Katy Chan joined Northteq in 2022 and currently serves as the director of professional services, focused on delivering quality service and value-add solutions to clients.

Chan started her career in technology as a project manager. She was in the field for 15 years working for various companies in the financial services and financial technology industries. During this time, Chan garnered a reputation for being a “fixer;” if a project was over budget or a client was unhappy, Chan would step in.

She attributes her success in managing difficult situations to following a “people-first” approach: before making a plan, Chan will take the time to listen to the client’s concerns and get feedback from the team on where things went wrong.

“I’m a strong believer that people want to feel heard and that they can be part of the solution,” Chan says. “By taking the time to listen to client stories and asking questions, you can uncover the root cause, which is critical to devising a new actionable plan. Once you have a plan, you create the right team to execute.”

Chan recognizes that a project manager is only as strong as the project team. Over the years, Chan has honed her skills in building and leading high performant project teams. She does this by fostering a safe and collaborative work environment. She takes the time to get to know everyone she works with by learning the people behind the name and title. “It’s very powerful to be able to foster a team culture where everyone feels a deep sense of belonging.” Chan says.

Since transitioning into a leadership role at Northteq, Chan has shifted the “people-first” approach that worked in her projects into building out her team and being an effective people manager. She gives agency to the people that report to her by listening to their concerns, asking the right questions and helping them identify and come up with the solutions to their root problems.

At the beginning of 2023, Northteq established a goal of reducing implementation times by 50%, which it achieved by Q3. Not resting on their laurels, Chan saw an opportunity to ride this momentum further and push her team to reduce implementation times by another 15% by the end of 2023.

Chan has coined this as Northteq’s ‘NextGen implementation.’ During Northteq’s company onsite, she gathered her services team to brainstorm how to achieve this goal. Fast forward two weeks, the team was already piloting their improvements with a new client.

“Katy listens. She takes active listening to new heights, asks questions and challenges until she truly understands the problem,” Lara Tolland, chief operating officer of Northteq, says. “Then she drives solutions to the problem, focusing on the root cause she identified. This year, Katy was able to lead Northteq towards one of our ambitious goals of reducing our LOS implementation hours by 50%. Katy is highly focused on delivering to our clients, and she’s unquestionably hit the mark with her approach and accomplishments this year.”

“My advice to others is to take ownership of your career. Show up with questions. Ask for feedback. Watch and learn, especially when people aren’t expecting you to. Be grateful and lean on those around you for guidance and support, but don’t make it someone’s job to define your future.”