I am the Co-Founding Director here at Doqaru.

I started my career in nursing.  I studied Social Sciences at Aberdeen College, thinking I wanted to go into psychology. But after working part-time as a care assistant in a local nursing home, I decided that I wanted to follow in my mum’s footsteps and become a nurse.  I latterly worked in a trauma unit before a career transition into business following an epilepsy diagnosis. At the time, I was unsure of my transferable skills, but they shone through the more I worked in business. I decided that both Sales and Strategy were a good fit.  I worked as an employee to build experience, then set up my own company in 2015. I ran this for three years, consulting and supporting management teams’ growth.

In 2018 I merged my business and launched Doqaru Ltd with my now business partner Yekemi.  We’ve shared the operating responsibility, but my focus has always been on client and supplier engagement. Working with our clients on strategy and sales.  I’m passionate about enabling sales teams and often talk about selling like a nurse, using the diagnostic processes I learnt in my past career. Instead of relying on self-diagnosis, I work with our clients to do the ‘MRI’ and put a treatment plan in place that can be measured and achieve the desired results.

Outwith Doqaru, I hold several volunteer roles, including the Chair of the Aberdeen Branch for the Institute of Directors (IoD). More recently, I joined the Business School Advisory Board for Robert Gordon’s University.  I still have a passion for helping people on a personal level and therefore have supported a number of organisations in the third sector as a board member and support worker.  My latest challenge was to co-author a book (Purposeful People) about my purpose and career transition, and with all profits raised going to charity, it was hard to say no.

When I’m not working my life is busy at home being Mummy to my 5-year old son Jacob.  Our favourite things to do together are building Lego models or heading outside for an adventure.  I have also recently started playing the piano again and hope to teach Jacob soon.

Which celebrity you’d most like to meet for a coffee and why?

Now that’s a hard question!  So many to choose from and it’s a long list, but following a recent trip to the cinema to see Respect, I would love to meet the late Aretha Franklin for coffee and cake.

As Chief Growth Officer, I’m responsible for developing Doqaru’s growth channels and associated campaigns. My role includes maintaining a deep understanding of our buyer personas, more valuable + profitable revenue streams. I work closely with the senior management teams, operations, finance and provide mentoring support to the marketing function.

I have over 18 years of experience in engineering, technical sales and strategic marketing roles. Previous companies I have worked for include Schlumberger, GE Oil & Gas and Lloyd’s Register.

In 2016, I became a published author on social networks. I hold an MBA (Distinction) from Henley Business School, Henley-on-Thames, a BEng in Chemical Engineering and an MSc (Distinction) in Petroleum Engineering & Project Development. From 2018 to 2021, I served on the board at Interface; a public sector backed establishment helping Scottish businesses work more closely with academic institutions to drive innovative projects.

My passion for education and learning recently led me to become the Chancellor at the University of the West of Scotland – a true honour and privilege. And just last year, I was awarded an honorary doctorate by UWS for my contributions to higher education.

Most recently, Sarah (co-founder at Doqaru) and I have been recognised by the Scottish Women Awards and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, winning Social Entrepreneur of the Year and Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year (Scotland & NI) in the respective awards ceremonies. Doqaru was also named a Top 75 UK SME by Elite Business, taking the 63rd spot on the Top 100 list. It’s incredible for our team to be recognised for the hard work and dedication that goes into building a successful business.

Which celebrity you’d most like to meet for a coffee and why?

It would be Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister because she’s shown that empathy and kindness have a place in politics. In a world that can often feel cutthroat and competitive, she reminds us that we can achieve great things without sacrificing our humanity. She is an extraordinary leader so there’s a lot about compassion and tenacity that I’d love to learn from her. I’d love to start by buying her coffee!

I started my career as an Electrical Apprentice at Stoneywood Paper Mills in Aberdeen, a great place to learn many technical and life skills and learn from some great people. My career developed and progressed there. I worked closely with the production team to become the Plant Manager, leading a team of engineers to maintain the buildings’ papermaking, processing machines and fabric.

Eager for a change, having vowed I’d never work in Oil and Gas, I started as a Project Engineer for a drilling instrumentation company. Then moved into Project Management during a new build phase of drilling rigs as we entered a new millennium. That’s when the travel started: France, Gran Canarias, Brazil, Houston, Austin, Norway, South Korea, to name but a few.

Career progression came in moving to a commercial role, leading a team, creating relationships with customers, and building a house, all while studying for my MBA at RGU. The travel also continued: Italy, Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Doha, Kuwait, Egypt, Beirut, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Denmark, Hungary, Azerbaijan, China, California, and Newcastle.

