JO CLENDON
Business Impact Lead
BCom
Jo Clendon is Umbrella’s Business Impact Lead. She ensures we stay focused on our strategic priorities, and partners with our other leads to develop and navigate our vision for the future.
Jo’s role at Umbrella reflects her broad experience in large corporations and her passion for wellbeing. “I joined Umbrella after taking time out to be at home with young kids. Before that I had worked in leadership roles for large multi-national corporates and knew I wanted something different and aligned to my values and my passion for making workplaces good for people. My knowledge of how big companies work enables me to hone our vision and strategy for delivering measurable return on investment to our customers.”
With two decades’ experience in corporate roles both here and overseas, including senior leadership roles in high-profile companies, Jo understands what success means for both Umbrella and the clients we work with, across corporate, public and private sectors.
She uses her skills in leadership, product development, brand building, project management, business systems and processes to support our team and build our business and ensure we are creating the positive impacts we desire for our customers, their people and our stakeholders.
“While our psychologists focus on ensuring our clients can be their best selves, I concentrate on supporting our team and brand ‘behind the scenes’, so that our team are focused on delivering measurable, effective and impactful change for our customers.
“New Zealand’s shortage of mental health professionals is challenging our creativity and innovation – we are determined to find new ways to support organisations and their people to thrive – and that is the type of creative and problem-solving challenge I love,” she says.
When we struggled to define Jo’s role, we considered options like: lighthouse keeper, celestial navigator, harbourmaster, lead of many things, fairy godmother, coxswain, producer, navigator, co-pilot, co-CEO, and versatile lead. They’d all be true but to settle on one we’ve gone for business impact lead.
Jo is a keen bike rider and describes Umbrella’s leadership team as akin to a cycling peloton, where strong riders take turns to lead the group, deflecting headwinds and enabling everyone to work to their strengths, heading in the right direction. It also provides for oscillation and recovery – key to doing our best work to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders and deliver business impact via improved productivity for New Zealand businesses.
“My experience as a contractor for Umbrella relies on Jo’s reliably efficient and friendly approach, and her technological expertise is catching! A vital member of the team.”
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