- Tell us something interesting about yourself we might not know?
I think I must be pretty dull as I really struggled to think of anything interesting! Probably the most interesting fact is that I once got down to the final few in the casting for the movie Pippi Longstocking and narrowly missed out on a screen test in Hollywood as a result!
- What’s your job title?
Director
- Explain what that means in 20 words or less!
Strategic planner, business development manager, financial wizard, human resources expert, project delivery and doing everything no one else does!
- What’s the first thing you do when you get in the office or start work at your desk?
Make a coffee!
- Tea or coffee?
Coffee, definitely. Ideally Starbucks, as my team will tell you.
- On a typical day, what are your top 3 (work related!) priorities?
- Making sure the team are all OK, know what’s required of them and are supported.
- Meeting any deadlines around live projects I’m the main lead on.
- Ensuring everything is in place for the business to run smoothly strategically, operationally and financially.
- What did you get up to this morning?
Met with a catering contractor to discuss bids, best practice, share ideas and innovations to help them and us.
- What do you do in your lunch break?
What’s a lunch break??
- What happened this afternoon?
I grappled with a technical issue with In-tend (our e-procurement software), supported the team with various queries, wrote a proposal for a combined cleaning and catering tender, completed a review of a monthly catering invoice against the Budget versus Actual (BvA) report, reviewed our upcoming weekly bulletin emails….and the day’s not over yet….!
- Describe a ‘win’ moment you’ve had in the last month.
Being told by one of my employees that I was “the best boss” (and I didn’t even have to pay him)!
- Has anything gone wrong recently? What happened?!
I made an error when calculating some scoring which caused a real issue for one of the bidders. In those situations the only way forward is to be honest – I held my hands up to the error, rectified it and discussed ways to make improvements to prevent it happening again in the future. We’re all human and we all make mistakes, it’s how you deal with them that matters in my book.
- Are you a morning ‘up with the lark’ person or a night owl?
Definitely a night owl although we’re so busy these days I’m often an enforced lark! But don’t speak to me before my morning coffee if you see me…..
- How do you spend your evenings/weekends?
Working! I’ve been told I need to get a hobby as working doesn’t count! I have just started orienteering again, act as a taxi for my teenage daughter, tinker with my Fantasy Premier League team, attempt to predict results in the Super 6 to beat my colleague Ben, can finally watch my beloved Nottingham Forest back in the Premier League and try to avoid having more than two of my friend Phil’s porn star martini’s (they’re lethal)!.
- What do you most like about working for Minerva?
The absolute sense of satisfaction I get from a ‘job well done’. We get such amazing feedback from our customers and there’s nothing better than knowing you’ve given your best and it’s appreciated.
- What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
Stop trying to be who everyone else wants you to be. Be yourself – you can’t please all the people all the time so at least make sure you are happy.
- Your chosen specialist subject if you were on Mastermind?
UK service stations that have a Starbucks outlet…….
