Meet Truda Agostino
We’re excited to have you back for our "Leaders at Equinix: Empower, Elevate, and Evolve” series! Today, we’re chatting with a leader from our dynamic Legal department. Truda Agostino is our Vice President, Legal, xScale and brings 20+ years of experience in the legal industry having started out in top tier law firms before moving in-house.
She joined Equinix 7 years ago and has held various roles within the Legal team, with each role naturally leading to another. In her current global leadership role for the xScale business, which consists of several joint ventures set up with investment partners to pursue our larger scale deployments with nominated cloud service and technology providers, she has responsibility for the legal support over all aspects of the business, focusing on program delivery of inventory, managing joint ventures (and their financing arrangements), leading on governance requirements and engagement with the hyperscale customer experience. During her various roles at Equinix she has a proven track record of building and developing successful legal teams throughout EMEA and globally.
Leading Legal
With every robust career comes a unique set of challenges and lessons. We asked Truda about the hardest leadership lesson she has learned and how it has had a lasting impact on her career. “During my career I have adapted to do more with less during periods of challenging economic conditions. This necessitated a different legal support model and required me to manage the team differently so that each team member was set up for success as well as working efficiently and having the greatest value impact to achieve better business outcomes,” she says.
This lesson gave Truda an important framework for how she supports her employees. “The lesson was valuable in teaching me how to manage lean teams but always with a lens of seeking to understand the needs of the team and each team member,” continues Truda. “It has given me an inner confidence and an ability to get things done with less resourcing as well as being diligent in managing external costs.”
Mentors
At Equinix, we view ourselves as continual learners. We’re always looking for resources to bolster our growth and development while allowing us to expand our skillsets. Consequently, one of our things to ask our leaders is for new book and podcast recommendations to inspire our Equinix community. “The book ‘What Got You Here Won't Get You There’ by Marshall Goldsmith was recommended to me whilst I was attending the Archimedes leadership program in 2022. Archimedes is Equinix’s flagship leadership development program, designed to accelerate the development of key mid-level leader talent and prepare them to lead at more senior levels. It was a great privilege to participate in the program,” says Truda.
Our commitment to a growth mindset is reflected in the way our leaders support their teams. This book gave Truda additional tools to help her team members thrive. “Coming from a legal background, I found this book particularly valuable in pushing me to step out of a functional legal role and into a strategic leadership one. It has allowed me to become a better leader by creating space for team members to thrive as well as giving them the tools for success. My focus is very much on the needs of the individual and how I can support them to grow.”
This goes hand in hand with our emphasis on mentorship. “I've had many impactful mentors during my career. One mentor, a senior partner at a top tier law firm, springs to mind. This particular partner was well established with a deep network both inside and outside the firm along with an enviable client base. She also had an executive leadership role at the firm, so had plenty of demands on her time,” says Truda. “Despite this, I felt incredibly supported by her and found her guidance and insights deeply valuable. I recall that she was always inclusive, accommodating, and generous with her time - whether it was asking about someone’s weekend or having an honest conversation about career development and future opportunities. I will always be appreciative of the influence and impact that she had on me, and I hope as I continue to progress through my career that I can strive to have a similar impact on others.”
We have a plethora of mentorship opportunities at Equinix, and Truda is proud to offer guidance to her team members. “Mentoring team members, whether formally or informally, is an aspect of my role that I find incredibly rewarding. This is a particular focus in the Legal team – we are very proud of our well-adopted mentor and mentee program,” she continues.
Leading the way
It’s clear that Truda’s impact is valued by her team members. When asked to describe Truda as a leader, they were more than happy to emphasize how integral she is to their performance. “Truda is an empowering leader who fosters autonomy and growth. She prioritizes individual development by allowing everyone to explore their own approaches and learn from mistakes without fear of criticism, while also sharing knowledge from her wide experience but without imposing her views. I would describe Truda as empathetic, reflective, poised, assertive and organized. She is also driven, communicates effectively and it’s evident that she enjoys building and leading teams,” they said.
Lastly, we get to our favorite question: what do you want to be remembered for as a leader? “As a leader, I would like to be remembered as having a positive impact on people's lives. Someone who created value for Equinix while developing the teams I’ve worked with along the way,” Truda states. “Making a positive impact on people's lives is a combination of creating opportunities for individual career development and day-to-day interactions with the team including giving recognition, listening to others, and driving forward priorities with positive energy. It also encompasses making an impact on our local communities. It gives me great satisfaction to participate in the many Impact & Community events at Equinix including co-organizing an annual charity walk in London for over 80 team members for the last 3 years.”
Stay tuned for our next instalment of "Leaders at Equinix: Empower, Elevate, and Evolve” when we introduce you to another key member of the Equinix family!