The Profile
Unstoppable
How Microsoft’s Lorena Paglia finds the courage to take the path less wandered, why mentors played such a big role in her career, and what skills she feels are most important for future young leaders.
By Afifah Darke
Lorena Paglia was 12 years old when she was told that her father was ill. Three short months later, he passed away.
“I learned that life could change like that in a real instant. Life can change and in a way that you don't expect it to,” says Paglia in an interview with QS Insights Magazine. Paglia, who is based in Singapore, is Microsoft’s Lead for Data and AI Global Business Programs and Operations. Experiencing the loss of her father at a young age has shaped her into the person she is today, she believes. “As much as it's not something that I would ever wish for anybody to go through it's definitely shaped me into the kind of woman I am.
“When you go through something like that, there honestly isn't a lot that can scare you.” And if anybody is to look at the path that she’s forged for herself, it’s evident – Paglia doesn’t shy from the unknown.
“Life is short, let's just go for what we really want to go for and see what we can do. What's the worst thing that's going to happen?”
When you’re dealing with stakeholders who might not agree with your point of view, we should be “empathetically curious”.
Taking risks
In her early 30s, Paglia took a daring leap, launching her own business. She plunged headfirst into the world of corporate advisory, wielding her expertise in management consulting, business transformation and sustainability. “I would take on high-profile, risky transformation projects that nobody else wanted to touch.”
While starting a business young might seem daunting or even unheard of for many, Paglia brings it back to her philosophy: “Life is short, let's just go for what we really want to go for and see what we can do. What's the worst thing that's going to happen?” Global companies were knocking at her door, wanting Paglia’s help to carry out transformation projects with multi-million dollar impacts on their businesses – but it didn’t faze her. “It was just something that I did with total confidence and was successful.”
Today, Paglia is also the Co-Chair of Microsoft’s global Sustainability Community, where she contributes to advocating for reducing humanity’s carbon impact, understanding and managing ecosystems, advancing zero-carbon and enhancing economic opportunities. In her LinkedIn profile, Paglia says her “purpose is to bring together big ideas, skills and talent, to create good things”. And her purpose has shone through for the past 14 years when she first started talking about sustainability.
In 2014, Paglia won an international award recognising her work on sustainable strategy and approaches for businesses incorporating social, environmental, economic, human and ethical focus. At that time, nobody was really talking about sustainably seriously, she says.
Paglia, who graduated with an MBA from Curtin University, grew up in Perth, Australia, where most of the state’s economy came from mining. “I literally would have people saying to me ‘you're crazy for doing this’ or ‘you're going to go bankrupt for focusing on sustainability and making it part of your business’. These are things that people were actually saying to me.” But Paglia still went ahead – to create good things – with her head held high, supporting companies in doing what she believed in.
Instead of letting companies just sign their cheque books to tick their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) boxes, Paglia says she encouraged companies to look at their operations as a whole governance structure, creating efficiencies and productivity within the systems so they would be able to not only grow – but to do so sustainably. “I think the reality is that sustainability needs to be in everything, whether it's university, whether it's business, whether it's government, it really needs to be embedded into everything,” she says firmly.
Observing how universities have started making big shifts towards sustainable efforts, Pagila says she doesn’t think organisations should be making moves “just to attract top talent or to attract the right people”. She continues: “I think [sustainability] is so much bigger than just that.”
Now, sustainability is embedded in daily operations everywhere – from schools to local enterprises, multinational corporations, and even entire countries and regional organisations. This wasn't always the case, and Paglia feels like her unwavering commitment paid off. Her background in disruptive transformation, she believes, equipped her to see ahead and anticipate the coming shift towards sustainability. “I look at what's going on now, and I'm so grateful that I stayed steady in my path.”
Leader with a heart – and courage
Even though Paglia works in arguably one of the most popular tech companies in the world, she admits that she has “no technology background”. “When it comes to explaining data and AI and how it works from a deep tech perspective, I am not your person,” she admits. “I would refuse to say that I'm an expert because there's still so much to learn.”
Paglia’s belief in the future of sustainability runs deep – “it needs to be 100 percent embedded [within organisations]”, she says. “I think about where we're heading in the future, and data and AI is such a really important part of it.”
She continues: “For me, the future of sustainability and the future of industry transformation really relies on data and AI. The reason that I wanted to do this job is because I wanted to learn everything about data and AI with the hope that one day, I bring all these parts of my career together.”
