Claire Gallery Strong
Bio
Claire has developed her career working across a variety of sectors including pharma, environmental and nuclear. Currently Director for Corporate Services, Nuclear Waste Services, leading Human Resources, Information Technology, Transformation and Stakeholder and Communications.
Graduating from NUI Galway, Ireland, she moved to the UK to develop in the field of chemistry. Following an interest in analytical sciences, she studied an MSc at Kings College London and more recently an MBA at Henley Business School.
Her nuclear experience spans roles from nuclear operations, project, programme, and portfolio management through to developing radioactive waste strategies. Her projects include the return to service of THORP (reprocessing fuels) following a significant pipework failure and radioactive leak and leading the Integrated Waste Management Programme for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group.
She has developed her leadership capabilities, directing engineering and science programmes. In her volunteering capacity she regenerated the Young Generation Network in 2000 and built a sustainability plan to enable a thriving network.
She has recently been recognised for her contribution to the field of science and engineering through an appointment as Hon Treasurer, a Trustee for the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Claire's Mentoring Background
"I'm a professional scientist and engineer, where we've worked across environmental, pharmaceutical and nuclear industry, and today I'm Director of Nuclear Waste Services. And in my spare time I'm honorary treasurer of the Royal Society of Chemistry as well, and I've been heavily involved with Nuclear institute since the beginning, including having roles with nuclear institutes boards - Finance Board, Events Board and of course, chair of the Young Generation Network in 2000.
Today I'm currently mentoring two people within my company, three from the nuclear sector and the fifth is from outside the nuclear sector.
I gain a huge amount from mentoring. I typically mentor those seeking leadership competencies, those who are seeking skills related to my role profile and mentees specialising in science and engineering.
Why do I get so much out of it? Gosh, being a scientist and an engineer, I love talking about science and engineering!
Particularly as I grew more senior in my career, it was a really good way to anchor myself in what we do and where we came from RE our original professional competencies. So I continue to enjoy discussing, particularly where I'm nurturing people through for a chartership or for a professional membership. That gives me a huge amount of continued professional development. I also especially learn a lot from the people who I mentor for outside of my immediate company.
Top tip: very early on in my career I was introduced to a mentoring contract. That sounds incredibly formal, but what it does well is set out the ground rules for me as a mentor and them as a mentee. It helps us helps me frame the conversation: what are my expectations in terms of privacy or what the ground rules about how I would like to be communicated with? How frequently should we meet and what kind of topics we'll cover? It lays the groundwork.
My final comment would be I don't always say yes to being a mentor. That's not always about my capacity in terms of mentoring as an individual; sometimes when I speak to somebody, I just realise that there are other people out there who they could gain more from that I know in my network, or I see that there would be a more advantage for them to join a broader network because they may know me already. In which case go and find somebody and I'll help them find somebody suitable."
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