Page 33 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2022

JUNE 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS
GABBY COSTIGAN 33
We’re a business that is very future focused, we’re a busi- ness that likes to work closely with our customer. We do see ourselves, I think, as a fundamental input to capability for Defence, and I think Defence recognises us as playing that part as well.
We’ve done a lot of things in the last four years and I guess there’s a few that I’m particularly proud of: winning the Hunter program and also the JORN Phase 6 upgrade for example, and I’m also really proud of the work we’ve done in the air side of our business. We saw the first F-35 in our hangar at Williamtown last year and we continue to support the program in Australia. We’ve also extended the life of the Hawk contract out for another decade and our supply chains supporting the Hawk are over 90 per cent Australian.
We’ve also spent a lot of time over the last four years real- ly working with our partners - from some very small SMEs through to other large primes - and I’ll look back fondly on my time here as the CEO in what has been a real change in the dynamic of defence industry. I think there was so much more competition previously, but now we work so much better together because we all understand what our key strengths are, what capabilities we can bring to the table and how we all want to support our Australian customer.
ADM: How did you cope with the COVID-19 pandemic? GABBY COSTIGAN: It’s been a very challenging last couple of years. I think we’ve maintained a very agile response as a business in Australia and we constantly adapted to what was an ever-evolving situation, with the end goal of keeping our people safe whilst trying to ensure we con- tinued to deliver those critical capabilities for the ADF. Through that, one of the things I’m very
ADM: When you first took the role on four years ago, did you have a clear vision for what you wanted to do and have you done that along the way?
GABBY COSTIGAN: When I joined the business, I came in with a very clear mindset of what I wanted to do. I was the first Australian CEO, I was the first female CEO, and I guess I really wanted to let the organisation know that I understood our culture - I’d spent my previous career in the
ADF and that I was here for the long term to help grow the business.
When I joined we were well underway in some really big campaigns and so I set some goals for the organisation in terms of trying to win those campaigns and we were suc- cessful on many of them. I can happily say I’ve exceeded those goals and when I think about now moving on, I think the company is really set up on a very strong growth path - in particular in those large programs.
As a business we’ve tried really hard to be a strategy-led organisation and that’s one of the things that I came in with the mindset of: who are we, what are we good at and where do we want to be in ten, twenty, thirty years as an organisation? Getting the business to come on that journey with me has been a quite fulfilling experience. We really have enhanced the culture in the business. It’s a very open organisation now, people are very clear on what their responsibilities are, they’re clear on what the vision and strategy is for the business, they see a clear path and a future for our business, so I think that’s exciting. And prob- ably, most of all, we’re really proud of the work that they do
because the work they do is important.
ADM: As someone who has been very successful in defence industry, what advice would you give to young women wanting to enter the industry?
proud of is we’ve adapted our workplaces,
because we’re one of those organisations
where not everybody could work from home
– you can’t build a ship or maintain an air-
craft from home. We had to adapt our work-
places so that those people that needed to
work our sites or in offices could do so safely.
One of the things I really want to make sure
that we continue now we’re coming through
the pandemic, is to maintain the benefits of
the agility and the flexibility that our teams
have demonstrated through the pandemic.
That’s something I’m encouraging all our employees to do and leverage the flexibility they have to make sure it suits their personal lifestyles, but also enables them to continue doing what we need them to do in our business.
LEFT: Gabby Costigan has taken over the role of Group Managing Director of Business Development for the company and is now based in the UK
ABOVE: Gabby Costigan joined BAE Systems Australia as CEO-designate on 2 October 2017 and became CEO on 1 January 2018
“WE’RE A BUSINESS THAT IS VERY FUTURE FOCUSED, WE’RE A BUSINESS THAT LIKES TO WORK CLOSELY WITH OUR CUSTOMER”
BAE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA