Blythe Hartley has started from scratch multiple times in her life. Whether transitioning to a career in human resources after her successful sports career or moving to Australia, she has not just faced change but thrived through it. She insists it is simple: set small goals, and one day you will look back and be amazed at how far you have come. Yet, this interview highlights the significant effort she has put in at every stage to reach her achievements.
Today, speaking from ACCIONA Energía’s Brisbane office, Blythe shares insights into her professional development, the reasons behind her choices, and why she decided to join ACCIONA after her children were born. A hint: it has everything to do with the future of the planet. Read on to learn more about Blythe’s journey, from becoming a world diving champion at the 2001 World Swimming Championships, held in Fukuoka (Japan), to her current role.
A sporting family
To get a glimpse of Blythe’s story, one might visit her Wikipedia page. There, you would learn she was a world champion in 2001 and an Olympic medalist at the 2004 Athens Games. However, you would not discover that one of the most memorable moments of her life was at an Olympics where she did not even reach the podium. For that, we need to hold a personal conversation with her at the end of the day, as the sun sets in Brisbane, Australia.
We talk, and with her straightforward and enthusiastic manner, a sense of trust quickly develops. Did sports run in the family? “I think my parents just really believe that sport was a good vehicle to instill a lot of life skills and core values that regardless of how successful we would be, it was just a good foundation to build as young children.”
Blythe was one of four siblings—two brothers and two sisters—each pursuing their chosen sport, with all of them driven to excel. “We pushed each other in a very healthy and competitive way and always sort of, you know, we were really motivating one another to strive to be the best at what we could do,” she recalls. For Blythe, gymnastics was her first passion, but by age ten, she had switched to diving.
The transition to professional sport
“You never think you’re going to get to a certain level, but I had some success and had some achievements and then really enjoyed what I was doing and sort of progressed in this sport,” Blythe says, describing her path to professional athletics. By that time, she was training six hours a day, and her first major milestone came at age twelve when she won a medal at a senior national championship. “At that time, I think I was the youngest person to ever win a medal at the senior championships.”
Soon after, she joined the Olympic team, with her entire family cheering her on: “It just seemed like such a daunting goal that was so out of reach. And then all of a sudden, achieving that with my family right there, that was just such an incredible moment.” By 2004, with eight-hour training days, another distant dream became reality: the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
“Sport forces you to take accountability for your performance and understand how to win, but also understand how to lose.”
During this cycle, she learned valuable life lessons. “One of the greatest things that [sport] taught me was accountability. It forces you to take accountability for your performance and understand how to win, but also understand how to lose (…) Whether it is a win or a loss, just how to process that and how to move on and build resilience and strength because of that.”
The most memorable victory
As mentioned earlier, Athens was not the most memorable moment in Blythe’s career. “My oldest brother died from cancer the year before 2008. And so, 2007 was a really tough year, because he was sick and being treated for cancer. And then he passed away in the summer of 2007,” she shares. “My journey was sort of, okay, maybe I don’t even want to do this.” The dream of competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics seemed to be slipping away.
But sports came to her rescue: “I think it really helped in my recovery from the traumatic experience of him passing away to get back to what I was good at and work hard and committing and striving, and all of those things.”
Her family established a foundation in her brother’s honor before the Olympics, launching an initiative that made headlines across Canadian media. “My whole family bicycled across Canada, in a relay format all the way from the east side of Canada, over to the West side (5500 km), where I was competing at Olympic Trials, to raise money and to raise awareness for the foundation.”
She reflects, “All of that was very cathartic for us as a family, to channel the grief into something productive, and something good and meaningful.” She managed to qualify for 2008 Beijing. And the medals? On that occasion, Blythe came in fourth place, but she had already achieved victory long before, together with her family.
The highest dive…
Despite her sporting success, Blythe’s family instilled in her the importance of academic achievements alongside training. Thus, she studied communications in the United States. After a year of self-discovery in Southeast Asia, a new chapter began where she had to leave behind her sporting accolades. “All of a sudden, you wake up the next day and that’s gone. A lot of your identity is tied up into what you did and what you achieved and now you are creating a new purpose and a new identity.”
“After the Olympics, I was just filing papers, and somebody recognized me. They asked, what are you doing in the file room?”
Starting from scratch was not easy, and Blythe remembers it with a touch of humor: “I think people who watch the Olympics remembered the story and me competing and what not. So, there was one job where I was working in a file room just filing papers, and somebody recognized me. They asked, what are you doing in the file room?”. After a few months in that role, an opportunity arose to start working in the HR department of a company radically different from her current one: a Canadian oil company.
And the biggest leap
There, Blythe grew professionally, from intern to manager, over the course of eleven years. She also had two children. However, that chapter eventually came to a close. With the onset of the pandemic, she and her family decided to move to Australia, her partner’s home country. Once again, it was time for a fresh start. This time, the adjustment was more about moving to a smaller city like Mackay after living in major urban centers in Canada. After going through a variety of interviews, she found her way back into HR, this time in the construction industry.
“I educated myself as much as possible [about ACCIONA], but everything I had heard before I started interviewing was very positive.”
“The role on the construction site, the first job it was very hands on, and it was very much what I would say was in the trenches”, she recalls. And although it was a great learning opportunity, this is the first time she highlights the challenge of being a woman in such an environment: “I think that was one of the harder things working on site is that there was close to 500 people in the project, and I was one of two working mothers.”
