Our ambition is to be to be a global leader in pet nutrition. Want to be part of our journey?

When did you join INSPIRED?​

March 2008​

What was your first role in INSPIRED?​

Accounts Assistant​

What role do you do today?​

Chief Operating Officer​

Tell me a bit about your career journey at INSPIRED?​

I joined the team as an accounts assistant in a team of two or three and through my line managers investing significant time in me and some hard work, I made it to be a management account, then FD over a period of seven years. I was then promoted to CFO five years later. I then became COO at the end of 2022 when the position became available.​

Are there any colleagues / individuals / mentors that you have had during this time that made an impact on your career? If so, why?​

Many people at INSPIRED have had a huge impact on my career. The two that deserve a special call out are Martha McGarry and Richard Page. Martha, trained / coached and mentored me for many years after I joined INSPIRED, and I owe a lot of gratitude to Martha due to where I am now. Richard has also sponsored me through the business and spent many hours mentoring me from a wider strategic perspective.​

How have you built your skillset up during this time?​

Ensuring I have the best interests of the wider business at heart and not just my own siloed areas of responsibility. Being able to collaborate and work cross functionally. I am responsible for predominantly driving change and therefore good communication and stakeholder management skills are essential. I like everyone else must continually develop to ensure we are thinking outside the box and have a strong strategic direction for the business.​

If you had one piece of advice for a colleague looking to progress their career with INSPIRED, what would it be?​

INSPIRED has had and will continue to have multiple career progression opportunities. Work hard, hit or even better, beat your objectives and ensure you are investing in your own development to make yourself the natural choice as opportunities present themselves.​​

When did you join INSPIRED?​

October 2011​

What was your first role in INSPIRED?​

Back in 2011 I was employed as ‘Mill Manager’….. However, since then I moved into various other roles; such as procurement, planning and most recently product and process.​

What role do you do today?​

Site Operations Manager​

Tell me a bit about your career journey at INSPIRED?​

My career has always been focused in and around people, process and general operations!…. One of the things I enjoy the most about my roles and career at INSPIRED is being able to get so close to the process and products we make! When we decide to do something differently you can manage the change and get feedback from the teams.​

Are there any colleagues / individuals / mentors that you have had during this time that made an impact on your career? If so, why?​

I been fortunate enough to work for INSPIRED since it was owned and managed by the Bill, Richard, George and Tom Page. They taught me some of our key Yorkshire values which has contributed to our success over the years! And more recently many of the senior leadership team who direct the business, demonstrating a professional and structured approach to day-to-day business.​

How have you built your skillset up during this time? ​

A particular stand out skillset is my willingness to learn and challenge myself to do new things! A great example of when I challenged myself was our recent EFFIE project, the site leadership team was tasked to bring in new manufacturing capability to Thirsk. I was tasked with a delivering a project with a CAPEX value of more than £3M and was able to manage this project from design through to handover.​

If you had one piece of advice for a colleague looking to progress their career with INSPIRED, what would it be? ​

One of the reasons I love working at INSPIRED is that if you see an opportunity or improvement, you are fully empowered and supported by the leadership team to make these changes happen. ​
INSPIRED despite its size, still reacts very quickly to opportunities and our flat management structure facilitates getting new ideas approved quickly!​
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