We Are Randox | Susan Kinkead speaks about her 31 years working at Randox
We Are Randox | Susan Kinkead speaks about her 31 years working at Randox
Key to Randox’s ongoing success is having a loyal and dedicated team.
Last week Environmental Manager and Land Steward, Susan Kinkead, retired from Randox after committing 31 years to Randox’s vision of revolutionising healthcare.
Susan was a dedicated member of the Randox team and will be sadly missed, so we sat down with her to hear a little bit about her time working here at Randox and what memories she will be taking home with her.
Hi Susan, when did you start your career with Randox?
I started working at Randox in 1985 when it was still situated on the Randox Road. I had just moved home from South Africa and my father had seen in the local paper that Randox were recruiting. The next day my husband rang up and spoke with Peter who told him to send me up the next day for an interview. So the next day I went down to meet Peter and he told me I could start in the morning.
Where did you work when you first started?
When I first started I did a bit of everything. My first job was centrifuging fetal calf serum believe it or not, but there weren’t very many of us at this point. I distinctively remember Mrs FitzGerald coming out to us with wheaten bread and cheese and chatting to all the workers. After a while we moved everything up in horseboxes to headquarters here in Ardmore. This is when I moved to Quantity Control and after a while I changed positions to Packaging and Dispense Manager. In between this I left for a few years, but I came back, worked in the Training Department and then into Quality Assurance. Peter moved me onto Environmental Manager and a few years later I was given the role of Land Steward.
What is your best memory from working at Randox?
My best memories is when I got the opportunity to travel with the company. Peter and I got to go to Karachi Lahore in Pakistan back when I was Packaging and Dispense Manager. If you are prepared to work and put the hard graft in then you will get fantastic opportunities. I got to develop systems and was given free rein to do what I thought was best. You don’t get those sort of opportunities these days in many companies.
What will you miss the most after you leave Randox?
I will miss the people that I worked with. I believe that if you have a good team behind you then anything is possible. It’s a lot of hard work but you don’t get things done unless you have a good team behind you. I always felt a sense of worth working here at Randox and I got to accomplish a lot of things so I think I will miss that feeling.
What plans do you have for your retirement?
I hope to spend time on my garden and my house I am also looking forward to taking time out to set up my beehives, making honey and maybe putting my feet up!
We wish Susan all the best for the future and a very happy and relaxing retirement!
For more information please contact Aisling in our PR team via email: aisling.clarke@randox.com
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Pictured presenting Susan with a token of our thanks for all her hard work at Randox during her 31 years with us, is David Martin, Manufacturing Manager.