Cohesion during a Merger
Speakers: Heather Fraser and Manjula Devaraj
As part of Dal's administrative transformation journey, our core ITS team welcomed some distributed IT partners into their fold. Our largest group merger was with the Academic Technology Services team from the Faculty of Libraries. It came with months of planning, careful and strategic discussions before hand, thoughtful communication during the change and ongoing efforts to ensure the teams felt validated and valued. Once merged, finding the correct roles, classifications, relationship building and team cohesion was priority one for us as leaders. This journey we will share hopefully brings some value as if embarking on a similar journey.
Learning Objectives:
- Leading through change
- Relationship and resource management challenges during change
- Importance of team cohesiveness and feeling valued
Speaker Bios:
Heather started her journey in publishing and web development after earning a Bachelor of Commerce. After several year in private sector as an IT project manager and managing technical teams, she went to set up a Project Management Office at her Alma Mater, Saint Mary’s University. In 2017, Heather joined Dalhousie University as Director of Project & Portfolio Management and eventually became Director of Enterprise Applications. Currently, she manages a team of 40 staff in both technical and business roles, focusing on application strategy and leadership to drive organizational goals. In 2024, she also stepped into the role of Deputy CIO, supporting the greater IT organization more broadly. Heather holds several certifications, including PMP, ITIL, and GIAC, and earned her MBA-Leadership from Dalhousie.
Manjula Devaraj is currently leading the Technology Support Services team at ITS in Dalhousie. Having Graduated from MUN and with 2 post grad diplomas, ITIL certified, and IT is now her jam! She has spent over 25 years in the Ifield emerging as a leader within the first 3 years of her career. From private sector, to government sector to higher ed, her experience and knowledge span a breadth of teams and tech environments. Having lived most of her life in Newfoundland, she considers herself a Newfoundlander with a health sprinkling of Nova Scotian vibes.