Vanessa Merefield

"I am organised, I like to plan but want to know the end goal and how long I have to achieve it. I love working with people and meeting new contacts. I am interested in mentoring people and will always be honest with my approach, I like building trust in order to support others in their jobs. I have a lot of personal experience and happy to share what I have learnt from others."

"I am responsible for 5 laboratory teams with different scientific disciplines. I manage budget, resource, planning, EHS, quality and technical input for the services we provide. I enjoy working with experienced and inexperienced colleagues, customers and making sure that we can deliver what people need. I also enjoy seeing colleagues develop and gain new skills and confidence in their jobs. "

"I started working as a glasswasher in a pub whilst studying A levels and then realised I was quite practical and efficient, and good talking to people. I then went straight from A-Levels to working full time in a contract laboratory. I left this role as I couldn't see a path for development and then joined Pall at a lower level. I learnt from the bottom up and completed my degree part time learning microbiology, immunology and biomedical science which I found fascinating. My boss inspired me as she was the one who told me consistently that I was doing a great job and gave me the confidence to believe it. "

"I love playing tennis, being outdoors and spending time with my family. I play the saxophone but don't get much time to do that. I also enjoy cooking and find it very similar to following lab test protocols, it's accuracy and scientific, although taste is the important thing!I also love reading, especially crime and murders, I really enjoyed pathology but I prefer a murder mystery."

"The morning starts with a 10 min round up with each lab, what problems are the raising on a daily basis, starting with EHS and looking at anything that prevents them from doing their job. Many labs will have urgent requests so we need to look at prioritisation and understand if resources have to be reallocated. I also attend site management meetings to understand any new changes that we can communicate to staff. I typically attend project review teams with R&D to understand planning and review any technical results that have been issued. I do spend a lot of time at my computer but always spend time in the laboratories for face to face with our team."

"A Levels - Chemistry, Maths, BiologyFirst Class Hons Biomedical Science - Part Time through Pall - 4 yearsManagement Diploma"