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Celebrating International Women's Day
Posted: 08/03/2020
Today is International Women’s Day, and here at Flowtechnology UK we are proud to support this day, the themes around it and are also proud to have so many brilliant women as part of our team! In fact, around 68% of our office staff are women, in a variety of departments from Customer Services to E-commerce. We also like to take this opportunity to celebrate three special women who are part of our Management Team and between them have accumulated an amazing 53.5 years of dedicated service within the company: Jane D’Silva, Commercial Centre Manager, Cheryl Philbin, Head of Communications and Claire Smith, Head of E-commerce.
Jane D’Silva has been with Flowtechnology UK for an impressive 23 years! Joining in 1997 when it was still owned by the Readman family and called IPL Fluid Power, Jane was initially responsible for Customer Services and ISO, before moving onto management of the Call Centre, which was twice the size it is now due to orders being placed either by phone or fax (we didn’t have online ordering at that time)!! After a spell on Internal Business Development, Jane also spent several years on the road visiting our customers supporting them with Ecommerce initiatives. For the last four years, Jane has been the Commercial Centre Manager, working closely with the Managing Director in a role which encompasses overall responsibility for the service and support areas of the business plus Project Management, HR, Training, etc.
Cheryl Philbin joined the company 14 years this March. Her role as Head of Communications, means that she supports our customer facing teams i.e. the Call Centre and Customer Services. She also handles new innovations of IT and communications equipment, which enables Flowtechnology UK to provide the highest service levels to our customers consistently. Cheryl’s journey with Flowtechnology began in the Call Centre in 2006, where she was working 4 hours a day. After earning her stripes and progressing to Call Centre team leader, she moved on to the Ecommerce team where she worked with our ITS customers. After several years, Cheryl then returned to support the Call Centre, Customer Services and finally Credit Control also became part of her team! To further support her personal development, Cheryl has recently completed training as an ISOQAR auditor, and a Mental Health First Aider!
Claire Smith has been with us for 16 and a half years now! Her role as Head of E-commerce, means that herself and her team play an integral part in the provision of the Flowtechnology UK web-based platforms. They have expert knowledge of the website, and are able to support customers with White Label websites, punchout systems, apps and anything that falls under the digital bracket! Claire started at Flowtechnology UK back in 2003, working 12.5 hours a week in the Call Centre, whilst studying for her degree! From there, she progressed to Call Centre team leader, and was further promoted to Marketing Executive in 2012. Events, exclusive brands, special offers and content for the corporate website fell under her remit, and she has been working in Ecommerce since 2017. Claire, like Cheryl, has recently completed her Mental Health First Aid Training, and is also studying for her level 5 Management Diploma!
L-R: Claire Smith, Cheryl Philbin and Jane D'Silva