Dynamic Duos: Meltwater’s Alex Mair and Elliot Lawry
Meltwater's marketing manager ANZ Elliot Lawry and social media client success lead, Alex Mair, share how they went front share house flat mates to close friends and colleagues, becoming each other's biggest supporters and challengers in life and in work.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each fortnight asks two members of the same organisation with a professional and personal affiliation, to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly work-from-home world.
Elliot Lawry
Elliot Lawry: The first time I met Alex it was on her living room couch as she quizzed me about my suitability to become her new housemate. She was an overwhelming extrovert and had the thickest New Zealand accent I’d ever heard. I knew right away that we would be fast friends. Thankfully the feeling was mutual. And I became the newest member of the Melbourne share house.
I was working at the University of Melbourne in its central media unit and Alex was working at Meltwater. I encountered Meltwater while I was at the Uni fielding an overflow of media enquiries. At night Alex would teach me how to use Meltwater over a $12 bottle of tempranillo.
We had been living together for six months when the opportunity for me to join Meltwater came up. It was a no-brainer but after just three months, Melbourne was thrust into what became the world’s longest lockdown. I leaned on Alex for support, and we took over our share house communal living area, turning it into our very own mini-Meltwater office.
Lockdown wasn’t easy but hearing Alex (very loudly) commanding attention on every single Zoom call gave me a sense of normalcy.
We both transitioned into new roles in early 2021 – I took over the marketing efforts for ANZ and Alex rose to lead the success of our social clients in the region.
Our simultaneous promotion speaks to some of our commonality (as well as the potential for growth at Meltwater). We are both wildly ambitious, take up a lot of space, and we share an openness to new experiences that is exciting and dangerous. I like to take things to 100% and Alex is the first person that has met me there.
Today Alex has graduated from stranger to housemate, onto friend and colleague. We are even co-parents of a 2007 electric blue Ford Fiesta. My friends in Melbourne who I’ve known for 10+ years are now her friends too, she’s the fabulous social spice that everyone needs in their life. It’s the weirdest and most beautiful relationship I have.
In the years to come we may not live in the same city or work at the same organisation, but I’m sure people will still greet me by asking “Where’s Alex?” everywhere I go. Tragic, but very true.
Alex Mair
Alex Mair: A few months after crossing the ditch from New Zealand and moving to Melbourne to start work at Meltwater Australia, my housemates and I were looking for a new addition. Using the trusty real estate Facebook page FairyFloss we stumbled across the lovely Elliot. He shared our love of eco-feminism and RuPaul’s Drag Race. It was an easy decision.
It was only a couple of months later that we became close friends. We had soon hatched a plan to meet professionally. Elliot was working in the Melbourne University Media Team, and I was the Client Experience Manager for our Key Accounts, including Melbourne University. In that meeting I got to see Elliot in a professional light, not just as a housemate. It was clear he was someone with real expertise in his field.
Fast forward about four months. Elliot was looking for his next opportunity and our Client Experience team was looking for a new recruit. It was a match made in heaven! I remember grilling my manager after Elliot’s interview to try and figure out how he did, but I didn’t have any doubt that Elliot would be a fantastic addition to the team. He communicates with ease with everyone, and I’d seen his deep knowledge of the industry and the Meltwater software.
At the time I don’t think we even gave a thought about whether living and working together would have a negative impact on our personal or professional lives. Perhaps our other housemates may have a different opinion, but we’ve shown them wrong over time.
I think we’ve had similar upbringings and share the same core values. So that paired with the fact that we get along well has meant we have built a deep trust extending from our personal to our professional lives.
In our current roles as ANZ Marketing Manager (Elliot) and ANZ Social Lead (me) it is such a privilege to collaborate on projects and challenge each other to be better at life and work. Elliot is my biggest critic and supporter in life and work – and I couldn’t be more grateful. Our unique living and working situation are not something I’d necessarily recommend to everyone, but it’s something that works darn well for us!
Elliot on Alex
One word to describe Alex: Impactful
Most memorable moment with Alex: Winning the wheelbarrow race at our office Pride Olympics in record breaking time and pretending we hadn’t been practising at home.
Alex’s most annoying or endearing habit: Has no volume control
Alex on Elliot
One word to describe: Trustworthy
Most memorable moment: Working from home in Blairgowrie, we had the luxury of going to the beach at lunchtime before dashing back for zoom calls.
Most annoying or endearing habit: Giving me his laptop to lug home because I’m the one with a bag.
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