Career Development Day 

Listen to the recording of the session here. 

On the 23rd June the IOR Women in RACHP Network will hold a webinar to celebrate the 2020 International Women in Engineering Day.

The event will be open to anyone working in, or who has an interest in, the refrigeration air conditioning and heat pump sector.  

Find out more about the WiRACHP Network and how you can get involved. Connect with other members of the network and hear from women working in the sector about their experiences and career paths. 

There will also be information about resources available to help you advance your career.

The webinar will begin at 10.30 am and last for one hour. 

If you will be joining the webinar and would like to send a question in for the panel in advance either email it to ior@ior.org.uk and mark the subject as Career Day. Alternatively, you will be able to post questions live during the broadcast.    

Outline Programme:

• Welcome and introduction to the Women in RACHP Network 
• Panel discussion - sharing experience of careers in RACHP  
• Short interactive session 
• What the network can do for you

Meet the panellists

 Karen Perry MInstR - Chair of the Women in RACHP Network

Karen has worked in the industry for coming up to 25 years with 21 of those being at Daikin. Joining the industry, straight from school, her first job was in distribution.  Karen then took an opportunity to work for a global manufacturer (Daikin) in a sales role in the south-east of the UK. Working for Daikin has brought numerous opportunities to develop Karen’s career through sales and management roles, she is currently managing sales teams in the north of the country.

Karen decided to enter the world of work after finishing her GCSEs but later in life had the desire to further her education and embarked on a part time degree, while still working for Daikin, with The Open University and graduated in 2017 with a BScHons in Psychology. This show that you don’t need to be an engineer to get on in the air conditioning industry!

 Samantha Buckell

Sam has worked in the RACHP industry for just over four years with Bitzer UK. She is the Personal Assistant to the Managing Director Kevin Glass.  Sam has been an active member of the IOR since joining the sector. She was Chair of the WiRACHP Network Planning Group for its first three years which she found was incredibly enjoyable. Sam is currently a member of the IOR’s Education and Training Committee and her engagement with the IOR has enabled her to develop a sizable network of industry contacts which she has found not only a pleasure but has also helped enormously with her work.

 Jacinta Caden MInstR, MWES

Jacinta has over 17 years of experience working in the RACHP sector. Beginning her career as a service, maintenance and installations apprentice she progressed to become a Technical Sales Engineer involved in technical and design proposals for a RAC Wholesaler. Seeking new challenge she moved on to work as an Area Manager for a Close Control a/c manufacturer of equipment for Data Centres and Clean Rooms before taking a role as the BDM & Spiral Freezer Operations Manager for Industrial RAC Contractor. Jacinta's last BDM role was for management consulting specialists who developed, managed and controlled Data Centre projects and programs. She is currently working as Technical Director for USystems, a cooling solutions and specific product manufacturer for the data centre market. She is also an active member of the IOR involved in WiRACHP Steering Group, Education & Training Committee and a Member of the Board of Trustee. In 2019 she was voted ACR Woman of the Year and a one of the WES Top 50 Women in Engineering. Jacinta is also a Member of WES and until January 2020 was on their council for a number of years.

 Lisa Jayne Cook MInstR

Lisa is a Sales and Applications Engineer at J&E Hall in their Applied Refrigeration and Service Division, and a new Trustee at the IOR.  This year she celebrates 20 years in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning industry.  Her career started in the Drawing Office where she learned the basics of product design and manufacturing processes.  Within a short space of time she moved into Sales and Applications where she furthered her knowledge and experience of airside product and design.  Her apprenticeship commenced in 2002 during which time she attended Eastleigh Collage to study Building Services Engineering on day release, while also working several evenings a week in Coil Assembly where she learnt to braze and assemble unit coolers.  Lisa’s current role is predominantly in refrigeration and process cooling, applying her knowledge to a vast number of applications; managing turnkey solutions from design to delivery.  Lisa-Jayne is a member of the Women’s Engineering Society and actively networks with other female engineers in a variety of fields, exchanging experiences and ideas to help us raise the profile of and champion women in engineering.  She is also a strong believer in engaging with the next generation in the hope of inspiring more young people to consider engineering as a career. 

 Dr Catarina Marques BEng (Hons), PhD, MInstR

Catarina is a Senior Research Fellow at London South Bank University (LSBU) with 14 years’ experience working on funded research projects in the areas of refrigeration, district heating and cooling, food and thermal storage materials. She is the Project Manager for GreenSCIES a large consortium project on local smart energy networks that combine heat, power and transport. Catarina has worked simultaneously in the industry and academia through an industrial CASE award PhD and two knowledge transfer partnerships between LSBU and Adande Refrigeration Ltd. She won an Innovate UK business leader of the Future award in 2015 and managed Adande’s Engineering department for 3 years leading the development of novel award-winning energy efficient products and certification to international markets. She has 6 years’ experience writing EN and ISO standards. Catarina is the President of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) CaRe (Careers in Refrigeration) working group that aims to make refrigeration more visible to the general public and inspire a young generation to join this field. She regularly organises international workshops for CaRe and it is a member of the Institute of Refrigeration steering group on Women in Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Heat Pumps.

Steve Gill FInstR

Steve is an independent refrigeration consultant and Head of the Secretariat for World Refrigeration Day. He is the founder of the Cool Mentoring initiative and a Past President of the IOR.   

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