Get To Know Karri’s Chief Operating Officer, Louise Bailey Tait
There’s something refreshing about our new COO. She’s full of beans and bright ideas and has a constant practical yet creative approach to Karri. With a busy-yet-organised mind and an always approachable demeanour, Louise always seems to be two steps ahead of the conversation.
We sat down with Louise in an attempt to get inside of the mind of this multitasking superhuman.
Why did you choose Karri?
I met up with Doug (Karri’s CEO) for a coffee after being introduced by a mutual acquaintance who thought we would work well together. By the end of the hour, I was completely convinced that this role and Karri was what my past 12 years experience had been building up to. Also, anyone who has met Doug will agree that he is a VERY good salesperson.
Name a few of your favourite things
The beach, swims in the sea, the mountain, my kids and home-cooked meals with good friends.
Where do you see Karri in 1 years time?
It feels like Karri is on the cusp of an incredible growth period – all the pieces are clicking into place to broaden our product as well as to widen our reach in South Africa and internationally. In the next year, I see us continuing our rapid growth across schools in South Africa and getting some real traction in wider community organisations that need to collect from their members such as sports clubs, churches and extra murals. By this time next year, I also expect that we will be established and growing rapidly in at least two countries over and above South Africa.
What inspires you most about Karri?
As a parent myself, the solution was so simple and so obvious that I couldn’t not get involved. I was that mom that was screeching past the ATM on the way to school because I had forgotten to pay for my son’s school photos and it was the last day to pay. It’s hard not to be inspired when you see how much easier Karri has made the lives of the teachers at his school, who used to have to painfully collect and tally all the envelopes of money coming in and how much all the parents love it. Also, the sheer enormity of what Karri has achieved in its relatively short 18 months of existence and just how much it has in its sights for the next 18 months is incredibly inspiring.
For you, what is the most exciting thing to happen at Karri to date?
I think a big symbolic milestone for me was in April when we launched K2, the new version of our Karri system. With the launch of K2 we are now able to offer the Karri Collections product to organisations wider than schools. So now the sky really is the limit with what we can achieve.
Why not pop into our offices for a coffee and get to know Louise and the Karri team better. You can contact us on support@karripay.com or 021 300 1867.
