From adversity to the top of the technology industry for CEO

Losing her mother at the age of just 13 proved to be a difficult time for Natalie Duffield. “All of a sudden mortality is brought to the forefront,” Ms Duffield says. “You just look at life in a very different way. My friends were going out and living for today whereas I was a bit more serious in my outlook, in what I wanted to do with my life.” It instilled a desire in her to become independent and enter the world of work early. Eventually setting her on the path to becoming CEO of Harrogate-based InTechnologyWiFi. “My brother went off to university and I decided that I wanted to work my way up through a job,” Ms Duffield says. “That’s what my dad did.” She began with a temp job at Debenhams in Leeds after college but was keen to land herself an office role. Ms Duffield then became a receptionist at the former Linton Springs Hotel but the hours were irregular and managers kept coming and going. So when a job came up at hairdressers Vidal Sassoon, Ms Duffield decided to apply for it. She said: “There was 350 people that applied for the job because it was very popular to work there at the time. “I was quite shy, I still am a little bit shy, so I thought there’s absolutely no chance I’m going to get this job but I did.” After that she joined equipment rental specialist Vp plc and was at the Harrogate-based firm for around four years. Ms Duffield then decided that she wanted to go and work in sales and the seeds of her rise to becoming CEO of InTechnologyWiFi were planted. She sold newspaper advertising for the Champion Shopper for a couple of years. A “great” experience for her but she wasn’t allowed to progress as much as she wanted to. Ms Duffield said: “Telesales is a fantastic grounding. There’s a lot of rejection. It was a team of ladies but it was quite catty in some respects. It was an environment where you were top one minute and bottom the next minute and the sales targets were very aggressive.” The lack of progression saw the ambitious saleswoman seek pastures new and join entrepreneur Peter Wilkinson’s technology business, then called Storm. “I came in and it was very male orientated because IT was at that point,” Ms Duffield says. “There were no other women in sales.” She added: “I was just desperate to be really good at the job. I really wanted it. It was a vibrant company. There was lots of opportunity. There was good money.” Despite the desire to succeed Ms Duffield found herself struggling as it was a much more technical business. She said: “I couldn’t progress as quickly as I’d liked because I had to learn all the technology and be able to spec out, configure the storage and software solutions. “It came naturally to some of the other guys but it didn’t come naturally to me.” Ms Duffield enlisted the help of one of the technical people at the business to help her understand the intricacies of networks. She took home books, came in early and finished late to get a grasp of the technology. Her endeavours were eventually rewarded when she was given a sales account manager role but even there she was faced with obstacles. “I took the job on and I really did have the lowest level accounts,” Ms Duffield said. So she decided to put the experience she’d gained in telesales at the Champion Shopper into action. “I started to cold call around and bit by bit some of the accounts that didn’t really buy from us started to buy,” Ms Duffield said. In a male dominated industry full of technical people, Ms Duffield began to hold her own with her understanding of technology. Having worked her way up to becoming CEO of InTechnologyWiFi, Ms Duffield says the business is at an exciting juncture. InTechnology is pushing out public wifi with blanket coverage. It is doing cutting edge work in the smart cities arena. The UK has been “behind the curve” over the past 10 years when it comes to IT infrastructure but it has planned well for the future. Ms Duffield says the UK’s networking was “like a badly wired house” not long ago due to the legacy of the old telecommunications infrastructure. She added: “Cities like Seoul that seem to be leaps and bounds ahead of everybody else as far as infrastructure is concerned were starting afresh. Whereas we’ve been rectifying, developing and building on what we had previously.” Females at the top of the technology industry are few and far between and while Ms Duffield acknowledges that it has been a “difficult journey” her advice to other women is not to give up. “Don’t give up and have a bit of a thick skin,” she says. “It’s never personal. You always have a gut instinct. It’s really important to listen to that.” Recalling her own learning process, Ms Duffield said: “If you’re going to do anything well you have to put the foundations in. Whether that’s personally or as a business.” Things have come around full circle for Ms Duffield. She has a daughter of her own. The 17-year-old has a similar ambition to her mother of just wanting to be independent. Ms Duffield said: “I was only able to conceive one child – a daughter, who is amazing. “I feel very privileged that I was able to have one because it was very important to me after losing my mum. She’s just a joy. I wanted to support her in the best way that I could and give her a good strong role model. “I asked her what do you want to do and she said I just want to be independent and be able to support myself. I thought that’s a fantastic legacy.” Ms Duffield believes her own role model, her late mother, would be proud of what she has achieved. Ms Duffield said: “She was a fantastic mother. I’m so grateful for her for giving up her career to look after us. “It’s different for women now than it was then. You can have that work life balance and really thrive and I think my mum would have really thrived. She might have achieved a lot more than I have. I think she would have really enjoyed seeing me grow.” Curriculum vitae D.O.B: 27.1.73 Education: Harrogate Grammar School and St Albans Girls School First job: Debenhams Christmas temp Last book read: Citadel by Kate Mosse Favourite film: Hidden Figures Favourite song: True Faith by New Order Car driven: Range Rover Sport Holiday: Yoga retreat in rural Ibiza Best advice given: The most powerful person in the room is the one who listens. Most proud of: My daughter, of course.