Gilli Coston: A Leader Empowering Women

An expert in driving strategic programs and extremely skillful in building commercial partnership, Gilli Coston was looking for an opportunity to join a winning team, and then she found KORE Wireless Group. Along with KORE Group and Wyless Europe Plc, Gilli sits on the senior leadership board of the International M2M Council.
Gilli has been a leader for 3 decades and thus developing businesses in various fields. Gilli has spent numerous years in building high performing teams and held key roles such as Chief Strategy Officer, Managing Director and now Vice President, Carrier and Partner Marketing of KORE Wireless Group.
Joining KORE (then Wyless) in 2013 as Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director of EMEA as part of the senior management team, Gilli worked closely with the exec team to grow and develop the business which contributed to the acquisition of Wyless by KORE in April 2016.
Gilli promotes high performance, diversity and equality within KORE and within the Internet of Things industry. She is a key sponsor for many Women in Technology & Telecoms sectors.
KORE: The People Powering IoT
Founded in 2003, KORE quickly thrived to become the world’s largest managed network services provider specializing in The Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) communications. Today, KORE is a global leader in software services, solutions and platforms that power the IoT, with millions of active on-network units. KORE is the brand inside and powering other leading brands, including some of the world’s largest enterprise customers. KORE’s singular customer-centric focus is to identify and develop solutions that help clients realize IoT innovations and accelerate time-to-market schedules. KORE has over 350 people who serve customers in 110 countries, empowering new business models and opportunities to monetize the IoT.
KORE group provides the people, expertise and technology to support the many visions of the IoT, from the Inspiration of Things and the Innovation of Things to the Internet of Things.
KORE has a dedicated team of highly skilled individuals and empowers their people by personal development and support to help them reach their full potential. KORE helps to empower their people by Personal Development and set regular goals to help them reach their full potential. KORE provides complete IoT Service Solutions which include Technology Solutions, Managed IoT and M2M Services, App Platforms, Scalable Connectivity Platforms, Global eSIM and Global Services.
Women in Business
KORE has developed an extremely strong sales group in Europe with emphasis on a strong gender balance with significant experience of IoT, which Gilli finds very exciting. Referring to the women in industry, Gilli asserts, “For women, it’s most important to be recognized for their skills, talent and being included in a gender balanced environment.”
Gilli has noticed that the customers and partners find it very interesting and are enthusiastic about the way KORE is promoting women in business. She also adds that many of the companies associated with her are led by women.
Gilli with her team takes initiative and works with local groups to motivate women to step in the business. She shares that the role of senior men who are willing to nurture and support the early careers of upcoming and aspiring women have been rare in the past and yet at KORE there are a number of them who value the balance that having a gender balanced team provides. “Dr. Mike Short – VP of Public Affairs at Telefonica and a long-time supporter of the gender balance and equality in the workplace and Telecoms industry, without him I would not have had many of the opportunities in my early career,” adds Gilli.
Work-life Equilibrium
Gilli is extremely passionate about her work and also knows how to balance work with her personal life. Having supportive and understanding children and family, Gilli has successfully achieved work-life equilibrium. “KORE is a forward thinking company in terms of enabling me to work in a flexible way. Sometimes it is late nights or early morning and sometimes it’s both – focus on the output rather than the input is astonishingly easy once you focus on the well-formed outcome and every day edit the day just gone,” shares Gilli. She always edits the learning and adopts the new patterns of behavior that continually evolve to suit both the business and the balance in life comes out of that. She adds, “KORE has really supported my personal development goals and enabled me to take time out to develop new talents, which comes from the very top of the organization.”
Authentic Self of Gilli
Gilli says as a woman, she often used to push herself hard to do everything perfectly, driving herself to the limits to live up to her own extremely high standards. Trying to become absolute ideal she had to sacrifice many things. When asked about one thing she would change about her past, she asserts, “If I had to edit anything, it would be, to have accepted my authentic self a lot earlier in my career.” “When I realized that setting expectations for myself that were really achievable (on more than 4 hours sleep per night) I found the balance and joy in being authentically myself and I arrived at a more centered version of myself and to be someone I actually quite like,” she added.