Making it big in tech space

Hazel del Rosario-Lee

She was no techie. In fact, she didn’t even have a computer back then. But Hazel del Rosario-Lee is a fast learner. She studied hard on her own and worked harder. After obtaining her degree in Human Resources Management from the College of Saint Benilde in 2000 and a brief stint with a staffing agency, Del Rosario-Lee got into the world of information technology and has remained there to this day.

Nearly two years ago, then 40-year-old Del Rosario-Lee became the first Filipino to head cloud-based business solutions provider Oracle NetSuite Philippines. In June last year, she was appointed senior director of the company’s worldwide support on a concurrent capacity.

As managing director, she is in charge of the operations of the company in the Philippines and of growing its customer base that includes those in the wholesale and retail business, distribution, food and beverage, as well as real estate and property development. For her other role, she manages the company’s global customer support which has three main delivery sites—one in Asia, one in Europe and the third in North America—all servicing the global requirements of Oracle NetSuite.

At Oracle NetSuite Philippines, she is looked up to as a strong, confident and nurturing leader.

“Nurturing may be confused with being soft or being unable to hold people unaccountable. But that’s not the case for her (Del Rosario-Lee). She always works on empowering her team and her passion is to improve the lives of those around her which makes her a great coach and mentor,” says Ferdinand Esplana, director of technical support at Oracle NetSuite.

Difficult journey

The advancement of her career may seem fast and smooth but she admits her journey wasn’t easy. There were humps and bumps along the way. There were a few times she stumbled, but each time she was quick to regain her bearings to continue the journey.

She married young and had her first child while she was still in college. She lost her first husband in a vehicular accident. A single parent, she had to support herself to finish her studies by working in a theater group while her mother helped her raise her son.

Her entry into the IT world was neither planned nor expected. Only a few months into her first job at the staffing agency, she decided she had to move on and find a higher-paying job to support her son and mother. And as fate would have it, a new account of her company, US-based supplier of business applications Great Plains, was then establishing its presence in the country and was hiring. At the prodding of her previous employer, she applied and got accepted for technical support.

“I had no idea about the work except that it paid well (more than double her salary at the staffing agency), it involved a technical job and that I had to work on night shift, which wasn’t a problem,” she says. “My educational background was not an issue with Great Plains. They were just looking for people who were up to new challenges and willing to work on night shift.”

But because she had no background on IT and computers, her first few months on the new job were a real struggle, particularly during the training period.

“Of the 10 or so people in the company, I was the only one without a computer background so I was always behind everybody,” she says. But Del Rosario-lee worked hard to catch up with her colleagues. “There was a time I stayed in the office, lived and slept there, for two straight weeks to study on my own,” she shares.

She was determined to learn the job and be good at it. Her humble beginnings in Tondo, having been raised by a single parent with no permanent job, had taught her how to persevere and be responsible. The fact that her son and mother depended on her was the strongest motivation for her to keep going and excel in whatever she was doing. Thus, in no time, she got promoted to team leader.

Getting hooked

She then moved from one IT company to another, first to Microsoft Business Solutions when it acquired Great Plains, and later to Sykes. In Sykes Asia, an international business process outsourcing firm, she had to undergo soft skills training which involved English communication and accent neutralization, as well as leadership training.

By that time, she says she had already fallen in love with the industry. “I saw how it took care of its people, how heavily invested this industry is in training and development which I believed I needed,” she says.

In 2006, she had the opportunity to work for a Microsoft office in the United States and the prospects looked rosy. However, only a few months later, she had to go back to the Philippines for personal reasons. She discovered she was pregnant with her child by her second husband, who could not join her in the United States for good because of his business in the Philippines. So she decided to come home in the same year. That was when she received an offer from NetSuite, a pioneering provider of cloud-based business solutions, which was then establishing a unit in the Philippines. She joined NetSuite after giving birth as team leader of technical support, became one of the pioneers in NetSuite Philippines and the rest was history.

Bigger role

After assuming the roles of supervisor, manager, senior manager and director, she became managing director of OracleNetSuite Philippines and senior director of global customer support. As she climbs up the ladder, the challenges she faces become bigger. She remains unfazed by all of these, though, as she is never afraid to work hard and continue learning.

A strong believer of succession planning, she is determined to prepare everybody in the organization for bigger roles. “It is a priority for me to ensure that someone can run the business if I get hit by a bus. Also, by training others to do the things I do, I will be able to take on new responsibilities to broaden my skills and experiences to prepare me for the next role,” she says.

Both at work and at home, she applies the principle of delegation. She empowers, trains and nurtures her staff to do their work without her breathing down their neck all the time.

“With my current roles, you will appreciate and embrace the value of delegation. It doesn’t only help you manage your workload, it also allows you to develop and grow others to be ready for bigger roles,” she says.

Describing Del Rosario-Lee as a manager, company director for customer support Mark Joseph dela Cruz says, “I’ve been working with her for many years now. She has helped me in many ways in managing my team by being a role model and good mentor. I never saw her micro managing our work and that gives us confidence, knowing that your boss trusts the decisions you make.”

At home, she turns into a practical wife who leverages the power of technology and innovation to do the things the family needs and wants.

“We are a dual-income family by choice. Both career and my family are very important to me. My husband and I believe that in this day and age, we can do both and even pursue our hobbies and interests,” she says.

You can ask her to work all day and night on weekdays but you can’t touch her weekends and holidays.

“Those are for family. Our kids enjoy the freedom and independence they have most of the week and they are learning a lot from it,” she says.

Del Rosario-Lee has gone a long way since those days when making both ends meet was the top priority. But she is still very much in the game, ready to face new challenges and assume other roles that may be given her.