Sara Venning is CEO of NI Water. In episode three of NI Chamber’s In Conversation podcast, delivered in association with Narratology, Sara speaks to Mark Devenport about how her early years influenced her attitude to work, the hidden challenges of keeping Northern Ireland’s taps running through the pandemic and NI Water’s bold ideas to tackle climate emergency.
Growing up in the 1980s, Sara tells listeners: “My early years had a strong influence on my attitude to work and how I conduct myself. We didn’t have much disposable income, so the notion of ‘if you want something, you work for it’ was engrained in us. We were encouraged to work hard in school and I remember my mother saying that qualifications were the route to an easier, more affluent life.” During the episode, Sara reflects on her career path and the importance STEM subjects played in this. “At school I loved maths and science. With maths and science, the beauty for me was it was either right or, if you got an answer wrong, you got marks for method. The leaflets in the careers library said that anyone who liked maths and science should be an engineer. “When I was trying to pick where I would go to university and what I would study, I wanted something that would give me a good chance of getting a job and that would pay well. Electrical engineering ticked those boxes. I studied at Queen’s and was one of about ten girls in a class of over 100.” Like most organisations, NI Water has come through a challenging year and at the height of the pandemic, it encountered a unique set of issues as water usage increased. “This time last year we were enjoying the sunny weather, which was super, but NI Water saw a huge increase in the demand for water. People were leaving hoses on overnight and filling pools, consuming the same amount of water a family of four would use in one day.
SARA VENNING
CEO, Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) 28
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