1. Tell us something interesting about yourself we might not know?

I’ve sailed across the Atlantic (from Antigua to the Azores).

2. What’s your job title?

Executive Assistant

3. Explain what that means in 20 words or less!

Supporting the team for all things admin, and keeping the systems running!

4. What’s the first thing you do when you get in the office or start work at your desk?

I check my emails, work out my priorities for the day and get ready for our daily catch-up meeting.

5. Tea or coffee?

Coffee in the mornings, tea in the afternoons. 

6. On a typical day, what are your top 3 (work related!) priorities?

• anything urgent that has come from Lorraine
• issuing new template documents
• tasks related to internal compliance (ISO:9001 requirements, HR admin etc)

7. What did you get up to this morning?

I prepared some information for the start of our upcoming Cyber Essentials accreditation process. I sent some emails relating to our upcoming webinars. I contacted our web designer regarding the forms on our website. I updated our induction handbooks to include some additional information about our online HR portal.

8. What do you do in your lunch break?

If I’m working from home, I might do some washing up or sort through the laundry. When I’m in the office I treat myself to half an hour with my book!

9. What happened this afternoon?

I worked on content for our weekly Procurement Briefing emails.

10. Describe a ‘win’ moment you’ve had in the last month.

We completed our annual ISO:9001 audit with flying colours!

11. Has anything gone wrong recently? What happened?!

We discovered that part of our automated process wasn’t working properly and we weren’t receiving our internal reminders relating to customers’ procurement audit reports. Luckily it had only affected a handful of projects and I was able to fix the automation quickly.

12. Are you a morning ‘up with the lark’ person or a night owl?

I’m naturally a night owl, but sadly my toddler has forced me to become more of a morning person (under protest).

13. How do you spend your evenings/weekends?

Evenings are spent having dinner with my husband, then maybe some TV or a board game. Weekends usually involve seeing friends (ideally with children for play dates!) or family, the odd trip to a National Trust property, and various other child-related activities! If I get a free half hour, you might find me drawing or sewing something.

14. What do you most like about working for Minerva?

I love Minerva’s way of doing things – ethical, honest and passionate about what we do. It’s a real ‘feel good’ company – I really like that we’re doing everything we can to help school reduce their costs (and stress!) around procurement. And of course, it is a great team to be part of – who wouldn’t love Wine Wednesdays and Fizz Fridays?!

15. What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

Forgive yourself a bit more. Not everything is your fault!

16. Your chosen specialist subject if you were on Mastermind would be what?

It used to be “The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett”, but now it would have to be the works of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. I can recite several of their books from cover to cover, including Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo, Zog, and The Snail and the Whale. I’m still working on the rest!