Cristina Moreau, Engineering & IT Manager at REID Lifting

From product development, validation and certification, to managing a team of five, Cristina Moreau, Engineering & IT Manager at REID Lifting shares an insight in to her daily working life.

Working Day

My day normally starts around 5:30am, so that I can get up and feed my dog before I start my hour and fifteen minute commute into the office. I make the most of that time though with old school language courses on CD.

Once I’m in the office, my day really gets going with a check through emails and then straight into the main jobs of the day. This is a very dynamic business so I’m always super busy trying to make sure all our designers and projects are on track and providing technical support to other departments across REID. There are five of us in the engineering team and together we are responsible for the development, validation and certification of all REID products. With new products coming through all the time as we target new markets and new regions, there is always a huge amount to do.

Since March 2018, I’ve been leading the IT department as well, which is all about maintaining the IT support across the business and also developing our capabilities so that we have the digital infrastructure in place that we need to help us scale up as we grow.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, I’m often one of the last to leave in the evening, but I always try to make it home for the last gym class of the day and then have dinner and relax. I keep personal emails and social media until the end of the day and I often spend a bit of time reading books on management strategies and leadership styles.

When did you join REID Lifting?

June 2016

What was your first job?

My first job was an internship with a construction company. Where I worked on industrial project building concrete tanks for a manufacturing company in the food industry.

What businessperson do you admire/inspires you?

Richard Branson

What is your best business achievement?

I think every step in the right direction in business is an achievement. Evolving and growing as a professional is a massive achievement, without having to put a title to what I do, looking back to where I come from and where I am now, I would have never dreamt of it.

What would you do if you weren’t in the industry?

I would be running my own little café or restaurant.

Most useful/favourite gadget?

Alexa - I love using it to play music as I’m working or relaxing at home.

Website/App you couldn’t live without?

Google maps – I am terrible with directions so I would literally be lost without it.

Favourite destination/place in the world?

I’m torn between two. With a French grandmother, I love everything about France from the food to the architecture, but my family is in Venezuela so it means the world to me when I get to go home.

Favourite hobby/pastime? 

CrossFit – I’m fitness mad so I go as many times a week as I can but, if I really want to forget the world for an hour, I head to my Flamenco dancing class.