Software Engineer to CEO: Kahl's journey at Gallagher
Everyone’s paths at Gallagher are varied and different, but what’s consistent is the scale of opportunity that Gallagher offers. Today we look at Kahl Betham's almost 25-year journey with Gallagher, one that saw him start as a Software Engineer – progressing to CEO.
Kahl was born in Whanganui, New Zealand, and attended Rangitikei College, a small secondary school in Marton. He had a lot of jobs growing up – it started with a paper run, then picking fruit at a berry farm, and finally a job sweeping floors in a mechanical workshop – which he says have all shaped him as a person.
“Looking back on my childhood, I came from a really hard-working family with a strong work ethic. Dad was a truck driver. Mum has always worked in a supermarket and often had a second part-time job too. She recently celebrated her 30th anniversary at New World. As a family we’d muck in when needed, we’d always try to say yes to people who asked for anything,” Kahl explains.
Following school, Kahl went on to Manawatu Polytechnic (now UCOL) and studied a Bachelor of Applied Information Systems.
“I’ve always known I wanted to mix business with tech. That course enabled me to do that. I wanted the technical skills, but I also wanted to learn the fundamentals of business.”
He explains his upbringing, and wise words from people throughout his career, have led to a number of things that are important to him today.
“My paper run provided perhaps one of my earliest learnings,” Kahl says. “I learnt if I looked after people, like dropping the paper off at the door for elderly people instead of the mailbox, that they’ll do the right thing back and our community would be better as a whole. It’s a people-first approach I still hold dear to the way I aim to operate today.”
The journey with Gallagher begins
Kahl was introduced to our business through an industry project as part of his studies. He was hired by Richard Coxon – who still leads what was previously called Gallagher Fuel Systems, now named PEC – and Steve Bell who led Cardax (now Gallagher Security) and remains an important part of our business.
“I interned for about five months and was offered a job before the project ended. I spent quite a few years as a Software Engineer supporting enhancements and bugs on existing security products.”
When the Security business relocated from Marton to Hamilton in 2000, Kahl relocated too. He remembers writing code in the office while watching our main glass building being built.
“Understanding customers and the way things work commercially have always been important to me and my next role as a Business Analyst enabled me to experience that properly for the first time. I was one of the first two Business Analysts within R&D – meeting with customers, understanding requirements, and then translating those requirements back to our developers.”
From there Kahl moved to a Product Manager position, also within Security, with responsibility for Access Control, then Access Control & Perimeter Fencing, which allowed him to start shaping business strategy. Following that was a large number of years as Global Product Manager for Security.
But after 17 years with the company, Kahl felt the time was right to leave Gallagher to get experience and perspective at a different company.
“I was with a company that specialised in fleet GPS tracking solutions for about six months before being offered the opportunity to return to Gallagher and head up our Security business,” Kahl explains. “We all have daunting parts of our career, and that was probably mine because the challenge ahead was significant.”
Overcoming new obstacles
When asked if a CEO role was always the mission for Kahl, he explained it wasn’t. It was more one step – or goal – at a time.
“I always wanted to lead something. More specifically I always wanted to lead a tech-related something. Did I think I’d be a CEO? Probably not. And did I think I’d be CEO of an organisation as big as Gallagher? Never. A role like this felt like a natural progression following my time as Global GM for Security though.”
Throughout his career, Kahl has always found value in learning from others, and zoomed in on the importance of unpicking your strengths and blind spots.
“I came from a technical or practical background, so I needed to learn more about people – specifically what makes teams and organisations work well. It was a turning point in my career. I’ll always remember what Margaret Comer [Gallagher’s former Corporate Services Executive] would say which was ‘be kind and look after people’. People working together and doing things as a team is something that means you can achieve true global scale.”
Learning and growth is life long
Learning is an important part of career development, and Kahl says there’s no one thing that has contributed the most to what he’s learnt.
“You change a little bit every year. Who you are is a collection of experiences. I learnt a bit when I left Gallagher but I could have gained those learnings in other ways. You learn a lot when you become a parent. You learn by failing. You learn by talking to people. You learn a lot when you get to the edge of burnout. You learn a lot as a result of feedback,” he says. “There’s no one moment. And that’s a great thing – learning is adaptive – that’s why we’re building a culture of ongoing learning at Gallagher.”
Each and every one of us has different career aspirations. Just like Kahl, many of us might not know right now that being a CEO or senior leader might be what we’re destined for. But for those who do know, or are keen to know more, we asked him for his advice.
“I’d say there’s two things that are important to set people up for senior leadership roles – deeply understanding customer and commercial models, and truly understanding team dynamics.
“The first means to take a walk in the shoes of a customer. Empathy means to understand them. It’s especially important to deeply understand customers when the going gets tough.
“And the other means to get a good sense of people’s personal attributes – good and bad – and what motivates people. It’s important in all leadership roles to understand the strengths of everyone and to work out how to harness them in a team. Another thing I’ve learnt along the way is that diversity is critical – there is so much power in diverse opinions.”
Thoughts on doing more by doing less
Wellbeing continues to be an important topic across the Group, so we spoke about what he’s learnt when it comes to sustainable ambition.
“Along the way I’ve learnt that it’s all about the fastest team finish – not the fastest individual finish. Part of what we need to remember is that everyone’s got different levels of ambition, speed of execution, risk appetite, and so on, and that’s OK,” Kahl says. “Ensuring our wellbeing means lots of things - like giving people time to latch onto ideas, prioritising ruthlessly, and developing shared understandings of success.”
Kahl says balancing work, family life, and health is deeply important to him as CEO, and something he wishes he realised earlier on in his career.
“To my younger self I’d say ‘keep your balance’. I even think I might have got more done if I was more balanced. I could have taken the foot off the pedal and have achieved more, by maintaining more consistent energy levels and more consistent performance. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.”
The future is exciting
He adds that the future is our oyster as a business, and as individuals.
“It’s pretty cool that we can be world’s best in Security and Animal Management. As a private organisation we have a lot of strategic room – empowered leadership you could say – to do a lot of things that other companies couldn’t. We get to work with really smart people on really complex problems. And at the same time we get to focus on our people and do the right things.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve all done. And we’re just getting started. We’re 84 years young.”
Dream big and don’t give up. You never know where it might lead you.
If you'd like to begin your journey with Gallagher, check out our current vacancies here.