This event is exclusive to Champions for Change member organisation.
Caroline Ovenstone and Susan Lowe on what it takes to shift a culture, from the CEO’s seat and the Chief People Officer’s seat at the same time.
About the session
Most culture transformation stories are told after the fact, tidied up, with the hard parts sanded off. This one won’t be.
Alpine Energy is an essential lifeline service connecting more than 33,000 customers across South Canterbury. Over recent years the business has worked through regulatory resets, modernising systems, and rebuilding after a period of instability. The kind of turnaround that looks like strategy on paper but made possible by culture.
Chief Executive Caroline Ovenstone and Chief People & Organisational Performance Officer Susan Lowe take us inside that work. The decisions, the resistance, what they’d do differently, and the moments where the plan met the reality of a workforce that had already been through a lot.
Format: 60 minutes in conversation, then 30 minutes of open dialogue. Come with your questions.
Who it’s for: Champions for Change members and their senior leadership teams. Bring your CPO, your ELT, whoever is carrying this work in your organisation.
Speakers
- Caroline Ovenstone, Chief Executive Officer, Alpine Energy. Caroline has led Alpine through its transformation, with a focus on strengthening the link between governance, culture and community outcomes, and giving people the confidence to lead from where they stand. She came to the role via senior executive leadership in South Africa, including as Managing Partner at BDO South Africa, and sits on the Global Women board.
- Susan Lowe, Chief People & Organisational Performance Officer, Alpine Energy. Susan leads people and organisational performance at Alpine, where the People and Safety team’s brief is to build a culture in which people can do their best work safely. She has written about culture transformation from the practitioner’s side: what works, what stalls, and why so much change effort never reaches the people it was designed for.