Are We Nearly There Yet?

Jane is a pharmacist at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. She lives in Didsbury, South Manchester, with her husband Steve and has two grown-up children. 

Jane grew up on the border of Sheffield and Derbyshire where her family had lived for generations. 

Jane enjoyed secondary school, where she gravitated towards the sciences which led her to London to study clinical pharmacy at London University before completing her pre-registration year at St George’s Hospital, and then a two-year Basic Grade Pharmacy at Kings College Hospital. 

Jane then went overseas to work in a Christian hospital in Northern India which had a focus on supply and quality of products coming into the country. 

From there, Jane came back to the UK and worked in a number of different hospitals before settling at Wythenshawe Hospital in Greater Manchester, where she works on a part-time basis. 

To find out more visit: https://interserve.org.uk 

Allan was brought up in Essex and Somerset. He enjoyed his time at school and went on to college to study physics, maths, further maths, computing and geology, just to stretch his boundaries! He then went on to Exeter University to study physics, which included an industrial placement.

After finishing university, Allan went on to join British Airways as an infrastructure Engineer where he worked in the big city of London, a time in his life he cherishes.

Allan now works at The National Nuclear Laboratory as a nuclear scientist in the nuclear physics team.

Allan has a love for travel and the fact that it connects people and brings communities together. He’s a great believer in giving everyone the same opportunities in life, especially when it comes to energy.

To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/allandsimpson

Eilidh grew up in a small village near St Andrew’s on the East coast of Scotland, where she scooped ice cream at Anstruther Fish Bar.

She started languages at university but found this wasn’t for her and so she left early and spent a year in America as an Au Pair working with children with ADHD. This role taught her to be organised, focussed and above all patient.

Eilidh returned to the UK and decided to study Business and Marketing at the University of Stirling.  Whilst here, she got involved with Greenpeace and began an intern doing their social media.  

After leaving university, Eilidh was unsure what career path to take. She discovered the graduate scheme on offer from EDF Energy and successfully gained a place on it. She’s since moved to work on the Sizewell C project where she continues to develop her career.

Eilidh’s hobbies include DIY projects, cooking and country music.

To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/eilidh-dougan

Jo lives with her partner in Johannesburg in South Africa, but she grew up in Cornwall on a farm and experienced a very outdoor type of childhood. 

Jo found comprehensive school nurtured her to achieve better things in the future. She enjoyed maths and the sciences, in particular biology and chemistry where her teachers inspired her love of the subjects through their enthusiasm. 

Jo went on to study for a BA (Hons) in Natural Science natural science at Cambridge University, something she never thought she would do. But with the encouragement of her teachers she did so! 

University offered Jo lots of sporting, social and academic opportunities which brought her out of her shell. She had enjoyed playing rugby at college where she was captain of the team, and her love of the sport went on throughout university.  

After graduating, Jo didn’t feel ready to move into the world of work, so she moved to Lancaster to do a masters in the science of the environment, before starting work for Black & Veatch doing Environmental Impact Assessments. She did this for two years before moving to PwC to do environmental assessment work. 

With a passion for travel, Jo moved to Cape Town via a secondment with PwC working on the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) Africa. From here, she moved to Johannesburg on a short-term project as an independent consultant. This role has spiralled to become seven years and counting and has taken her to the UK and South America. 

Jo now lives in Johannesburg working in sustainable finance and social and economic development for Adam Smith International and operating on a programme to seek water infrastructure into the area. She finds working as young, white woman is often difficult and needs political manoeuvres to find her way through the barriers to success! 

Amr grew up in Yemen in his early years. At the start of the civil war he moved with his family to Cardiff, a decision his dad does not regret.

Amr thrived in a learning environment, encouraged by his dad to have a good education, with a particular focus on sciences. He went on to study Chemical Engineering at Sheffield University before working for Spirax Sarco working on steam applications in the oil and petrochemicals sectors.

In 2017, Amr joined the National Nuclear Laboratory. He has enjoyed a secondment to the government department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).  Whilst at BEIS, he helped develop policies around the energy mix, including nuclear. Amr is very focussed on his career development and understands the importance of belonging and being connected. He really believes the sky is the limit!

To find out more visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amr-saleh-b2b802103

Kieron grew up and lives in Wigan, a town renowned for rugby league.