As Operations Manager, my role is to use my experience and knowledge to help increase operational efficiency within Doqaru. Alongside the Doqaru team members, we aim to meet and exceed our own and our customers’ needs, partnering with suppliers.

As we have gained confidence in each other, we have worked with the whole team to ensure we are equipped to deliver value to the customer. I’m responsible for ensuring everyone on the team has the resources they need to be successful and therefore ensure they make our customers successful. In short… “Eat, Sleep, Operations, Repeat”.

Day to day, I lead, motivate, mentor, and support the team. While making sure we have operational metrics to drive quality, results, continual improvement, and business growth. I will work with team leaders to improve tools and systems as the business dictates, ensuring we remain compliant, deliver on time and within budget costs.

I’m not afraid of trying anything. I’ve played all sorts of sports, including rugby, cricket, golf, badminton, squash, karate, taekwondo, climbing and running, before focusing on cycling in the last few years. After gaining my Mountain Bike Leader Award, and British Cycling Coaching certificates, I volunteered for Deeside Thistle Cycling Club (DTCC) and helped coach the junior Mountain Bike group.

As you can see, I like to keep active. My downtime relaxing hobbies are more musical, listening to music, and seeing bands. My mid-life crisis was not a Ferrari or a Ducati… having never read music, I started to learn the fiddle or violin (it depends on what music I’m trying to play), and I enjoy learning new skills.

Which celebrity you’d most like to meet for a coffee and why?

I’m not into hero worship. I’d be disappointed they didn’t meet my expectations. However, there are two people who sadly both passed away in 2016 that I admired and whose music has felt like a soundtrack to my life. David Bowie and Prince were both enigmas, amazing artists and trendsetters. Although global superstars, they tended to keep themselves to themselves. I would have loved to sit down with them and listen to how they were inspired to write some of the most memorable music made during my lifetime.

This year, I will be able to tick off a bucket list item when I see Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band. Maybe I’ll meet them for coffee before the gig. That would be a great thing.

Hi there! I’m Pam, Business Manager at Doqaru Limited.  My role has a range of different tasks day to day. I mainly deal with the finance side of things; Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger, Bank reconciliations, Cashflow & Budget to name a few. My admin role consists of helping staff when required, supporting the directors, reporting finance figures, ensuring we are keeping to budget, chasing people and giving a swift kick up the bottom. But also giving a jolly good old pat on the back when deserved.

I joined Doqaru Limited back in January 2019, right at the beginning, so to say I am so proud of what Doqaru Limited is and where we are going is an understatement. I love every minute of my job and seeing how the team is growing.

Before Doqaru, I worked as the Admin Assistant at YO! Marketing alongside Yekemi. Before that, I have over 20 years of experience in the finance industry in the Oil & Gas sector, working for the likes of Technip & Schlumberger. I also hold an HNC & HND in Accounting & Finance and worked my way up the ladder from an office junior, receptionist, admin assistant, finance assistant, to name a few. I also did a few years stint as a carer looking after the old age & the vulnerable in a lovely care home.

I stay at home with my partner, two daughters and stepdaughter. I am a great animal lover and love to cook (I’m told I like to feed an army). I bake cakes in my spare time and enjoy walking and riding my bike. We also like to go away on our adventures in our caravan. I have a West Highland Terrier called Archie, who I rescued from Mrs Murrays Dog & Cat home in Aberdeen. This charity is very close to my heart, as well as the B12 Deficiency Support Group. Mental awareness and the importance of saying it’s ok not to be ok is really important to me

If you could meet one celebrity for coffee, who would it be?

I would love to have a chin wag and coffee with the queen, don’t ask me why; I just think it would be an interesting fly cuppa with a lady of great importance who has been through so much and given much to her country.

My background has predominantly been in Oil & Gas. Over the past 20+ years, I have gained valuable experience in data management, procurement, cost control, sales, and marketing. I was very fortunate to have had a couple of roles that allowed me to travel the globe.  My first overseas role saw me rotate (month/month) out of Ulsan, South Korea. I set up other project site offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, Denmark & Corpus Christi, again rotating in and out and training local staff before moving on to the next project. At the time, this schedule worked for me, allowing me to travel on my month off and see a bit of the world along the way.

