Lucie Drummond

General Manager Sustainability, Mercury
Young Executive of the Year winner, 2020

Lucie has held several different positions since joining Mercury in 2016, and is currently General Manager, Sustainability. This is a broad role with responsibilities for the organisation-wide facilitation of strategy, external communications, government and industry relations, community engagement, future of energy and corporate sustainability.

Having the courage to take ‘leaps of faith’ outside her comfort zone has defined Lucie’s career, which hasn’t followed a traditional straight-line path. These include moving from law into a variety of different roles and relocating offshore to a country where she didn’t know anyone. But her biggest leap of faith came shortly after returning to work following parental leave, being offered a challenging new position that set her on a trajectory to her current role.

Lucie was the recipient of the Deloitte Top 200 Young Executive of the Year award in 2020, with the judges noting that she “could have headed for Greenpeace or some other non-governmental organisation (NGO), but has recognised the business world as the place where she can be most effective and deliver the most positive change — and the place she wants to be”.

What was it that inspired you to enter the Deloitte Top 200 awards?
The main thing that drove me to apply was the ability to have an impact and inspire someone else, particularly other young women. The more we can see representations of a variety of people, the more we can inspire other people to do these types of roles.

How did you find the application process and what did you take away from it?
I found the application writing process a little bit more confronting than I anticipated. As New Zealanders, we can often get into a position of not associating the things we accomplish with our own success. The entire process helped me to challenge and develop my thinking about my future career and where I could go.

What was the experience like engaging with the judges?
It was an experience like never before! I have never been interviewed by two board chairs and a senior reporter – I found that to be a challenging experience but an extremely valuable part of the process. They asked really challenging questions to stretch my thinking and raised things for me that had never been on the radar before. Even if I hadn’t walked away with the award, I would have taken a huge amount from just the application process.

What would you say to another young executive considering applying for this award this year?
You really benefit from having some diversity in thinking about your own future and going through this as an experience to really reflect on your own career. It’s easy to dismiss applying since everyone is so busy, but I would highly recommend taking the time to complete the application process and help drive your own thinking… and if you do get to interact with the judging panel then that’s a bonus!

Considering applying? Find out more about the Young Executive of the Year Award today!