AI helps to accelerate discovery solutions and understand complex systems in ways that traditional analytics can’t do, Paglia points out. “There's also lots of ways that AI can empower a sustainability workforce - or any workforce.” While the future is uncertain, Paglia says it’s “really good” to see the progress of sustainability, which she celebrates and welcomes. “I’ve been talking about this for 15 years, so I really want to see is – what’s next?”
While the future is beyond her control, Paglia’s role as a leader is something she takes control of - and takes pride in - stressing the importance of being able to engage and communicate with her team. She also acknowledges the importance of collaboration as a leadership skill. “In the future, we're going to have to collaborate more than ever before. And we're going to have to be able to do that across industry - this applies to any industry.”
Adaptability is also a crucial skill for future leaders to have, she points out. “We're never going to see the economy stable like it used to be. There's always going to be something that's taking place, whether it's geopolitical or sustainability, or something else. So, you need to be adaptable.”
If we look at the pace of change just in the aspect of technology alone, it’s clear that future leaders will be expected to make decisions quickly, she points out. “That sometimes means making a decision and then even if you've got a course correct later, that's ok – you’ve at least made that decision.” This is when creativity comes in, says Paglia. “I'm actually a more creative person at heart and I'm able to bring a lot of that into business. You’ve got to look at all the moving parts around you and kind of go, okay, this is a possible solution that we can look at.”
As a first-generation Australian, Paglia's upbringing was a vibrant blend of cultures. Her parents, who migrated to Perth from Rome in 1972, instilled a strong Italian heritage in their household. “It's really interesting … when you're in a very Aussie environment,” she laughs.
But experiencing such a colourful cultural background growing up, Paglia says it has made her not only have a deep cultural awareness, but also nurtured a strong sense of empathy within her. “We are all here to be professionals and to be good at what we do. But you've always got to realise it's a person on the other side of that.” When you’re dealing with stakeholders who might not agree with your point of view, we should be “empathetically curious”, she says. “It's OK that we have differences in opinion." It’s important to acknowledge that every point of view, or every stakeholder agenda, is valid, she says. “It's about finding a win-win situation, right? And taking people on that journey, so you really need to have that empathetic curiosity.”
It also takes a lot of courage to be a leader today, Paglia believes. “To be able to take a stand, to be able to come from a standpoint that might not be popular,” she continues, “as long as you've got the right data, you've got the right facts, you've got the right understanding, then there's good reasons why you're doing that.”
The power of mentorship
Accustomed to working in male-dominated industries, Paglia says that being one of the few women in the room, was never at the forefront of her mind. “I think I was really fortunate, especially in my first role [in a law firm], to be in such a nurturing environment.” It also helps that she was stubborn to learn and “make my mark in the world”, smiles Paglia. “I think going through some of these situations actually helped me learn how to stand my ground in a very diplomatic way. It taught me to have confidence and how to show up well and also not be afraid to stand up for myself.”
Paglia says sometimes it was hard to hear when people making comments about her life choices and circumstances. “There were well intended comments, but they were all about what my role should be as a woman in society,” she says. “I would get things said to me like 'You chose a career over a partner and children' - which is so not true. It’s just the way life worked out.”
She also recalls when she started her own business and would receive comments asking her when she would get a “real job”. “They weren't said to me by men necessarily in the workforce. And these were actually harder things to deal with than what it was working in a male-dominated environment.”
At the very beginning of her career, when Paglia was working in a law firm, she found herself incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by "amazing" mentors. It was during this time that she came to a realisation about the immense value of having experienced colleagues guide her. These mentors didn't just offer advice, they actively encouraged her to tap into her full potential.
“It was actually through their encouragement that that's how I ended up going back to university [to pursue an MBA], says Paglia. “If it wasn't for [my mentor] and the way he really pushed me in the way he encouraged me, I probably wouldn't be where I am today,” she shares fondly. The irony, Paglia points out, is that some of her best mentors in her career have been men. “My boss at the time, Rick was his name, explained it to me: ‘You’ve got to identify the people that will take the kick. All we did [for you] was line the kick up for you and you took the kick.’”
And Paglia has taken all the kicks, as it seems – scoring goals wherever she goes and bulldozing any doubts or naysayers along the way.