Eaglecrest CEO David Pretorius on why “women get s**t done”

Pretorius explains why he has an all-female leadership team running the Tassie-based MSP.

Tasmania-based MSP Eaglecrest has a full team of female managers, because according to CEO, David Pretorius women “get s**t done”.

At Eaglecrest, its CFO, professional services manager and non-technical service desk manager are female.

The MSP is also a strategic partner with Hobart-based Compago, which their CFO, Vanessa Van Bohemen oversees the finances of both companies.

Speaking to CRN Australia, Pretorius said, “[Compago] also works closely with the full team of female managers, because they get s**t done, which is funny how that works.

“To their credit they're starting to get very agile, a little bit of risk aware and taking on a little bit of risk, and it's benefiting the company a lot, which is great.”

He added, “My entire delivery team is managed by the two women, and Vanessa [Van Bohemen] is the CFO across the two companies.”

When Pretorius joined as the CEO eight years ago, he began the journey of “helping women in tech take the bulls**t out”.

He said putting the women in charge of men, he explicitly told his female leaders to not mother them but guide them.

“The guys have just lifted because of that diligence, non-mothering but nurturing. And the business has just cleaned up tickets, we're super efficient. We are taking on AI and automation,” Pretorius explained.

“The women are here going out and finding about all this automation, and they'll help decide when it goes in, and they'll know exactly how it works.”

Pretorius noted that when he compares men and women when building technology, men tend to show off their skills for attention, whereas women do it for an outcome.

“Boys tend to go ‘hey, look at me. I've just built a machine, and I've pulled it apart’. Whereas the girls go, ‘I want to build that machine to do something, I want to achieve something’,” he said.

Pretorius appreciates women for their candour and no-nonsense attitude. He highlighted the company’s non-technical service desk manager, Sophie Bricknell, for calling out excuses from her male counterparts.

"[Bricknell] could just manage them and go, ‘I call bulls**t on that because no excuses’,” he said.

“There's a client that's been impacted, she can see that and she asks, ‘why didn't you communicate? Why don't you delegate? Why didn't you escalate? I don't care what the ticket says, it’s high priority you should have escalated’.”

Pretorius has noticed that having female leadership has given everyone in the company a boost.

“Empowering [women], all of a sudden, they step up, and then the boys step up because they're not just males managing males,” he said.

“We are starting to see a bit more of [female leadership] in the industry, which is good.”

Eaglecrest is a team of 20 with offices in Launceston and Hobart, they also have plans to branch out to Victoria this year.