Her entry, which topped a shortlist of five women candidates, was announced last night at the Chartered Management Institute dinner at the Hotel L’Horizon.
She is the general manager of two separate companies, Tower Shopfitting and Building Renovations, subsidiaries of Charles Le Quesne Ltd.
Brought up in Devon, she started her career as a trainee bricklayer at the age of 16 and attended Exeter School of Building and Civil Engineering, subsequently returning to college to train as a surveyor.
She was transferred to Jersey to work as a surveyor and has headed up Building Renovations for over two years and Tower Shopfitting for one year.
Her motivation for entering the competition was to bring attention to the construction industry as ‘an exciting industry to be in’, as well as good publicity for the firm.
‘Also, being a woman, I wanted to show that construction is open to everybody,’ she said this morning.
‘I was very shocked that I won – I didn’t even know how many people had been shortlisted until I read it in the paper and when I saw that there were three bankers and a deputy head teacher I thought I had no chance – I was so surprised.
All candidates were interviewed by a panel of three – Phil Austin, chief executive of Jersey Finance; Bob Lawrence, managing director of Jersey Telecom; and Clive Barton, senior partner at Moore Stephens.
This included a 20-minute presentation followed by questions.
On behalf of the judges, Phil Austin said they had been impressed by all the finalists, but felt that the winner had the edge because of her success in the world of commerce and a male-dominated industry.
‘She has really turned things around, changed the identity, the way they buy materials – really got involved in the nitty gritty.
She hires people, deals with the unions, and is equally at home on the building site or in the board room.
The second prize went to Sarah Briggs, one of two deputy head teachers at Rouge Bouillon School, based around her work with staff on assessment of learning.
The third prize went to Sue Lincoln, who is a member of the Lloyds TSB human resources team.
Runners up Joe Lucas and Samantha Kemsley also work for Lloyds TSB.
