Ed Palairet

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT ED PALAIRET

For my degree I chose to study the science behind a UN-recognised solution to environmental and poverty issues in tropical countries. While I didn’t move to a tropical country, I have been committed to these causes in my paid and unpaid roles in the city of Bristol – which has been a journey of continual learning. For 14 years I have worked for a company that verifies and certifies environmental claims. In the certification team I communicated directly with fee-paying clients and helped overcome hurdles that might have led them to abandon their sustainability endeavours; I coordinated events or simply our attendance at trade events or conferences where I represented the organisation; I wrote content for magazines and websites. In the quality team I launched a new service and ensured our document control and continual improvement systems were effective, widely adopted, and compliant with ISO17065. In the technical team, I ensured we were aware of risks and had effective monitoring in place to be confident that our clients met the regulations. I produced guidance for businesses, mindful of possible misinterpretation and legal action. I liaised with the relevant government department on a regular basis. I helped improve consistency between teams by developing an IT reference resource for ‘grey areas’. Throughout these roles, more often than not, I was managing projects that spanned several teams, and was often presenting to boards or committees. In my numerous volunteer roles in Bristol I have gained experience and developed attributes relevant to being successful in future roles: • I am chair of trustees of an advice centre that helps people facing issues such as fuel poverty. I line-manage the general manager. • I have secured funding from a range of sources including grant-making trusts and the general public. • I led an IT project replacing an old database and all computers. • I have managed teams of 4-21 volunteers for different community projects. • I carried out monitoring visits of different elements of the school where I was governor – during this time, Ofsted commended the governors for providing “the right balance of support and challenge to leaders”. • I approved expenses, kept accounts for auditors, held the company debit card, reported to donors (restricted and unrestricted funds) and reported to the board. • I attended safeguarding training and underwent a safeguarding audit. • I produced impact reports in print and in video. • I administered websites and published content online. I increased monthly tweet impressions from 28 to 6191.