125: What does it take to be the first and only female CEO in your industry? By Cecily McGuckin

Today, we continue the conversation with the first and only female CEO in Australia’s steel distribution industry. Cecily McGuckin initially built her career in retail development construction, never really seeing the family business that her Dad had run for over 25 years as an option. Working for Suncorp and Mirvac before having her three kids, she eventually joined her father a decade ago at Queensland Sheet and Steel.

She has scaled her fathers “hand shake deal business” into a formidable player in the industry: recently winning the National CEO of the Year Award for 2020. Believing that people are a company’s greatest asset, she continues to use gut instinct and emotional intelligence to move her business and the industry into 2021 and beyond.

Thanks Cecily for taking time to share your leadership experience with our audience.

The Goods on Cecily:

Cecily McGuckin, the first and only female CEO in Australia’s steel distribution industry, she is passionate about driving change in her industry and her family owned business, Queensland Sheet and Steel (QSS) as it enters 34 years in business. Cecily began her career in finance but quickly stumbled upon an area she enjoyed so much more. Construction development management. Roles at leading companies including Suncorp and Mirvac, followed where she gained a wealth of experience in the day-to-day running of big business and the delivery of large scale projects.

It’s these experiences that helped shape the leader Cecily is today – a problem solver and out of the box thinker. Cecily is also resilient. As a woman in a man’s world she has needed to prove herself time and time again. Not just to her peers and her staff, but her father who started the business from nothing. Cecily credits her emotional intelligence and gut instincts as the key drivers behind her success as a CEO. Not to mention her willingness to take a breath and calmly find the right moment to create conversations that generate results.

Contact Cecily:

Website: https://qss.net.au/about-us/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cecily-cec-mcguckin-93b99a29

Top 100 Women: https://www.top100women.com.au/cecily-mcguckin/

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Welcome to In the Game, a podcast where we aim to touch, move and inspire you to what's possible in life. My name is Sarah Maxwell and I am a self-proclaimed relationship engineer. Ever since I was a little girl, I was curious about how people work and how they interact with one another. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball, retiring from sport into mindset and purpose coaching, I now spend my days running Chatta-box Media, where we aim to story-tell for brands through the medium of podcasting, all while raising an eight-year-old daughter with my partner of 24 years. We are now in season seven of this podcast, featuring a special series on women called who Knew that Was Work aimed at young women who want to broaden their horizon when it comes to career choosing.
Go deeper into the pod and discover incredible stories of changemakers who manifest their dream lives. Gain tangible tools to apply to your own life by scrolling back to that initial season where we were more workbook focused. Have a laugh when we initially were coined the Nat and Sarah show, when my five-time Olympian partner, natalie Cook, and I bantered and had loads of fun interviewing and discovering our common passion individuals who rise to the occasion in life. Okay, now it's time to dive on in to this episode.
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