“Leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room – it’s about making sure everyone else feels heard and valued.”
Great leaders, much like skilled conductors of an orchestra, synchronize diverse talents into harmonious brilliance. Without them, even the most gifted ensemble risks descending into chaos, notes clashing rather than complementing.
In the intricate symphony of business and cybersecurity, Rachel Choong stands out as an extraordinary conductor. Dubbed The Executive Whisperer, Rachel has spent more than two decades mastering the art of turning troubled multi-million-dollar projects into resounding successes at companies like NAB, Telstra, and NBN Co.
Her leadership isn’t rooted in rigid control but rather in nurturing genuine relationships and cultivating collaboration. Today, she leverages her profound insights into executive leadership to democratize wisdom, bridging gaps between technology and the C-suite.
Want to know more about how Rachel transforms executive insights into accessible mentorship? Let’s dive into her journey and gain valuable insights from her blueprint for future leaders.
An Unexpected Journey
Rachel Choong’s path into project management was, in many ways, a fortunate accident. After earning a degree in IT, she found herself entering the world of consulting and project management almost by chance. Yet it soon became apparent that she possessed a natural gift for planning complex technical initiatives and flourishing under pressure.
What truly motivates Rachel is the challenge of turning around troubled projects. Throughout her distinguished tenure at organizations such as NAB, Telstra, Coles, and NBN Co, she has repeatedly steered multi-million-dollar programs to completion ahead of schedule and under budget.
At NAB, for example, she wrapped up a major security project in just three months, despite initial estimates suggesting it would take an entire year. At NBN Co, she implemented Access Management solutions that safeguard Australia’s broadband infrastructure.
Her accomplishments have garnered multiple accolades, including the Telstra CEO Award, CIO Awards, and recognition from NBN Co. Nevertheless, Rachel finds her greatest sense of fulfillment in witnessing her teams succeed and knowing that their collective efforts have protected millions of customers’ data while empowering innovation.
A pivotal moment in Rachel’s journey arrived when she authored ‘54 Inspired Leaders.’ After more than 25 years collaborating with executives on high-stakes projects, she realized her unique vantage point granted her access to a wealth of leadership wisdom—knowledge she felt compelled to share with others.
Her remarkable talent for coordinating intricate initiatives and forging relationships with C-suite leaders naturally evolved into curating and democratizing executive insights for a broader community.
Today, Rachel continues to channel her skills in relationship-building and program delivery into a new mission: making executive wisdom accessible to all, moving beyond the realm of technology solutions to inspire the next generation of leaders.
Setting Benchmarks of Excellence
A pivotal moment in Rachel’s career was The Project Rescue Specialization (Around 2019-2020). She transitioned from being a traditional project manager to becoming the go-to expert organizations called upon when projects veered off course. As reflected in several LinkedIn recommendations:
(NAB): “I worked with Rachel as project manager number five on this particular project… She was able to resurrect and deliver the project to completion.”
(NAB): “She managed to close off one project that had been running for 2 years and another where she had to pick up following on from 3 previous PMs.”
(Coles): “Rachel is a solid PM and was able to drop into a couple of projects that had already been through several PMs.”
How This Shaped Her Leadership Philosophy: Previously, Rachel maintained a traditional focus on delivery—timelines, budgets, and processes. After specializing in project rescues, she adopted a relationship-first approach, recognizing that it was impossible to fix broken projects without first addressing fractured relationships.
Bridging Cybersecurity and Leadership
We asked Rachel how she stays ahead of market trends, and the challenges or opportunities she’s currently navigating, to which she said, “I stay ahead by maintaining what I call ‘dual-lens learning’ – keeping one eye on cybersecurity evolution and another on leadership and business transformation trends.”
In cybersecurity, Rachel recommends setting aside weekly time for industry certifications, reading global threat reports, and learning about AI security tools. Since publishing ‘54 Inspired Leaders,’ she has also begun tracking leadership development patterns through executive podcasts and observing how leaders adapt to rapid change.
Currently, the most significant opportunity she navigates lies at the intersection of cybersecurity and leadership, specifically, how cybersecurity leaders can better communicate with C-suite executives, and how traditional leadership wisdom applies to an increasingly digital-first business landscape. Rachel observes that organizations urgently need individuals who can bridge technical expertise with leadership insight.
Her competitive advantage is not just staying abreast of cyber threats but also understanding how leadership challenges evolve alongside technological advancements.
The Power of Connection
Rachel believes that it remains a rarity to see women featured on the covers of cybersecurity magazines, a fact that only underscores the remarkable strides women are making in this field, often while overcoming distinct barriers.
When she transitioned into cybersecurity a decade ago—after spending 15 years in broader IT—Rachel found herself as the only woman on a $20 million program. Instead of focusing on what set her apart, Rachel concentrated on her strengths: building genuine relationships. She made time for meaningful conversations with colleagues, visited their offices for informal chats, and demonstrated an authentic interest in who they were as people, not just as coworkers. These weren’t calculated networking efforts; they were genuine connections.
By prioritizing camaraderie and collaboration, Rachel became the individual who could bridge diverse perspectives and keep teams unified around a shared objective. She was the first to successfully complete that program. Yet the greater achievement was a realization that her true strength extended beyond technical expertise: it lay in her ability to bring people together.
