Product specialist Layla Foord will join the Rex team as its new Chief Operating Officer, leading the team’s product, marketing, people, and culture initiatives.
As COO, Ms Foord joins the founders of Rex Software in spearheading the continued growth and development of both business and culture.
Ms Foord said this would involve building out the strategic product vision and roadmap for the portfolio, and developing go-to-market and brand strategies.
“For product and culture, we’ll be expanding on the great work the existing teams have done to establish a high performing and engaged team of people, doing great work and enjoying what they do,” Ms Foord said.
Ms Foord comes to the position from her previous role as vice president product for an education-based content aggregator, where she helped the founders mature their product practice.
“There, I developed better planning and decision making frameworks, as well as ways to reduce risk and increase predictable outcomes for product and engineering,” she said.
Her new role with Rexlabs brings marketing and people management into her remit, allowing her to bring teams closer together, and have a bigger impact on outcomes for customers and people.
“I bring decades of experience in fast-growing tech businesses in the UK and Australia, where I’ve helped to grow culture and provide clarity of vision and focus,” she said.
“I’m determined that the best way to grow is sustainably and to do that, unlocking the power of the people within the business is absolutely key.
“I’m excited to join a business that shares this vision and has trusted me with such an important area of the business.”
Ms Foord’s goals include understanding the market, context, and environment within which Rexlabs is working, and how best to serve its clients.
“I like to establish a common view of a customer and use data to make decisions, so establishing frameworks will be high on my list,” she said.
“I’ll be working closely with the founders to further develop the vision and strategy, rituals and processes to create more agility and quality in our planning and delivery, so we can build even better products for our customers to help them get their jobs done.
“When it comes to people and culture, there is already so much to be proud of, so I’ll be helping to get that message out there, in order to attract even more amazing talent to the business.”
In her spare time, Ms Foord loves to read and play the ukulele. She’s also setting up a Brisbane-based battle of the tech bands – a community building night of singing and playing with other tech businesses in the area – Rex’s first band will participate at the inaugural event.
“I have a wonderful family and spend every spare moment with my husband, daughter and Dad who all moved here from Melbourne with me two years ago,” Ms Foord said.
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