Ruth Martin

What excites you most about Gill and your role here?

I think what excites me most about my role at Gill is the opportunity to make a real difference to Gill’s brand. I joined at the end of last year, at a time when the business is really scaling up, growing and evolving. We’re bringing 4 sub-brands into one, Gill Group, which brings with it a tremendous opportunity for growth and new ways of connecting with our customers. It’s brilliant to be part of that.

What interests you most about the industry?

I’m actually relatively new to the industry. After working in telecoms and connectivity for over 10 years, this has been a refreshing change. I would say what interests me most is seeing how the stories we tell about our technology is evolving. The data our instruments collect has real-world impact on people’s lives, sometimes in quite unexpected ways, and I find it exciting to help communicate that.

Coming from telecoms, I’ve seen what happens when an industry finds its voice, and I think meteorological measurement is right on the cusp of that. It’s an industry doing genuinely important work, and I love that my job is helping more people understand why it matters.

Who has inspired you the most in your career, and what did you learn from them?

I have worked with a number of people who have inspired me in my career. The two common themes each had that inspired me are having integrity and being people-focused. Integrity for me is extremely important, doing what you say you will, and being honest with customers and colleagues alike. And the best managers I’ve had have all been people-focused.

They’ve championed, encouraged and prioritised their team members, which in turn boosted productivity, results and morale. This has always inspired me in the way I work as part of a team.

If you could swap roles with anyone at Gill for a week, whose would you choose and why?

I think it would have to be one of our overseas Business Development Managers. I would love to spend a week seeing what they do, traveling and speaking to customers who use our products in various applications. It would be a great opportunity to get closer to customers around the world who are pioneers in what they do.

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.

I really love B rated shark movies. The worse the CGI quality, the more I’ll likely enjoy it! After first watching Deep Blue Sea,now I have watched all sorts, from films about giant megalodons, to sharks that swim in sand or swamps instead of seawater, sharks in flooded supermarkets and more. I’ve even managed to get a few friends into watching them too.