During my ten years at MI SWACO, I successfully designed, developed and managed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system executed to allow the consolidation of sales & marketing data across the globe. A particularly challenging role as I was faced with a level of resistance. Resistance to change can be a hurdle, but a foundation of trust was built with a little coaxing, enthusiasm, and a “can do” approach. I found a captive audience by demonstrating a simpler, sleeker way of performing a task! This project evolved from a pilot test for ten users to 300+ users, an achievement I am very proud of. My passion for improvement, motivation and sheer determination ultimately won them over.

It was here, at MI SWACO, I met my husband. We were both very fortunate to get the opportunity to relocate to Houston, where we really enjoyed the experience but sorely missed our friends and family back in Scotland. When I fell pregnant with my daughter Maisie, we opted to return to Scotland, and she was born ten weeks later! I also have a son Baxter and a 5-year-old dog called Odie. He’s still very much a puppy, a big sap, but CANNOT be trusted off the lead (his recall is awful!) Weekends are often spent on the sidelines of the football pitch, supporting my son’s team, 2013 Colony Galaxy, or routing for my daughter at Highland Dancing competitions around the NE of Scotland.

I love a live band. I have quite an eclectic music taste, from soft rock, pop, dance, and country. So any band with a beat will do! As a family, we enjoy going to festivals, Belladrum being our favourite. 2022 was our 6^th visit and it did not disappoint. Great lineup, fantastic weather and a chance to catch up with our fellow Bella families.

I am known for being an enthusiastic and caring individual passionate about service delivery and customer care. I lead internal sales enablement projects, govern processes that align our sales and marketing efforts, and provide sales-focused support. I steer the sales enablement taskforce ship and ensure key sales-related tasks are completed on time, prioritising the customer’s needs and goals to become the voice of the customer internally at Doqaru.

Which celebrity you’d most like to meet for a coffee?

Sir Terry Wogan. When Terry died in 2016, I felt I’d lost a distant family member. Of course, he was old-fashioned, but Terry Wogan’s distinctive Irish voice was the sound of my childhood. I have fond memories of growing up, being with my grandparents and watching the likes of Blankety Blank and Eurovision. As an adult, I went on to listen to “Wake Up to Wogan” on Radio 2 and always thought he’d be a right fine mannie to have a news with over a flat white and a cheese scone.

I graduated from Robert Gordon University in 2018 with a degree in Public Relations. From there, I got the opportunity with Doqaru to have my first full-time job post-uni. The skills and experience you get from learning on the job are incomparable to the theory you learn throughout your studies.

I am now the Marketing Team Leader. My main responsibilities are content creation, graphic work and project management, which involves liaising with different team members, clients and associates. As well as the practical tasks, I oversee my team as a team leader, but I like to call myself an ally, working alongside the team rather than above. It’s great to have people to bounce ideas off of, especially in a small team.

Out with work, I have a side hustle of digital and hand-drawn art. I don’t do it as much as I’d like to, but I love creating artwork for friends and family, from tattoo designs to pet portraits and special requests. You can check out my Instagram here – @sjedesign_  and feel free to contact me! I also enjoy keeping fit at the gym and trying new sports like squash. I’m an avid football fan and used to play. Sadly, I had to retire early due to a knee injury (typical!), but back playing 5 a-side now, which is great. I watch a lot of it on TV and try to get down to Old Trafford, when possible, to watch the famous Red Devils!

If you could meet one celebrity for coffee, who would it be?

I don’t think I could pick between two Scottish legends, Billy Connolly and Sir Alex Ferguson. A coffee with both of them would be one hell of a story to tell! Mr Connolly is one of the funniest people on the planet. I wish I were around for his prime years! Sir Alex is a sporting great, a real inspiration and hero, and a brilliant man. Imagine the stories they’d have to share.

I am one third of Doqaru’s creative team! My role is focused on the social media content creation for Doqaru.

My responsibilities include researching prospective clients, new social media trends and creating visual and written content for our social platforms and assisting our Marketing Team Leader, Sarah, with any other marketing duties. I have always been a very creative person and I’m always prepared to get the team involved in any fun ideas for our social platforms!

In 2020, I graduated from university after studying Popular Music which led me to become a songwriter for a music publisher in 2021. Though it’s only just the beginning of my songwriting journey, I’m excited to see what the future holds!

Using my creativity in different ways keeps me on my toes and helps me keep the creative juices flowing! However, when I’m not writing copy or songs, I like to wind down by playing video games –  I can’t vouch for how good I am though!

If you could meet one celebrity for coffee, who would it be?

I would choose to meet Imogen Heap. She seems like such an interesting character, not only from the way she performs her songs but the way that she communicates complex topics through lyrics and sound!