Sometimes life throws you unexpected curveballs that knock you straight down. Challenges that completely turn your life upside down, and you feel completely out of control. This happened to Heather Opdam early in life, and has given her an interest in improving mental health.

Heather’s father took his life during her early childhood years, leaving a wife and three beautiful girls behind. There was a stigma about suicide in the 70’s, particularly with catholic families where it was considered a sin.

Living in a single parent household with two sisters came with its challenges. Society was based on the “traditional” roles of men and women in the household. For example, a man’s role included things like shovelling snow from the driveway in minus 50 degree temperatures during Winter, and mowing the lawn in Summer. 

When Heather lost her father these perceived male roles were now the responsibility of her and her sisters. As significant as these challenges were, what blossomed in Heather was an inner strength and a can-do attitude that has contributed to her success today.

Heather has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, in both Australia and New Zealand. She is a passionate and experienced Sales Manager with a deep understanding of the needs and drivers in the technology market.

Outside of her senior sales role at VMware, Heather invests her time and energy into volunteering and fundraising on key social issues. Particularly mental health awareness and workplace diversity, and recently led VMware’a Diversity and Inclusion team across ANZ.

Heather loves a challenge, whether that’s running a marathon, riding a mountain bike 650KM over 7 days, or exploring the outdoors. However, her greatest success and passion by far, is being a mother to two teenage boys.

There are so many golden nuggets in this episode. Here’s what we cover:

• Heather’s career journey to Senior Partner Business Manager at VMWare (6:00)
• Her secret to overcoming discrimination in the workplace (14:21)
• Heather’s work with The Black Dog Institute, & the correlation between mental health & physical exercise (19:33)
• She also shares her advice to anyone looking to improve their mental health (35:23)

Episode Resources

• VMware - Tech For Good VMware, AWS and Black Dog Institute raising awareness for mental health research video
• VMWare Conference
• The Bike Bus 
• Black Dog Institute Website 
• Conquer the Corrugations Website
• Heather’s bike tour - TourXOz
• Healther’s LinkedIn and Twitter
• Tamara’s Women Health Statistics: Beyond Blue

Resources if you need help

• Beyond Blue
• Lifeline
• RUOK

Thank you for listening

Thank you for taking the time to listen to the Females in Tech Show.

My aim is to inspire and support you to reach your goals, and provide you with practical tips on how to be the best version of yourself.

If you did enjoy the show, then I'd like to ask three things, so I can inspire and support more career motivated women ( and men).

1. SUBSCRIBE: to the show.
2. REVIEW: write a review for the show in iTunes
3. SHARE: this episode with friends, family and colleagues.