a great group of leaders I can trust and rely on.
Nucleus’ team also deserves my gratitude. They have embraced all my ideas with an open mind, trusted me when I come up with some pretty wild initiatives and have frankly worked their asses off this year. We have had a year of change, and they have truly embraced it. A special shout out to my senior management team.
Lastly, I'm really fortunate to have an incredibly supportive family at home. In the last year, I have done more business travel and volunteer work, and my husband, the amazing man he is, constantly picks up the slack at home. There's no way I could do what I do without him! Marriage is a partnership and he shows me that everyday – as well as grace when I overdo it and stretch myself too thin despite his encouragement not to. I am obviously still learning how to balance it all, but what’s helped me is getting better at delegation. I have a type A personality, and I like to take control of everything, and sometimes it's really hard for me to let go. Lately, I've been working really hard at trusting my team, walking away, and letting them come back to me if they need my help. It is working! A personal 2025 goal will be for me to lean into this even more. I know how capable my team is and I need to trust them as much as they trust me!
Advice for Women in Tech for 2025
This industry can be very hard, but it also can be so rewarding! My advice to all women, regardless of industry is to put yourself out there! I was recently inspired by Michelle Biase, President and Managing Director at HP Canada, formerly GM at D&H Canada at a conference. She did a presentation on inclusivity and how we can attract more women in our industry. One thought she left me with is how we can promote Women in Technology by changing the language of our job descriptions. Yes – something that simple! For instance, a job description that says we require 15 years of experience….consider the fact that 15 years ago majority of the people studying IT were men! Do we really need 15 years or is this more of a nice to have? We know women will not always apply for positions that they are underqualified for so let’s be more realistic with our job descriptions. Something so simple that so many of us leaders can do to really focus more on inclusivity! With that in mind, when I heard of an opportunity to help with CompTIA's Advancing Women in Technology core group, I put my hand up instantly. I am now helping create some content that will help and inspire more women to get into this field and I get to work with a group of other unbelievable people in this industry to do so.
So as I said, put yourself out there! My very first role was as a Service Manager at Fully Managed. I looked at the job description, and I did not know 90% of the acronyms that were in it but was encouraged by a friend to apply anyways. I didn’t even know what ITIL was! I took a chance and applied and was interviewed with Todd Kane, Chris Day, and the late David Reeve. I am so grateful that they decided that they would pass up on the technical pieces I lacked, because they wanted someone that would be more operations and people-driven. It gave me a start in this industry that I love so much! My advice to women in similar situations is to take a leap of faith, believe in yourself and go for it. Even if it makes you uncomfortable, ESPECIALLY when it makes you uncomfortable. Getting out of your comfort zone forces you to grow!
Stay tuned for more insights from me and the team at Nucleus!