Blog: EMEC hellos and goodbyes

We’ve welcomed a couple of new members of staff on board recently, and with some internal job changes and a few goodbyes, we thought a short update was in order.

Firstly, a warm welcome to Cath Russell who started at EMEC this week, taking on the role of PA to the Executive Team.

Cath Russell, PA to the Executive Team

Originally from Paisley, Cath initially moved to Orkney to work at The Royal Bank of Scotland and only planned to stay for a couple of years. Of course, as has been the case for many before her, she fell in love with the islands and has now lived here for over 20 years. For the last 9 years Cath has been working at Voluntary Action Orkney as Senior Office Administrator. She’s currently training to do the West Highland Way next year with her daughter, although admits that her ‘training’ has mostly involved looking at her walking boots so far…

But what’s happened to Danielle I hear you ask? Don’t worry, Danielle has just moved to a different desk here at EMEC, taking on the role of FORESEA Project Officer.

Danielle’s new role will see her support the delivery of the €11m Interreg NWE funded FORESEA (Funding Ocean Renewable Energy through Strategic European Action) programme which will provide technology developers with subsidised access to real-sea testing across the North West Europe region. Working closely with Nic Wallet, FORESEA Project Manager, and the FORESEA consortium partners (SmartBay Ireland, France’s SEM-REV, the Dutch Tidal Testing Centre and Ocean Energy Europe), Danielle is responsible for day-to-day administration of the project, and ensuring that the project is integrated into EMEC’s UKAS accredited integrated management system.

Nic has also recently joined the EMEC team, and you can find more about him here: Getting to know Nic Wallet, FORESEA programme manager

Alas, we have also said farewell to a few members of the team who have left EMEC for pastures new. Everyone at EMEC wishes Adele Lidderdale, Michael Butler and Chris Casely the best of luck in their future endeavours.

And finally, our intern Iris, who was studying with us from March to July this year, has returned to Amsterdam having achieved 8.5/10 for her dissertation on Scottish and Dutch collaboration in marine renewables. You can read more about her time at EMEC in next week’s blog post.

For further details on the EMEC team, check out the EMEC who’s who on our website.