Kieron enjoyed school, especially the sports side of it. A keen football fan, a golf and cricket enthusiast and of course a talented rugby league player it was only natural that when he left school he was successful in getting the opportunity to play professional rugby league for Salford City Reds at the young age of 15. Dedicated to the sport, he developed a discipline to work, work, work to stay on the path to success, which paid off when he represented Great Britain in Australia and New Zealand.

A serious injury resulted in Kieron having to retire from the sport, however he didn’t let this deter his enthusiasm and started work at a young offenders institution working with youngsters ready to be released back in to the ‘real world’ where he realised it was his calling to help the younger generation. Taking his experience and skills, Kieron changed his career path to work as an early career’s advisor for the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory offering one to one support for those starting out on their career journey.

To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kieron-hersnip-1894a61a1

Lorna Fitzsimons lives in Rochdale and is a board member at Greater Manchester local enterprise partnership, and CEO and co-founder of The Pipeline Ltd, an organisation that works to develop leaders and female talent to add value to business. 

At school, Lorna had a love for art and pursued that passion when she went to Loughborough College of Art and Design to study art. Whilst here, she became President of the National Union of Students (NUS). 

After her time with NUS, Lorna went on to be the Associate Director of Sarchi subsidiary dealing with high value clients like UKAEA and Proctor & Gamble. Lorna was awarded the IPPR Young Communicator Award in 1995.  

In 1997, she became a Member of Parliament for Rochdale and chaired the Women’s Committee.   

After her time as an MP, she became an advisor and visiting fellow for the Defence Academy before taking over the role of Chief Executive for the British-Israel Communications and Research Centre prior to founding the Alliance Textile Growth Programme.  

To further her career and apply all the skills she’d learnt to mentor others, Lorna co-founded The Pipeline, specialists in leading Diversity and Inclusion programmes with organisations, teams and individuals to deliver better results. 

To find out more about Lorna visit: www.execpipeline.com and https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lorna-fitzsimons-ab284817 

Kate grew up in Cumbria and went to St Benedict’s High School where she had a love for all subjects apart from physical education!

Kate went on to Leeds University to study an integrated master’s in physics. She found living in Leeds a huge change from living in a small village in Cumbria, but loved it! She made the most of city life. Her moto is “you only live once, so do something fun!”

After finishing university, Kate spent many hours job searching. Having grown up in Cumbria, an area renowned for its nuclear heritage, her focus was on companies operating in this sector. She came across the National Nuclear Laboratory, and found she really connected with the company’s values; particularly connecting academia with industry. With a determination to work for them, she secured an interview and was delighted to be successful.

Kate works in the Radiochemistry team at the National Nuclear Laboratory. In her spare time, Kate enjoys writing, reading and drawing.

Jack grew up in Norwich. At school, he really enjoyed the science subjects and went on to study chemistry, biology, and maths at A-level before specialising in chemistry at Sheffield University. He found his transition to university tough but also a part of his life where he grew up and learned to stand on his own two feet. University life made him realise he thrives under pressure to get a job done.

Following university, Jack spent a successful 18 months working in crop genetics at the John Innes Centre in Norwich as a laboratory researcher. From here, he moved to Dupont to work in their disinfectants and cleaners business before making another move to EDF Energy as a commercial graduate on a two-year programme. After successful completion of this, Jack transferred to their Sizewell C project working as part of a team looking at how the project will be financed and seek approval. It’s working here that Jack has discovered his passion for a low-carbon energy mix.

To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jack-raven-a5430676

Vicky grew up in Greater Manchester and went to Hulme Grammar School for Girls where she really enjoyed learning and made the most of the opportunities the school gave her. Vicky now lives in Stockport with her husband Anthony.  

Vicky really enjoyed and excelled in sociology through school and college and went on to study sociology and social psychology at the University of Bradford. After graduating from university, Vicky went on to become an account executive at WWAV Rapp Collins North for two years, and then transferred to their London branch where she worked for the next eight years. Vicky then decided to move back up North and worked briefly at Connectpoint, Pravda Advertising and WRG.  

After dabbling in freelance work, an opportunity as a marketing manager came up at the University of Manchester. Working at a university had always been a personal aspiration of Vicky’s as she had always loved the university environment and learning as a whole. Vicky is now the corporate campaigns manager at the University of Manchester and loves the variety of her work.  

To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vickyplane