1. Donna Turnbull,
Operations Manager
Amgen and Motorola
Programs
Who inspired you to be
who you are today?
No notable individual as such but I’m fre-
quently inspired by people around me, for
example the speakers and presenters in
large conferences who are able to present
and articulate themselves with such con-
fidence. I admire anyone who can stand
in front of a big audience and show such
strong leadership skills- and would love to
be able to do the same one day!
How do you relax and wind-down
outside of work?
Family and friends are really important to
me and I love to socialise. Aside from that,
I used to really enjoy my boot camp fitness
sessions but now that I’m pregnant I love
nothing more than snuggling up on the
sofa and watching a good film or reading a
good book.
How do you maintain motivation?
I need to be constantly stimulated,
challenged and busy in order to avoid
becoming stagnant.
Where do you see yourself
in 5 years time?
That’s a hard one to answer because
so much could happen in that time!
Through my career so far I have never
had a very long term goal or planned
my next move, I’ve just remained open-
minded to every opportunity. But one
thing I can definitely see is that I will
stay within the industry, building on my
knowledge and experience to progress
within the space.
This is My Story
Be open with your
communications; this
is the basis for building
a good rapport with
your customers and
stakeholders
Be accountable
for your actions and
be prepared to admit
if you’ve made a mistake
- people will respect
you all the more
for your honesty
Be flexible and
adapt your style of
communication to suit
the situation and the
person you are
dealing with
Be aware of how
the customer
perceives you -
self-awareness
is key
Bear in mind that
in order to deliver on
the expectations of the
customer, the supplier
and Kelly, it’s not always
possible to be
everyone’s friend
How did you come to be in the work-
force solutions industry?
My career in the industry began when I
was 17 and working as an Administrator
for the AA within the HR department.
Through this I became interested in
recruitment and took an opportunity to
move in to a branch agency supporting
the consultants in an admin capacity. I
continued within the niche and went on to
take an interim role with British Gas as a
Recruitment Co-ordinator, then when this
role ended I moved to an aerospace and
engineering recruiter called T.A.C. Europe
as a Contract Administrator, working on
one of their largest M.S.P. accounts. 18
months later I took an internal promotion
as a Recruiter. The 360 recruitment role
involved an element of cold calling sales
and I pretty quickly realised that sales was
not for me! I much preferred interaction
with the customer and candidates that I
had built established relationships with
and since there was no opportunity for
such a role within T.A.C. Europe, I left to
join Elan Defence as an On-Site Account
Manager. Some time later, an opportunity
came up at Kelly that I was drawn to due
to Kelly’s reputation and expertise in my
chosen field.,I interviewed for the position
and was taken on andwithin 6 months of
joining Kelly my role expanded from Sen-
ior VMS to managing the Motorola pro-
gram in the UK, this then expanded into
taking on responsibility for Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, before I was asked
to also pick up the Amgen UK account and
that’s pretty much where I am today.
How did you envisage your
career would pan out when you were
at school?
I.T. was one of my favourite subjects at
school and although I didn’t have a specific
job in mind, I thought I would get in to
something technical and
analytical. I was always
more of a ‘doer’ than an
academic and this resonates
in what I enjoy about my work today.
What advice would you give to someone
looking to get in to a similar role as yourself?