"I think what I'm most proud of is the relationships that I've built along the way." -  Janette O'Neill

She built a global sustainability function from the ground up, led people and culture transformation across Australia, the UK and Ireland, and was named interim Chief HR Officer for North America right as Covid upended everything about the role. Thirty years in, people still ask her the same question: how do you actually make sustainability work inside a business, instead of it just being a slogan on a slide.

Along the way there's a New York apartment lined up in the West Village, a view of the Chrysler Building, and Billy Joel tickets for Madison Square Garden - and then, as she puts it, "the Covid happened."

Janette O'Neill is a former Global Head of Sustainability at QBE, with a career spanning strategy consulting, culture and HR transformation, and sustainability leadership across Andersen Consulting, PwC, NAB and QBE in Australia, the UK, Ireland and the US. In this conversation, Janette talks with Dr Luella Forbes about how she built a global sustainability function from scratch, her interim posting to New York and the Covid timing that upended it, what she's learned about resilience versus adaptability, and what it's like navigating a workplace that assumes childless employees have nothing else pulling at their time.

00:01:06 - Meet Janette: Global Head of Sustainability at QBE

00:03:09 - A Deliberate Pause: Stepping Away On Her Own Terms

00:09:10 - Decoding Sustainability: Beyond the Paper Cups

00:13:44 - AI's Hidden Cost: Convenience vs Consequence

00:16:19 - From Art Curator to Andersen Consulting: How It All Started

00:32:07 - The New York Dream That Covid Cancelled

00:35:14 - Redefining Resilience: Why Adaptability Wins

00:38:54 - Success, Wellbeing and Life Without Kids at Work

00:44:34 - Quickfire Round

00:45:42 - What She's Proudest Of

Janette O’Neills LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janette-o-neill-a60343/

All opinions are the guest's own.

New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.

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Career Stories is hosted by Dr Luella Forbes, who works with organisations on leadership, change and storytelling. To find out how she can support your leaders and teams, visit luellaforbes.com/services

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