International women's day: Suzanna was too much of a people's person to become a veterinary
We highlight International
women’s day 8 Mach by presenting some of the female professionals working
in some of Vattenfall’s markets and business areas.
Suzanna Lashford is
leading the Business Development team within Vattenfall Networks UK. Her
office is in London but she lives in the countryside outside the city:
“When I was young
I always wanted to be a vet. But when I applied for vet school they
told me I was too much of a people person to be accepted for the course.
I was naturally disappointed at first, but in hindsight they were right,
I love talking and relating to people.
I’ve worked in Vattenfall
Networks UK for nearly 5 years. We are a so called independent distribution
network operator, IDNO, which means we are allowed to connect customers
to the power grid all over the UK. Basically we design, own and operate
the electrical networks which take electricity from the grid to our customers.
These could for instance be new housing development, datacentres, or large
solar or battery projects. All 14 IDNOs in the country compete for these
projects, so the competition is really tough.
I am leading the business
development team and I love it. I really love building teams, developing
new offerings and solving problems for our customers. And as I said, I
really like being in the public world, meeting customers, talking to people.
It can feel a bit daunting, to stand in front of a crowd but it’s very
rewarding once it’s over. I have to push myself into these uncomfortable
places and it makes me develop as a person.
The path to where I
am today wasn’t exactly straight. When I was not accepted for vet
school I decided to get a degree in zoology as a last resort. In the last
year I studied a lot of ecology and sustainability. I decided to
do a broad environmental masters at Imperial University in London and then
I started to learn about energy, energy policies and renewables. After
graduating I took a sales job and realised I enjoyed the contact with customers,
so I started to think what my dream job would be, where can I talk to people
and do sales, but still make use of my studies? The renewables industry
was just starting to grow in the UK, and it lead me to the solar
power business which was just starting to boom.
After 12 years I had
worked my way up to a commercial projects manager for a team of sales
people, but I was ready for something new. I had heard a lot of good things
about Vattenfall and when the opportunity came it felt like the right thing.
What interested me was the fact that because the IDNO business
was new within Vattenfall, it was like developing a start-up again, but
at the same time being within the big world of Vattenfall. So I started
as the sole business developer, and now we are a team of four.
In the midst of the
covid pandemic, April 2021, I had a daughter. I took a whole year
off and it was fantastic to be able to do that. Today I am working four
days a week and when my daughter is a little bit bigger I will go back
to full time. The company and my manager have been very supportive
in this and the process was very simple. I think it has to do with Vattenfall
being a Swedish company with progressive attitude towards equality. For
me, it would have been much more difficult to combine being the mother
of a baby with a professional career otherwise. And I would have been an
unhappy person. When I talk to my friends here in the UK I can see that
some of them haven’t had the same opportunities or support from their
employers. But having that flexibility has enabled me to come back to work
and to give all I can in my working days and also support my daughter as
she grows up. And that is so important.”