This philosophy continues to inform how Rachel approaches amplifying voices today. Just as she connected with cybersecurity peers through real interest and dialogue, she has cultivated relationships with the 54 leaders featured in her book in much the same way.
To the next generation of women in cybersecurity, Rachel’s message is clear: the ability to connect, listen, and build bridges isn’t merely a soft skill; it is a superpower urgently needed in this industry.
When it comes to mentoring the next generation of women leaders, Rachel believes that it has many forms, and her book ’54 Inspired Leaders’ is essentially a scaled mentoring platform.
As Philippa Taylor told her, “Behind every successful person, there is a village of friends, mentors, partners, and competitors.” Rachel is trying to build that village for women who might not have natural access to it.
Rachel follows Ernest Stabek’s approach of fostering one-on-one human interactions that are honest and authentic, whether through LinkedIn conversations or coffee meetings. She also draws inspiration from Michael Ngo’s belief that mentoring can be systematic. Michael’s graduate programs demonstrated how graduates could grow, blossom, and reach new heights when provided with structured support.
Rachel’s distinct contribution lies in democratizing access to executive wisdom. While most women lack the opportunity to connect directly with 54 C-suite leaders for mentorship, her book makes it possible for them to absorb lessons from Australia’s most successful women leaders. In essence, she is scaling what Michael Lappen experienced with his “30 outstanding mentors,” but extending it to reach thousands.
Looking ahead, Rachel envisions creating more direct pathways, perhaps through mentoring circles or speaking at universities, always keeping in mind Sarah Dod’s wisdom that people need support and the occasional step outside their comfort zone to grow, but not so far as to break.
When asked about what advice she would offer to aspiring businesswomen looking to make their mark, Rachel said, “First, remember that leadership isn’t about being perfect. It’s about how you respond when things get challenging. Be genuinely open to hearing new ideas, especially from people who think differently than you do.”
“Focus on this truth: your job is to create positive change, not to have all the answers. When negativity arises—and it will—try to reframe it as information. Ask yourself ‘What is this situation trying to teach us?’ Then work through solutions step by step with your team.
Most importantly, lift others up. When someone on your team is struggling, you must step up to support them rather than focusing on what they’re doing wrong. Your ability to amplify others’ strengths while covering their weaknesses isn’t just good leadership. It’s how you build the kind of authentic relationships that create unexpected opportunities.
“In 2025 and beyond, the businesswomen who succeed won’t be those who climb fastest, but those who bring others up with them. Make that your competitive advantage,” she added.
Opening Boardroom Doors and Access to Leadership Wisdom
In boardrooms across Australia, powerful conversations often take place behind closed doors—conversations that could transform careers, inspire breakthrough thinking, and reshape approaches to leadership. Rachel has made it her mission to open those doors.
Through her book “54 Inspired Leaders,” Rachel has captured wisdom from Australia’s most influential executives, healthcare professionals, and entrepreneurs, transforming exclusive insights into accessible inspiration.
This is not merely content curation; it is a strategic democratization of knowledge. She has built a platform where project managers can access the same leadership philosophies that guide C-suite executives at major corporations.
With over 25 years in cybersecurity and project management, and credentials from Harvard and Stanford, Rachel chose a different path: using her expertise and network to amplify voices that matter, ensuring leadership wisdom is not confined to elite circles.
Her approach to using the book as a “steppingstone to new opportunities outside project management” demonstrates strategic thinking in action. Rachel is not leaving her expertise behind; instead, she is leveraging it to construct something larger: a platform that is reshaping how Australians access and apply leadership insights. Rather than simply collecting success stories, she is fostering a cultural shift toward accessible mentorship and shared wisdom.
Rachel embodies the future of Australian leadership: connected, purposeful, and committed to lifting others as she rises.
A Vision for the Future of Leadership
In a world often filled with negative headlines, Rachel set out to create something different: a collection of authentic voices designed to inspire others to keep moving forward, even on their hardest days.
Her vision, however, extends far beyond a single book. Rachel is actively working to fundamentally change how leadership development unfolds in Australia. Instead of allowing wisdom to remain locked away in exclusive executive programs, she envisions a future where a project manager anywhere in the world can access the same insights that guide a CEO in Melbourne.
Rachel hopes to leave a legacy in which the ‘Executive Whisperer’ model becomes the norm, where successful leaders view sharing wisdom as an essential part of their role. She advocates for companies to invest in democratizing knowledge rather than hoarding it, ensuring that someone’s postcode or professional network does not dictate their access to life-changing mentorship.
Her ultimate ambition is that, ten years from now, people will say: “Rachel Choong showed us that the most powerful way to build your own success is to ensure others can access theirs.” For her, that’s a legacy worth leaving.
Writing ’54 Inspired Leaders’ opened Rachel’s eyes to the unique power of capturing wisdom that might otherwise remain hidden in private conversations.
Over the next five years, Rachel sees herself building on this foundation in two keyways: Expanding her role as Australia’s foremost curator of leadership wisdom, possibly through a second book exploring how leaders handle crisis and change, and pursuing speaking opportunities or writing for business publications to share the leadership patterns uncovered through her interviews.
By year five, Rachel envisions being recognized not only for her written work, but for her influence in reshaping leadership development in Australia. Few people possess Rachel’s ability to interview dozens of leaders, distill their common threads while honoring their individuality, and translate that knowledge into actionable insights. These skills, she believes, will set her apart as new opportunities arise.