Then, a new opportunity came along. After a colleague joined ACCIONA, the company came onto Blythe’s radar. “I educated myself as much as possible [about the company], but everything I had heard before I started interviewing was very positive.”
It’s about the next generations
Blythe’s previous experience in the energy sector gave her a solid foundation for transitioning to ACCIONA Energía, but there were deeper reasons too. “I really started to feel like I wanted to work for an organization where you can grab onto a North star and really feel as though it’s purpose and what they’re building is in line with your values and what you want for the world and the planet.”
“Working for a company that’s actively contributing to a cleaner environment,…seeing that in action, feels so rewarding.”
And what led her to that realization? “I think kids really change that in the sense that for me, climate change became very real and it’s beyond you, it’s about the next generations.” She adds, “Working for a company that’s actively contributing to a cleaner environment, seeing the wind farms and seeing the solar farms, not just from their conception but being built and being put on the grid and producing electricity, seeing that in action feels so rewarding.” Thus, needless to say, she began working as an HR manager for ACCIONA Energía in Queensland.
The importance of human quality
One of the first things Blythe mentions about her time at ACCIONA is the exceptional human and professional quality of her colleagues. “They’re high performing individuals that strive for massive goals and massive achievements and they are continuously challenging themselves. But at the same time, they’re massively caring individuals that care about people. The whole team is exceptional.”
“The fact that there’s a lot of people who have been with the company so many years says a lot about the employee experience.”
She also highlights the long-term commitment of people at ACCIONA: “Just the fact that there’s a lot of people who have been with the company that many years says a lot about the employee experience. If you’re staying in a role at an organization for 15 years, the organization is absolutely doing some right things.”
The challenge of building teams based on values
During her time at ACCIONA Energía, Blythe has contributed to building teams for projects as varied as the MacIntyre Wind Farm and the Aldoga Photovoltaic Plant. In some cases, it involved assembling a team from scratch, which was a significant shift from her experience as an individual athlete.
In addition to technical skills, she points out a fundamental requirement: “I think one of the most important things of the HR team is selecting talent that fits [the company’s] values (…) helping ensure that the values are well known, and people are embodying them.”
This is how she sums up her current role: “Part of the HR mandate is being very clear on the values that represent ACCIONA and making sure that those values are intact and [present] in all areas of the business.”
“Part of the HR mandate is being very clear on the values that represent ACCIONA and making sure that those values are present in all areas of the business.”
Work-life balance to prevent talent loss
Blythe is both a contributor to and a beneficiary of ACCIONA’s gender equality policies. As a mother, she experiences firsthand the challenge of balancing work and life. She talks about the reality that many talented and experienced women leave the workforce due to the lack of work-life balance. “ACCIONA is the best organization that I’ve worked for in that space because the focus is on measuring performance, on output, not how the work is done. It’s what a person is achieving, not the hours that they’re visible at their desk. I think that’s a huge thing for everybody.”
A space for the new generations
As a seasoned HR professional with two decades of experience, Blythe has witnessed several generations of employees. What does she think about the needs and concerns of those just entering the workforce? “I would say ACCIONA Energía is very attractive to the new generation because I think they are acutely aware of climate change. In that generation, they feel not only that they’re inheriting what other generations did before, they’re acutely aware of it and they’re very passionate about it.” She highlights another appealing factor, “I think the other element is that it’s an exciting newer industry.”
“I would say ACCIONA Energía is very attractive to the new generation because I think they are acutely aware of climate change”
Beyond the bigger picture, Blythe emphasizes the need to offer mentoring programs that leverage ACCIONA’s strong human capital. “With the caliber of individuals that you have at the organization and the hands-on mentorship that they provide; I think that’s the other attractive piece for that generation. They’re sort of saying, yeah, I want to be challenged and want to work remotely, but I want somebody to mentor me. And having that sort of caliber of individuals that we have at the organization is a huge selling feature.”
Can she share an example? “In 2023 and 2024, Acciona Energia had an Intern and New Graduate program where young talent was hired in different functions across the organization. In these roles, the Interns and New Graduates get exposure to meaningful work and hands on mentorship. They also get the benefit of working with a cohort of peers. The program provides valuable exposure to the industry and getting the younger talent excited about the company and industry.
The importance of every human story
As a people-focused professional, what does she think of the “Our People” project? “I’m a huge believer that the organization is a product of each individual. I personally have such a fascination with individuals, each person has a unique story that makes them who they are,” she explains. “I think showcasing that in a very real and authentic way is phenomenal. It just helps people understand who they’re working with. Sometimes you can work next to somebody for years and not really know their story”.
She laughs when asked if she says this because we produce those stories. Blythe shakes her head, smiling. “I truly believe in the power of asking questions and asking about somebody’s story. You learn so much,” she says.
Before wrapping up the interview, she reflects on her current stage in life. “For me, part of the motivating factor is learning every day. For the past couple of years, I’ve been learning nonstop and challenged nonstop because it is very new and especially right now with two young boys who are growing up quickly. So, I’m a motivated individual that wants to be challenged but I also want to be very present as a mom for them as well”. For Blythe, ACCIONA has become the place that allows her to achieve that balance.
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