ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 47 SPONSORED BY COOLAIR Coolair supports women in ACR Coolair.indd 1 02/02/2021 11:32 our market share and make Hitachi an even greater place to work. It’s a strong management team and a very exciting time for the business. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given? “You don’t know what you don’t know”, which to me means it’s OK not to have the answer for everything; go away, find out and report back. You’ve learnt something and your customer will know for next time. I believe that honesty is the best policy. But, again, it comes back to reassurance for our customers. What do you see as the challenges facing the industry? Fulfilling the demand of the projected 600,000 heat pumps by 2028. We’ll give it a good go though! We need to ensure that the support mechanism is in place to support these numbers year on year, ensuring we have installers trained to a high industry standard so each installation works to its optimum performance. In addition, distributors, manufacturers and suppliers need to work together to ensure we are geared up ahead of the peak of demand. Hitachi has some strong new products coming down the line, so we are heavily investing in R&D for those and is well- placed to meet the challenges ahead. We have seen the heat pump market boom in other European countries, so our colleagues have already been on that journey, and they are ready, willing and able to help and guide the UK & Ireland team. What would you say to other women who are considering coming into the HVAC industry? Do it!! I have met the most incredible, driven, inspiring women in the industry that I now class as friends. It also feels good knowing that, as an industry, we are reducing carbon emissions and will be instrumental in educating the public to change from carbon fuel systems to more energy-ecient, renewable and sustainable alternatives, such as heat pumps. It’s an exciting time, and I really hope to see more women joining the Hitachi team in the near future. What would you say has been your biggest achievement or what you are most proud of? I’m proud that I left school with no formal qualifications, but through hard work and sheer determination, I’m in the position I’m in now. What are you most looking forward to in the next 12 months? Seeing our customers face-to-face! We held a sales meeting in May (following all the Covid guidelines, of course), which was great as I had a chance to meet everyone for the first time properly, and I meet my team regularly just to touch base, work from the same space and bounce ideas around. Microsoft Teams has served a purpose, but it definitely shouldn’t replace going out and physically seeing customers, having a walk around and seeing everyone to say ‘hello’ and get a better feel for the company, how they operate and how we can meet their needs. So it’s just better all around. Also, our new training suite has launched, so I’m excited to get all our customers and prospects into the new Maidenhead oce and see the products in person. What keeps you busy outside work? Outside of work, my two children, aged eight and five, keep me pretty busy. I’m also part of a running club called ‘mums who run’ and a book club (AKA wine club!). We also bought a house just before lockdown that needs lots of work doing, so there’s no shortage of things to keep me busy!