Driven by Purpose: The Foundation of Leadership

Jané Cilliers’ career trajectory is anything but conventional. From growing up on a farm in South Africa during the apartheid era to becoming a leader in health technology, her path has been guided by a profound sense of purpose and a desire to create meaningful change at scale.

“I could surreptitiously feel injustice the whole time. But I wasn’t empowered enough to understand exactly what it is and what I could do about it,” Jané reflects on her early years. This awareness would become the compass for her future endeavours.

Her journey began with studies in international relations before joining the British Army as a Medical Corps officer, where she focused in systems approaches for battlefield support. This experience provided her with a comprehensive understanding of what keeps humans healthy and fit—knowledge that would become the foundation for her future career.

“To understand all the parts required for individual performance, I specialised in creating a systems approach to providing support on the battlefield, but also on exercises, back at base… not just physical, but also mental health support for soldiers,” Jané explains, highlighting the breadth of her early healthcare experience.

Finding Her Path Through Global Challenges

After eight years in the military, including time in Afghanistan, Jané pursued a master’s in Emergency Infrastructure engineering with a focus on public health engineering. This strategic educational choice enabled her to transition to humanitarian work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), despite the challenging jump from military to humanitarian sectors.

“It was really difficult making a jump from the military to a humanitarian organisation because of the strict adherence of MSF and Geneva principles,” she notes. “I knew if I studied at this specific university,  it would be difficult for them to say no because the institution was a leader in the humanitarian public health engineering field.”

Her work with MSF took her to Haiti, Uganda, Bangladesh, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo where she built refugee camps, developed water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure as well as the training and development of people to maintain the infrastructure and changes implemented The impact was immediate and profound, with affected children’s death rates reducing within just three months.

This work evolved into a project coordinator role that Jané describes as “a dream job,” coordinating medical care, security, and logistics in crisis situations. However, the toll of “year in, year out chasing disasters” eventually led her to seek opportunities to apply her skills back in the United Kingdom.

The Power of Health Technology

Jané’s entry into digital health came during the COVID pandemic when she was offered a role as digital diagnostics lead—a position that others avoided due to its challenges and limited resources. True to form, Jané embraced the challenge: “It’s tough, it has a moral imperative and no one really wants it, so it’s absolutely my thing. Yes, please.”

Her success in this role led to a promotion to assistant director for digital diagnostics, but Jané still felt constrained by the pace of change in large organisations. Seeking to create faster, larger-scale impact, she pursued an MBA at Warwick Business School before joining Evolution Digital Health as an associate

Jané’s passion for health technology stems from witnessing firsthand how health impacts every aspect of society: “Understanding the power of uplifting the health and well-being of an individual, of a family, of a community, of a nation and the impact of that on economies, on reducing conflict and war, and consequently literally the world… I’ve seen it firsthand.”

She recognises technology as the key to global healthcare advancement: “Without tech, we can’t level up global healthcare and well-being to the level that it needs to be in order for the world to be as just as it can be.” This insight drives her work in developing digital health solutions that can transcend traditional infrastructure limitations.

Leadership Philosophy: Self-Awareness and Genuine Care

Jané’s approach to leadership is deeply human-centred, beginning with self-knowledge. “Leadership starts with an intense self-awareness. So growing yourself awareness, learning to manage yourself and to lead yourself. You can’t lead other people if you can’t lead yourself,” she emphasises.

Rather than technical expertise, Jané believes leadership in technology requires understanding people and systems. “Understanding people, their needs, their pain points, motivation and their potential is incredibly important, but equally important is understanding the system they are part of and are working in.”

For aspiring leaders, Jané stresses the importance of genuine care: “People who admire their managers or leaders the most are people who felt that their managers and leaders genuinely cared about them, what matters to them.” This authentic interest in others’ wellbeing and motivations is central to her leadership philosophy.

Navigating Challenges and Building Resilience

Throughout her career, Jané has repeatedly faced and overcome significant barriers. In her words, “All the jobs I’ve done are all male-dominated… I wasn’t aware of any trail blazers at first. I had to just do it myself.”

This resilience was modelled by her parents, refugees from Zimbabwe who rebuilt their lives multiple times despite floods and political upheaval. “It was just never a choice. It’s like you don’t have an option. You just have to make this work. And if you believe in something, you do it because that’s who you are,” Jané explains.

Like many leaders, Jané acknowledges experiencing impostor syndrome “at the start of every role I’ve ever had.” However, she overcomes this by grounding herself in her core values: “Although I’m not sure if I’m good enough for the job, I’m absolutely certain that my approach and my motivation is absolutely good enough.”

Advice for Aspiring Tech Leaders

Jané’s guidance for future leaders in health technology is refreshingly authentic: “Follow your heart, follow your instincts and follow your authentic self. You must do it on your terms so that you don’t get lost.”

She highlights that leadership in technology is fundamentally about transformation: “Leading in tech is change and transformation, and it’s about getting people to do what they otherwise wouldn’t have done. And to do that, you do need to understand them, what motivates them, and create a vision for them to move towards.”

For Jané, the intersection of health and technology offers unparalleled opportunities to create meaningful impact. Her remarkable journey illustrates how purpose-driven leadership, combined with resilience and genuine care for others, can transform not just organisations but potentially global healthcare systems.