Our People

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Passionate, committed, approachable.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I spent 15 years working with the Automobile Association, progressing from Call Handling to National Operations Manager – managing a team of 28 staff and an entire country of Breakdown Mechanics, before finally taking redundancy when pregnant with my third child.

After having my children and spending a year at home with my youngest, I went back to work as a Transport Planner at Worcester City Council. I made the move to Ringway in 2014 and was promoted to Fleet Supervisor for Worcester and Gloucester in August 2019.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

I successfully built my night shift team at the AA, and they went on to become the National Dispatch Team due to their high achievement and ability to handle difficult breakdown situations.

I’ve progressed through Ringway over the last couple of years, managing a very busy parts department, (with a turnover of £800k per year) firstly on my own, then with the assistance of two team members, allowing us to increase capacity and give a better service.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

I want to obtain my Transport Manager’s CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) and progress to Fleet and Plant Manager in any contract across the Ringway/ Eurovia Business.

I’ve always been driven and career-minded. I took a break to raise my children. Now they’re coming to the age where they will be leaving for uni and in senior school, I can focus back on my career.

I like to help and develop people in the best way possible; some of my old staff still call me the best manager they ever had. I’m proud of that.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

Work hard, work smart and always adopt a positive attitude, even to setbacks that come your way.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

The variety of work and people, and the support from management is brilliant – whether you want to progress or maintain your current working level.

The appraisal system allows for a good two-way conversation between line managers and team members about training, progression or ensuring they’re happy where they are.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Approachable, organised, driven.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I have been working for Ringway for about 11 years. I started off on ART (Active Response Team) for around a year, before becoming a ganger for a footways crew for around five years.

I then moved on to public realm works as a site Foreman. I had the responsibilities of being in charge of my own gang and running a subcontract gang at our works at Worcester Cathedral.

I then went to the Tenbury public realm scheme, followed by another new road public realm job (Worcester 2018) with similar responsibilities. I had a brief spell on VDCs (vehicle driven crossings) before becoming Footway Supervisor.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

A key achievement for me was being on-site Foreman at the cathedral in Worcester – a great project, a great gang, and once finished, the job looked amazing.

I’m enjoy my current position as it involves many different aspects of the work. It’s very satisfying learning new things. I’m self-driven and always strive to exceed expectations.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

I’m still learning as a Supervisor. Then I will aim for Senior Supervisor. I enjoy a challenge, and it would be the next step in my career.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

It’s a great firm to work for, with different paths and opportunities to aim for. If you put the effort in, you can go anywhere.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

The company’s top priority really is Safety, which I think is perfect in this industry. Ringway is just a great firm to work for.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Motivated, dedicated, unflappable.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I started as a shelf stacker, worked in warehouses and making fibre-optic cables, before working for Milton Keynes Council – first, on the services helpline, then as a Safe Communities Warden. I moved teams and was soon promoted to Community Engagement Officer, where my career in highways began. After a restructure I became a Highways Inspector.

We were TUPE’d across to Ringway in April 2014 and there was an immediate shift in my working life. Ringway offered in-depth training, new technology and a well-managed service. This made me want to do more with my career. A year and a half on, I was leading a team of inspectors, planning their routes, delegating enquiries, and delivering a vehicle crossing programme.

With guidance from my Contract Manager, I got the Supervisor role, but immediately regretted my decision. I was a fairly young chap with 18 Operatives who didn’t think I had the ability to deliver this service. I knuckled down and set out to ensure these guys worked safely, got the work done, and got home safe. So I tackled the misconception and began to deliver a profitable service.

Through training I gained more people skills, and got involved in larger works to increase my technical understanding. When my mentor left in 2019, I was confident in my abilities, and had the opportunity to take on some of his duties when promoted to Senior Supervisor.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

Pushing through that low point took massive effort but it’s been worth it to deliver a successful service.

Other successes are around maintaining services through periods of bad weather, and emergencies – like managing our response to a major chemical spill.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

My immediate aim is an engineering degree. After this I will aim for a Contracts Manager role with the help of training in budget management.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

Don’t burn yourself out; making a career takes time and a lot of hard work. Set targets and keep going until you achieve them. Look for a mentor; it’s a compliment for a manager to be chosen as a mentor, so don’t be afraid to ask.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

For me it’s the development opportunities and training. The company invests so much in people and this has helped me grow in my career.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Dynamic, enthusiastic, upfront.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I was sponsored through university by a national contractor, complementing my studies with industry placements, their graduate training programme and leadership mentorship scheme. As I followed the normal progression through commercial roles within both the highway and rail sectors, my management and leadership skills were honed through development programmes. This fast-tracked my promotion. During my eight years at Amey, I progressed from Commercial Assistant to Commercial Manager.

On leaving the company that kickstarted and nurtured my career, I stepped up into a business unit commercial lead role for global consultancy Arcadis. This allowed me to broaden my experience further. Reporting directly to the business unit director, with overall commercial responsibility for the team, my brief was to bring about a culture shift, based on commercial process quality, contract interpretation and adherence, and customer engagement and management.

Following this, I wanted to go it alone as a freelance. Working for main contractors on highways projects – helping to improve challenging infrastructure contracts – was a role that tested my quantity surveying and dispute resolutions skills.

In December 2019, I joined Ringway as the Commercial Manager on the South West Maintenance and Response contract.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

To date, I have most enjoyed improving ‘bad’ projects, as well as mentoring junior members of the team.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

My future goal is to gain more operational experience, to enhance my understanding of how Eurovia and Ringway work.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

My advice to someone joining the business would be to take every opportunity that is presented to them, learn, and be patient with yourself.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

The employees!

