‘Take the leap and the path appears’: PwC’s Katherine Leenhouts

When she first became interested in coding, Katherine Leenhouts loved the opportunity for creativity that it offered. “I loved creative writing, and I saw similarities in coding – you have to write something and think about how you’re going to structure it. I thought that was really enjoyable.”

Now a data and AI director at PwC, where she started as an intern, and was later hired as an analyst, she’s taken the leap from coding to leading teams delivering full solutions. “Technology is only ever as powerful as the human conversation around it.”

Originally from the US, Katherine also loved how the work allowed her to interact with such a variety of people. “I work with technology people, and with business people across the US, Europe and Asia. I just love that variety and the global nature of it, and having to figure out what everything means and bring it together.” After leaving PwC for a stint at Walmart, she returned and is now based in their Dublin office.

As her career has progressed, she has become more involved with data throughout its lifecycle, and now helps clients manage their data more efficiently, understanding on a granular level what exactly they need, and helping them to achieve it. It involves not only working with clients, but also the teams who can build technical solutions.

She likens the process to building a house. “You work with an individual, you figure out what their design needs are, how they will move around the house,” she says. “And then you go and talk to the builders and the plumbers and the electricians, and find out what the limitations and considerations are. We then build a timeline around this and make it happen.”

Katherine explains that, as well as getting to sit down with people and really delve into a problem, she loves how her role is always changing. “It’s currently dizzying,” she says. “I went on maternity leave last year, and when I came back, it felt like the entire field had changed in nine months. When I left, we didn’t use AI as much, but now it’s constant.” While AI has changed a lot of the more technical aspects of what her team does, Katherine also loves how it can make communication clearer. For example, she now uses image generation to create visuals that can explain exactly how a data management system works.

The importance of communication is something she strongly believes in. When working with clients on change management, she stresses that introducing new technology is only one aspect of what they do. “Sometimes you have to change the process before you even get to the tech. How are you considering workflow, behaviour and motivation to make that change? And if you haven’t addressed those three, whatever technology is being put in place, which is hard enough to get right to begin with, it probably won’t be adopted.”

As she has progressed through her own career, Katherine notes the importance of having encouragement from others. She explains that while she looked up to leaders she worked with, she didn’t feel that she lived up to them. “I thought about becoming a leader, but I didn’t think I was ready. It was the people around me who said, you have to move up to the next level to get the experiences that will help you grow into that person you want to be. Take the leap and the path appears.”

It’s clear that she cares deeply about her team, citing them as her motivation to constantly strive for more. “Sometimes people say that I’m a people person; I’ll push back on that. I’m not a people person; I’m a team person. I believe that the team is greater than the sum of its parts. I find that extremely motivating.”

With PwC, Katherine also loves working on something significant, often working with large companies where projects can affect thousands of employees. “When I worked at Walmart, the CEO showed us the number one retailer in the US over the past 100 years, and every ten years that top retailer would change. A lot of the retailers that were there 40 years ago don’t exist now. The implication was, if you’re not on top of your game, the organisation goes away. I like getting to work with people and feeling like we’re working towards something higher than ourselves.”

Photography by Kieran Harnett

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