
Company: Wincanton
Role: Programme Manager
I first joined Wincanton back in 2002 as a placement student. It lasted one year before I went back to university to complete my course. It was a great experience and I re-joined Wincanton as a graduate in 2004. I started in Business Development, working with the sales team, designing warehouse and transport solutions. To build up my experience, I jumped into operations and worked as an Operations Manager, both with transport and warehouse operations, including the management of bonded goods (imported goods that have a customs charge). From there I joined the project team and went through many different roles: Business Integration Manager, Operation Implementation Manager, Project Implementation Manager, Project Manager, all leading me to my current role as Programme Manager.
I studied logistics in universities both in France (Transport & Logistics Management in sunny Aix-En-Provence) and in England (BSc European Logistics & Management in not so sunny Huddersfield!). The opportunity to do a placement in my second year in Huddersfield helped me a great deal in understanding the remit of logistics companies and associated opportunities. I achieved further training and qualification through the graduate programme. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore different roles whilst starting to build up a network.
I have had support in my career through two main channels. The first being through the programmes launched by our company, such as the graduate programme, Stepping Stones or the LEAD programmes. They have always been really helpful to step back, reflect and push forward effectively when applying learnings and techniques. Another has been through my line managers and colleagues. I have been very fortunate with the line managers I have had over the years and I’m very grateful for everything they have shared with me and done to help develop my career. Along with my line managers, I have also met fantastic colleagues at all levels, ready to share their experience or help out. I think this is what forms part of our Wincanton culture and is something quite precious to nurture going forward.
With Project Management being my key focus over recent years, I’ve completed different training and qualifications including Prince 2, Change Management, Managing Successful Programme, Agile Project Management and APM PMQ. These are all great courses that helped me to better understand the framework, tools and methodologies that can be applied – or that our customers wish to apply. I have not yet completely figured out where I want to go next with my career! I love working as part of the Project Delivery and Transformation team, as it has allowed me to collaborate within different business unit, deploying different types of operations for a wide range of customers working with great colleagues.
It has been an inspiring journey and I need to reflect on what may come next!