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Navigate native: International Women’s Day with Charlotte Fowler, Head of Customer Success

International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911. Since then, the annual celebration has had three key aims: to highlight the direction women’s equality has taken, to celebrate women’s ongoing achievements and to continue to accelerate equity and equality. This years theme is #EmbraceEquity, which focuses on gender equity being a pivotal part of society that “isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have”.

We sat down with Charlotte Fowler, Head of Customer Success as a part of our navigate native series, to give you an insight into what it’s like to be a part of the native family – as well as to celebrate the achievements of one of the many successful women that work at native.

Let’s take a look at what International Women’s Day means to Charlotte, who inspires her most in her daily life and how she takes that inspiration to positively influence others.

Women hugging: International Women's Day

1. Tell us about yourself and your role at native. 

I’m the Head of Customer Success at native. I look after the customer success team, who make sure our Students’ Unions are seeing tons of value from their native partnership. We get our SUs onboarded with the platform and make sure we’re delivering great opportunities across the native ecosystem, from liberation events and club tours to product and technology solutions and much more – all with the end goal of giving students the university life they deserve!

 

2. What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning? 

It’s normally my 4 year old jumping on me at 6am! Also, I really love breakfast.

 

3. What is your proudest achievement in your career to date?

When working in the energy industry I designed a CRM, despite having no tech background. I worked with a developer to build, test and implement it. It also happened to go on to win awards! It was so satisfying to see something grow from sketches to a fully-fledged piece of software.

 

4. What female figure has inspired you the most in your life? 

My friends inspire me every day. Watching them all grow and flourish in their careers while keeping it real and juggling life, families, loss and so much more is amazing to me. Being able to cheer them on through the ups and downs is a privilege. They remind me that when we look for it, there is so much inspiration around us every day. It’s important to try and draw from that where possible. 

 

5. How do you try to be a positive role model for your team? 

This is a tough one to answer! I’d like to think (they’ll correct me if I’m wrong) that I don’t give up easily and help to demonstrate that you can find different ways around a problem to get a positive outcome, and you can also use some creative thinking to combat challenges. 

 

6. What does International Women’s Day mean to you? 

For me it’s a time to reflect on the status quo. Women’s rights have come so far but there’s still so much to do – especially when you take into account intersectionality and that the progression many of us have experienced is not mirrored everywhere. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is so prevalent in today’s society and it’s great to see people across the globe (not just women) coming together to fight for equity and equality for all. Let’s take the time to celebrate the wins, and use that energy to propel us forward and campaign for ALL women, all year around.

 

7. If you could give your younger student self one piece of advice, what would that be? 

Take time to explore and be curious! There are so many weird and wonderful jobs and industries out there and if I had stuck with what I wanted to do when I was 20 I’d have missed out on some great experiences and wouldn’t be where I am today.

Navigate native interview with Charlotte Fowler

Quick-fire questions – Your favourite female…

Artist – Currently its Frankie Thorp, her paintings just evoke that holiday vibe for me

Entrepreneur – Sharmadean Reid – I had the pleasure of interviewing her for IWD once and she’s bullet-sharp, creative and innovative as well as being one of the most stylish women I’ve ever come across!

Role model – RBG! She broke so many barriers and always used her power to campaign for marginalised groups – a legend.

Want to join the team and work alongside Charlotte? See our latest openings and meet Matt, Head of SU Strategic Partnerships.