HOT 100 Spotlight Series - Ruth Westley

DMJ Co-founder and Managing Director, David Press sat down with 2022 Governance HOT 100 winner and Senior Assistant Company Secretary for Ocado Group plc, Ruth Westley and reflected upon her career, the state of the governance industry and her thoughts on the Governance HOT 100 awards feature. Here is what she had to say...

How did you become a company secretary/governance professional?

I did a degree in Law and Anthropology and was lucky enough to do three work placements during my degree. Those work placements made me realise that I actually didn't want to be a solicitor, which had been the aim, so I deferred entry to law school and applied for a one line job advert as a temporary PA to a company secretary and the rest is history! I was more qualified than they'd been looking for and after a couple of months they made me permanent and I stayed for five years. That job was an awesome introduction to cosec, and I was fortunate to be given early responsibility, jump in the deep end of lots of projects and travel around the country, to Europe and to Shanghai. It confirmed that the career I wanted was something varied, fast-paced and with real insight into the inner workings of a company, and that governance is something I really have a passion for.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

I really enjoy the short lead, fast paced project work that I get involved in at Ocado and I'm really proud of our cosec team for some of the achievements we've made in the last two years of the pandemic - raising ￡1 billion capital, acquiring two companies in North America, hosting a virtual AGM, dealing with a huge influx of dealing and share scheme queries... as I'm sure most cosec teams could tell you, we've been busier than ever, all while dealing with all the challenges the pandemic brought. What does winning in this category mean to you?

I'm really flattered and incredibly proud - particularly as this reflects the type of work I particularly love doing. Also, I'm really grateful to have been featured in the Governance Hot 100 twice, and I'd like to thank the judges for that!