Dr. Andrew Ashwood
A highly skilled and respected leader in business and development management, Andrew shares invaluable insights from his career journey, offering advice on overcoming challenges and achieving success in the property industry. A highly skilled and respected leader in business and development management, Andrew shares invaluable insights from his career journey.
A little about Andrew
Drawing upon his extensive knowledge and insights, Andrew plays a crucial role as Managing Director – Developments, Jinding, contributing to the shaping of their project portfolio and continuing to build on the company’s $4.45 billion pipeline.
His skills in leadership, strategic planning, and stakeholder relationship management are important for delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for the group. Previously, as General Manager – NSW and Victoria at Villa World and CEO of Wel.Co, Andrew held significant positions leading successful projects and driving growth. With a Doctorate in Business Administration and a broad educational background, he combines academic knowledge and practical experience in leading the Developments team.
A tip you would give to your younger self?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The mistakes I made in the early part of my career and the work I did to resolve and fix them were invaluable to me. These mistakes taught me how to deliver projects well, how to think ahead and how to play out scenarios ahead of time.
What has driven your career success?
The relentless pursuit to understand more and develop specialist knowledge in multiple areas, rather than be a specialist in a single area.
Early on in my career I could see the gaps in my skillset and realised that I needed to vastly improve my skills if I wanted to advance. This started a long journey of further education, focusing on the areas where I had the biggest gaps in my knowledge – law, finance, sales, business.
What I found during this stage of my career was that the more I focused on improving my skills and trying to ‘step up my game’, the more trust my employer at the time showed me.
A challenging situation in your career that you overcame?
At one point in my career I was promoted by a leading developer to be the State Manager of Victoria and not long after also given NSW to manage, and then promoted to General Manager. This was a great time in my career – until late 2019 when another company took over and promptly sacked the entire executive team, including me.
This was a challenging and stressful time for me personally – but it also opened me up to possibilities that I hadn’t considered. As a lifelong learner, I had spent so much time and effort concentrating on improving my skills and capabilities which provided invaluable opportunities including securing a role as General Manager of Wel.Co before the takeover of my then-employer was completed.
