Thierry

Bulk Supervisor, GIO

I've only been here for six months. Before that, I worked for a competitor in API manufacture. Having spent a while on the chemical side, I really wanted to move into biologicals and, of course, GSK Bio has a great reputation. When I came in for an interview, what really struck me was the consistent way that the two different buildings W10 and W27 are organised and structured. It makes it much easier for the teams to collaborate with and support each other.

Having worked as a manager for a team with low morale in my previous role, it's a pleasure to be somewhere so upbeat. And since the future looks so positive for us, there's no reason why that upbeat spirit should change anytime soon. It helps that we avoid having any social hierarchy here - workers, operators, technicians, supervisors and managers are all equal. We each have our place and a clearly defined role, but there's respect between all the different levels.

I try to divide my time between managing logistics operations on the floor, and working in the office to centralise best practice processes and procedures across the two buildings. My other main responsibility is to oversee maintenance and validation activities within the building.

When I started here, I was given time to work alongside the operators so I could see what they do and how they do it. I also spent time in the production room where they actually make the vaccines. In the future I'll take courses on the science of the vaccines to learn more about which parameters are important during the production process. The one thing I'd say about training is that there's an opportunity to introduce more interactivity at an operational level, and move away from the more traditional learning and testing approach.

Once I've had the chance to learn about the biological side of things, I imagine I'll be in a great position to move into a different kind of role, perhaps as a production room supervisor. This would enable me to combine my logistics expertise and production knowledge. I'm also interested in research, but that's quite far removed from what I'm doing now - that's more of a dream than a realistic career objective.