Role: Key Account Manager
Company: HBE Risk Management
Track Record: Jacqueline Byrne (40) is the Key Account Manager at HBE Risk Management, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading environmental consultancies.
Having worked as an occupational psychologist, Jacqueline moved into account and sales management positions for a number of large corporations before taking up a new challenge at HBE in 2009.
Jacqueline said: “My role is mainly working with people, both internally and externally. I’m primarily responsible for giving my clients complete peace of mind, that their building portfolio is legally compliant and as compliance efficient as strategically possible.
As my clients range from social housing providers, SME’s, large facility management providers through to multinational manufacturing, industrial and healthcare environments; I work with a wide range of people across the world.
I am also an active member of the BIFM Ireland Regional Committee and work on planning its key events through the year, including the forthcoming annual BIFM Ireland Conference, which is taking place on the 15th November 2013.”
07:00
The alarm wakes me and hopefully not my two young sons, until it’s time for them to get up, giving me a chance to get showered, dressed and grab a cup of that essential morning coffee before the merry-go-round starts.
07:30
Open the laptop and iphone to answer the messages I received last night and to plan my day ahead.
08:00
Family breakfast with the kids before the military operation of co-ordinating school bags, teeth cleaning and getting to the car begins.
08:35
Kids dropped at school and the phone has started to ring. I now have 19 minutes to catch up on calls, such as sample results for a client or finalising costs for a client proposal, before I arrive at our new head office in Newry.
09:00
On the way into work, I chat with the Sales support team to ensure they are up-to-speed with the day ahead and that there are no outstanding issues. Once at work, I will either head into a tender meeting with the Bid Team or work on some of the portfolio management projects I’m collaborating on with my clients.
11:00
If I’m on the road, I’ll be heading to my second client meeting of the day or to work at our Belfast office. However, as my clients are scattered around Ireland and even Europe, I’ll usually be found with a phone glued to my ear in Newry.
13:00
Time for a quick snack at my desk, before heading out to an afternoon meeting. A lot of my work involves collaboration, so I do try to spend some of my week meeting contacts for lunch or a coffee.
This is especially important now, as I’m always looking for interesting client sites for the BIFM Ireland Region network to visit. As a BIFM Ireland region committee member, I’m currently tasked with the development and activation of the Professional Recognition Awards, which we launched last year, and that will open soon for 2013 entries.
15:00
Assuming that there have been no emergencies or positive sampling results that need our immediate attention, the afternoon usually allows me some thinking time. A key part of my role is to develop new products and services to meet the ever changing needs of the legislation and review the impact they might have on our clients.
It just takes a new piece of legislation to be published or one legionella outbreak, Fire or Asbestos prosecution to hit the news to change my day from proactive product planning to heading out on site with a consultant or our microbiologist to handle a situation.
17:00ish- evenings!
Usually around this time, I like to catch up on my administration and check in with the operations and quality team before heading home to see the boys and to cook some dinner.
I pop around to have dinner with my parents during the week with the boys and it’s great to be able to do this as they are so close by.
Family time is very important to me, but so is my fitness. My husband is a keen golfer (well he tries!) and the boys have caught the bug, so if they’re out playing then I’ll take myself to an exercise class, before going for a run or catch up with friends for dinner in Belfast. I’ve just celebrated a BIG birthday and have committed to run four 10K runs this year for our named HBE Charity (Marie Curie)! It’s two down and two to go, so the pavement pounding will be on my agenda for a while yet (I may regret setting myself this challenge)!
20.00
After some time with my boys, it’s their bed time and it’s not too long until I’m up after them.
However, I’m also a sucker for live concerts and sometimes when I have a free evening, I drag my friends and family along to a wide variety of events. So far this year I’ve managed to get tickets to see Rihanna, Snow Patrol and Fleetwood Mac. How’s that for a mix?
Other than that, I’m often running that essential family service called mum’s taxi, where I deliver my boys to swimming, parties, football etc. Sometimes, I think they have a better social life than I do!
22.30
After some down time in front of the box, I head to bed most week nights early!