Christine Holgate

Holgate first worked as postie for the Christmas season when she was 18.[13] After graduating from the university, Holgate worked for Allied Healthcare and BBC News.[14] In 1988, she joined the Caribbean Cable & Wireless telecommunication and started her international career.[15] During her 12 years at Cables & Wireless, Holgate directed the company’s Marketing department,[15] arranged customer division and conducted projects across Caribbean, Europe and Hong Kong.[14][16] In 2000, Holgate joined J.P. Morgan as the “Managing Director of Marketing” of its European subsidiary.[14][16][17] She was the only woman in J.P. Morgan's executive team in Europe during her incumbent period.[14] Holgate worked for J.P. Morgan for 18 months before joining Energis.[16] In May 2001, Holgate was recruited as the Group Director of Strategy and Marketing by the Internet provider Energis.[14][16] Her job was to lead the Energis’ strategy and planning teams in Europe and monitor its marketing activities.[16]

In November 2002, Holgate received a job invitation from David Thodey, the former Telstra chief executive.[1][14] In 2003, she came to Australia[18] and worked for Telstra, which its precursor was Telecom Australia,[19] as the Marketing direct.[14] Holgate's role was expanded into building Telstra's business sales and managing the operations of its channels while she continued to lead its marketing team.[14][20] Christine Holgate left Telstra and started working at Blackmores in 2008.[18][21]

In September 2008, Holgate was appointed as chief executive officer and managing director of Blackmores.[21] Holgate sister's death from cancer spurred her to join Blackmores,[11][14][22] the Australian health supplement corporation.[23]

Within the first two months, Christine Holgate identified that Blackmores operations in Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan were neglected.[24] In 2009, Christine Holgate allocated Peter Osborne to direct Blackmores business in Asia to minimize the entry barriers.[22][24][25] Before the allocation, Peter Osborne worked in Asia for more than 20 years.[22] Osborne understands the market, regulations and politics in China and speaks Mandarin fluently.[22][24] From 2008 to April 2012, Christine Holgate increased Blackmores' annual sales to $234 million.[14] She also strengthened the local management of Blackmores and improved its marketing offering in Asia.[14] Blackmores started gaining profits from the markets of Thailand and Malaysia and prepared to enter the Chinese market.[14] The profits from the Asian market accounted for nearly 25% of Blackmores' profits.[14]

In 2011, Christine Holgate faced the public relation crisis related to the deal between Blackmores and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.[14] Under this deal, pharmacists "would be prompted to promote" Blackmores health supplements to their patients during the prescription process.[14][26] The proposal of Blackmores caused "national outrage" and the "strong level of public concern".[26] Holgate was criticized for referring the deal as a "coke and fries" option.[14][26] She explained the phrase was quoted out of context as Holgate commented the proposal "would add the "Coke and fries" to those drugs and provide pharmacies with a "new and important revenue stream"".[14] Holgate conceded that linking the medicine with junk food "was highly unfortunate".[14]

In 2014, Christine Holgate was one of the only 20 business leaders invited to the G20 Summit held in Brisbane, Australia.[5][7][27] Holgate was urged to have a photograph with the president of China Xi Jinping to increase sales of Blackmores in the Chinese market.[27] At that time, Blackmores' generated sales were under $ 1million, while the required capital for labour and marketing was around $10 million.[27] Holgate was told to have no chance of having the photo as all electronic devices were forbidden during the event.[27] Before the event, she went to see fortune-telling and followed the advice of wearing "a piece of green".[27][28] Holgate managed to have her photo with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping.[27] Her picture with the two leaders was widely spread in China and attracted the local consumers.[29] At the end of 2014-15, Blackmores sales in the Chinese market increased to $50 million and reached $500 million in 2015-16.[27] In September 2015, Blackmores joined the ASX200 index, the top 200 most prominent companies in Australia,[30] and Christine Holgate was named the first female CEO of the Year in November.[8][9]

During Holgate’s nine years at Blackmores, its share price rose from $18 to $90 and peaked at $220 in 2016.[11] Holgate transformed Blackmores, the international member of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)[31] into the major health supplement exporter to Asia.[32] Holgate resigned from Blackmores in 2017 to head up Australia Post.[33][34][35]

On 30 October 2017, Holgate joined Australia Post as its CEO,[2] the first woman in this role.[4][32] She was appointed “group chief executive officer” and “managing director” of Australia Post during its transformation phase as the leading Australian e-commerce postal delivery service.[36] Her job is to manage the modernisation of Australia Post’s logistics system and its 33000 workforce.[37] Holgate had no previous experience in managing the logistics system.[37] Holgate's allocation was decided based on her strategic ability to exploit the potentials in the Asian markets and enhance the business profitability.[37][38] She also had direct experience as a Christmas postman during her study in North London.[13][32]