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Funny, methodical, consistent.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I spent about six years temping, which I really enjoyed as I learnt so much about working in an office. I worked for companies of all sizes and industries so it was all valuable experience. I took a permanent role in the NHS in 2009, where I worked with a fantastic team and felt the work I did really helped people.

I then moved to Devon in 2012, where I got a job as a training co-ordinator. The company was fantastic to work for and I really enjoyed the team I was in. I definitely grew in skill and confidence in this role as I was trusted by my managers and colleagues with their clients. I moved back to Milton Keynes in 2015, where I started working for Ringway.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

I am a fan of paperless working. In my NHS role, I made two of the processes I worked with paperless and have also done the same with a few processes here at Ringway.

I spent most of 2019 mapping and documenting our local processes. This was a large piece of work and I was very happy to end the year with 40 processes completed and available for my division to use.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

I would like to do something more creative and start a side business so I guess my goal is “Owner”!

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

Speak to as many people as you can. Everyone here has so much experience and you can learn so much from people in different roles.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

It’s a great place to learn about highways maintenance and schemes.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Practical, conscientious, loyal.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

My working life started as a pot washer in Birmingham. After a year, the restaurant manager asked me to work at a local pub. One evening, I overheard one of the regulars complaining about IT issues in his traffic management business. I offered to look at his computer and instead he offered me a job.

This was the start of my career in construction, doing basic signage plans. As this small business grew, I was asked to manage a new client, a national roadmarking company that was part of Eurovia. From that first job, I built a good working relationship, which led to working with other parts of the group, and I was promoted to Contracts Manager.

In 2013, my client was helping mobilise a new contract on the Isle of Wight and asked if I’d like an interview for Ringway. I was appointed Traffic Management Officer with Island Roads.

After four years, I was promoted to Project Manager, looking after the CIP (Core Investment Period) Carriageways team, and all aspects of resurfacing from full reconstruction to road marking.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

The TM Operatives and I built most of the processes and even the depot from the ground up; a lot of the original faces are still there seven years later, which speaks volumes.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

I hope to remain in a team leadership role as that’s what I enjoy and where my strengths are, and hopefully be better placed to influence business strategies.

There are lots of opportunities within Eurovia and I hope to facilitate better collaborative working, help build teams and strengthen the business.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. It’s the best way to learn, and most people will take pleasure in explaining something they have an interest in. Win win.

Also, there are a lot of opportunities out there; sometimes you just have to ask.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

It doesn’t matter who you are, how experienced, or what job title, if you have an idea or a concern everyone has a voice, and anyone can make a difference.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Reliable, methodical, Sociable.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I joined Ringway straight out of sixth form college when I was 18 years old.

I started within the company in Worcestershire as an Accounts Assistant in January 2007. The main duties of this role were purchase ledger, as we didn’t have a central finance team back then. I was in this role for approx. six years and studied my AAT at college in the evenings after work. In 2013, I applied for the Assistant Accountant/Finance Manager job within the team. This role helped me to really progress as a person and get involved with a lot more responsibilities within the finance department, putting together budgets, creating management packs etc, training on new systems, learning payroll, sales ledger, petty cash etc. and lined me up for my current position as DFC.

I was on maternity leave when the opportunity came up to apply for the DFC position which had always been my goal.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

For me, it would have to be reaching my goal of DFC within the business. I thought that I was a long way off, and didn’t expect to be in this position quite yet, but having done it now for 12 months I have surprised myself. I just needed that push from my line manager, and when she said that she believed in me I knew I could do it.

I also loved the Hackathon, this was a great experience to be involved with and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who gets the opportunity to go!

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

For now, I am happy in my position as DFC as I am still learning new things within the role each day, and have only been doing it for 12 months.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

Be patient, and never give up on your goals! If you have a goal in mind and a job you want to get to within the business, then you will get there when you are ready!

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

How supportive they are, they have paid for my college courses and got me where I am today. Also, the people I work with. I have made lots of friends for life within Ringway.

How would you describe yourself in three words:

Diligent, honest, hardworking.

Tell us about your career. What choices have you made to get where you are today?

I spent 22 years in the Armed Forces and 12 in transport – teaching, coaching and instructing. The scope, remit and responsibilities are too varied to list! But the decision to move into the transport sector resulted in my career being more successful than it otherwise might have been.

This phase involved five years with logistics firm XPO, which I left as Transport Manager on good terms; permanent night shift working was impacting on my health and family life. I was responsible for the depot, 150 vehicles and 200 drivers on shift, closely managing 50 drivers through a team of supervisors.

To date, what are your career success stories or high-points and why?

I’ve always enjoy having a clearly defined scope for a project, with a definitive outcome that is measurable. The nature of the project doesn’t matter – I ran several social functions whilst serving, all of which ran with very few issues on the night, despite a myriad of challenges along the way.

On departing XPO, I had mentored a clerk into becoming a supervisor, so my position could be filled by the senior supervisor. I was extremely proud of the team. Effectively training someone to do my job and replace me is the ultimate reward and enables progression. I believe that by looking after my people, at Ringway now as before, they get me a great deal further than I ever could on my own.

Do you have plans…what are your ‘next job’ goals?

An MBA degree will help me better understand the integral workings of the business. Another goal is to take on a fleet or equipment management role in Canada – I relish a challenge and have Canadian background.

What career advice would you give to someone just joining the business?

Do not be afraid to make a decision, just so long as you have the justification to back it up, as the worst action is inaction.

What’s the best thing about working for Eurovia/Ringway?

The people I interact with across the business and the supply chain.