JULIA PALMER
COO RELOCATION & CHRO, SANTA FE RELOCATION
Leadership is about positive attributes, not gender
Growing up as an expat teenager, Julia Palmer attended five different high schools across the globe – in the UK, US, Thailand and Australia. So she is well placed to understand the challenges that globally mobile families face when planning for overseas assignments.
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t was the experience of having to find new friends and integrate into new schools which developed her skills of adaptability, resilience, flexibility and the ability to tolerate uncomfortable situations.
All these attributes have served her well in a varied career, which has seen her work in senior positions in Arthur Anderson, EY and Santa Fe Relocation. Julia is chief operating officer of Relo at Santa
Fe Relocation. Relo includes Immigration services, Destination Services, Assignment Management, Compensation and Payroll Services. In addition, Julia was appointed Chief Human Resources Officer in January 2023. She has been with Santa Fe Relocation since 2019 and works with a diverse range of clients, from organisations with large global programmes to those starting with only a handful of assignees, where she advises on creating and implementing a suitable mobility framework. Julia has over 25 years of expertise in the profession.
She started out working for a leading DSP company in Sydney and spent 20 years at EY where she led the assignment management and mobility performance improvement practices in Sydney and London.
ADAPTABILITY AND CALMNESS – SHOULD THEY BE CELEBRATED IN LEADERS? “A lot of my adaptability came from being moved around as a teenager. I went to five high schools as a result of the move. I think that just is within me now. I'm generally a very calm person.” She acknowledges that her demeanour – calm under
pressure, “like a swan swimming serenely on the surface, but paddling frantically underneath” – has sometimes not tallied with the traditional view of a hard-driving, desk- thumping, demanding boss. “Being calm has sometimes been to my detriment,”
she says. “I am not a desk banger, I don’t shout. I've had feedback over the years, which I've tried to listen to, that I don’t seem affected by high-pressured situations. Actually, I am bothered by it, but I think with my style combined with strong ethics and integrity, that doesn’t always show. “In the past, I didn’t have a lot of female role models
and I looked at the few female role models available and thought I am not like that. I'm not necessarily always initially comfortable to speak out or interrupt in meetings or different situations. “We need to open up the discussion around leadership
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