Let me introduce myself, my name is Leanne, and I have the honour of being the very first official Accenture Wollongong employee. The Wollongong office has been an embryonic thought within Accenture for so long, it has been wonderful to be a part of the birthing process, and as the first born, I look forward to seeing the office through its infancy and grow into full maturity. In the last nine months we have grown to almost 80 people and hope to be about double that by the end of 2008! What an opportunity for the local people (and anyone who is looking for an internal transfer).

All right, so I grew up in Sydney and have worked in IT for almost 25 years, in small companies, large corporations, and (of course) contracting. I have worked across industries—banking, insurance, manufacturing, electronic typesetting—you name it, I have probably done it. I have four children (19 years old, 17, 15 and 5) and decided to move them out of Sydney to Shellharbour almost 15 years ago. BEST DECISION I EVER MADE. The lifestyle, the pace, the options for the family, and .... the beaches. (Just take a look at my picture, which was taken on the back balcony of my home!) Wollongong is a part of the Illawarra (which is Aboriginal for "where the mountains meet the sea"), and is a string of beach after beach after beach. The hardest decision is which would be the best beach to swim in each day.

I look forward to giving you a glimpse into my life at Accenture.