Meet the Chamber team

West London Chambers of Commerce Office Manager Lisa Rides, 27, lives in Whitton, Twickenham, with her boyfriend Daniel and their white Golden Retriever, Mercy. Here she talks to Sarah Dale about her role and how she switches off.

How long have you worked for the Chamber?

I first started working at the Chamber six years ago in 2018. Although I am Alan’s [Rides] daughter, I started working in the office before him.

What do you do? Describe a ‘typical’ day. There is no such thing as a typical day but I spend a lot of time on emails and training and supervising new members of staff. I have implemented a lot of the systems that we use so I know everything about them. A lot of my job is firefighting and fixing, but my biggest role is the Business Awards – that’s my event. I do everything from making the application forms to designing the trophies.

Career path so far?

My first job after college was working behind a bar serving food and drinks. I started at the Chamber as an in-between intern between American interns and would show them the ropes. Sally [Smith] liked the job I was doing and gave me more hours and took me on full-time in 2020 and I have done everything from creating flyers to sending out invoices. I became Office Manager last year.

What has been your proudest moment?

I think it has to be the moment when an event all comes together. We held our first Business Awards over Zoom as it was during Covid and it all ran smoothly and the second one was in person and there were a few hiccups but we fixed them without anyone even knowing. So much work goes into them that I always take the following day off.

Do you have a favourite event?

I have worked on other Chamber events such as the Festival of Business and the golf days, which I oversee, but the Business Awards is my favourite event. I love it. In 2020, we decided to run the awards ourselves for the first time and were in the middle of planning it when Covid hit. I work on the technical side and sort webinars so we decided to hold the entire awards via Zoom. Rather than charging people for tickets, we sent out goodie bags with an UberEats voucher and a bottle of wine. It went fantastically well and was great seeing people in suit jackets and their slippers!

When you are away from the office, what you do enjoy doing?

I’m quite boring! I like to turn off my brain and binge watch a good TV series or play video games. Mercy loves a walk in our local park and swimming in the river but once she’s at home, she’s a couch potato which suits us fine.

Tell us something people may not know about you. I’m a fully qualified make-up artist and hairdresser. I studied media make-up at college for two years and then I realised it’s a really hard industry to get into, so now I just have fun with it. I’m a good friend to have at Halloween! Then I did hairdressing for two years although the only person’s hair I cut now is my Dad’s!

There is no such thing as a typical day but I spend a lot of time on emails and training and supervising new members of staff. I have implemented a lot of the systems that we use so I know everything about them. A lot of my job is firefighting and fixing, but my biggest role is the Business Awards – that’s my event.