Taking a new role, Holgate visited branches across Australia to meet postal employees and noticed the skepticism of the workforce.[1] Before her arrival, Australia Post had divided its business into two product lines, including profitable StarTrack and the traditional postal service.[1] Holgate consulted the staff and received agreement to unify the two businesses.[39] She integrated the two business and decided to preserve the Australia Post’s traditional red colour and name.[1]

In 2018, Holgate launched the “Everyone Matters” campaign, an adverting campaign supporting postmen and post offices in regional areas.[1] The net promoter score increased over 30 percent in six months.[1] Holgate also addressed the trust issue of employees and launched “Equal pay for equal work” campaign.[1] She invested $300 million on upgrading parcel processing systems with automation and tracking devices.[1] Holgate also restructured the Australia Post's executive team to align with her customer-oriented and Asian-focused strategies.[40][41]

Answering The Weekend Australian Magazine's interview question on how to have more female executives, Holgate advised companies to research the women aged from 30 to 50.[12] She suggested the uncomfortableness of women after their maternity leave was the barrier for them to return to work.[12] She believed creating the connection with female employees during their pregnancy and after birth helped them overcome the barrier.[12] Holgate also advised companies to think differently and seek for female executive leaders from the different routes.[12]

In May 2016, Christine Holgate was one of a guest speaker at the Business Women's lunch, a fundraising event of the Odyssey House for children's development.[49] Speaking at the event of the Odyssey House, Christine Holgate disagreed with the gender quotas.[50] She explained that allocating unqualified female candidates for executive roles to fulfil the gender quotas made gender equality in business backfired.[50] She believed setting targets would equalize gender in the board positions.[50] Holgate also shared her point towards Michelle Gordon's description of "euphoric terror feeling" in Gordon's High Court judge role.[50] Holgate believed female leaders had more advantages when compared to males thanks to their ability to express personal emotion and their "lack of toughness" on operating approaches.[50]

On 16 November 2018, answering The Australian about the role of managing leaders in gender diversity, Christine Holgate affirmed that leaders "have to take the initiative".[51] Christine Holgate said "It is not women on boards that are going to give us economic equality. It is women around the executive team in real roles".[51]

In 2017, Christine Holgate attended the business summit held in Sydney, Australia.[52] Speaking at the event, Holgate affirmed the potentials of the Chinese market to Australian businesses when responding the prediction of Chinese Premier Li Kequiang and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.[52] She said seizing opportunities to enter Chinses markets would develop the Australian economy.[52]

Answering the Chanticleer’s interview in 2015, Christine Holgate addressed the trap when developed countries do businesses in the emerging markets.[53][54] Holgate said “every country is different”.[53] She also commented that “Don’t assume what you do in Australia and what’s right for Australia is right for the market places up in Asia.”[53] Holgate advised companies to “invest in learning the market place” and “hire a strong local team”.[53]

In 2016, Christine Holgate and Blackmores faced the Chinese restriction of the “cross border e-commerce trade”.[55][27] Speaking on the event, Holgate said doing business with China required the patience and this restriction offered opportunities as “it shows the Chinese government believes in the free trade zone”.[55] She told Australian companies to stay and keep investing in the Chinese market.[27] Holgate also mentioned the importance of the diversification strategy.[27] She advised that “don’t put all your eggs in the China basket”.[27]

In 2017, China “delayed infinitely” the restriction of the “cross border e-commerce trade”.[56] Commenting on the “China-Australia Free Trade Agreement”, Christine Holgate said the agreement was the “win” for Australian businesses as it removed the uncertainty of the regulation.[56] Holgate also advised companies to be prepared for the regulation risks in the future.[56]

Speaking on the opportunities of small businesses in the Chinese market, Christine Holgate said the number of companies expanding their businesses in the region was limited.[27] Holgate commented that the “China-Australia Free Trade Agreement” in 2017[56] would not support Australian small businesses with the restriction through the Chinese ports.[27] She also warned Australian companies to avoid discounting their products and keep a premium price.[27] Holgate suggested that small companies engage with Chinese students studying in the local universities in Australia and have “joint venture” with the government of China.[27]

In 2019, Christine Holgate attended the China International Import Expo trade fair in Shanghai.[57] Responding to the interview on the sidelines of the event, Holgate said more European competitors were entering the Chinese market.[57] She noted that Australia ranked “the top three most desired brands” but Chinese customers “have choices” and warned on the competition for the market in China.[57] Holgate also suggested that Australian businesses adopt AliPay and WeChat Pay, digital payment platforms in China, to engage with the local market.[57]