Meeting Our Big Boss - Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce PLC

I was nervous to ask for this photo.

This is Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce PLC, our company’s most senior leader. He and his executive team were recently in Indianapolis and I was tasked with capturing moments of their visit to share with our internal audience. I joined them on tours of our manufacturing facilities and walked through our office workspace in downtown Indianapolis, which was under construction at the time. One of my favorite moments of their visit was a regional town hall meeting on International Women's Day 2022. Hearing from our senior leaders and colleagues in attendance was insightful.

After sharing my initial reaction to the week on my LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram pages, one of my coworkers commented that he wanted to say hello to one of our senior leaders during a town hall in the past but couldn't muster up the courage to do so. This made me pause and reflect on the nervousness I experienced while these execs were in town. I was so worried about making a good impression and being a good representative of our organization that I nearly forgot we all have red blood when cut.

Youth Corps taught me how to approach unique opportunities with organizational leaders 15 years ago so I asked Warren and a couple more leaders for a photo. I took selfies with our Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Grazia Vittadini and Paul Stein, Chairman of Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactors. Stakeholder engagement and networking pushes you out of your comfort zone, but I would say it’s a little easier when you remember that we’re all human. We had a great conversation and I left work very proud of myself that week!

Needless to say, I may have gotten a little photo happy with everyone in town BUT it was worth it and my memories of this moment can be shared visually - and hopefully encourages someone else to make the ask 😃