A Day in the Life of Helen Donaghy, Sales Director
Welcome to a new addition to Nexus’ ‘Day in the Life’ series, where we speak to different members of the team and reflect on their career to date, where they see Nexus and the industry going, and a little bit about them outside their career.
How did you get started in the industry?
Nexus is actually my first venture into the fleet industry for over 20 years when I worked for Leaseplan. I was approached about a very exciting new opportunity and newly created role. After I first had a chat with Stuart Miles, who had also recently joined the business, I was really intrigued. He had a fresh perspective and opinion of the business, which was inspiring, so that plus the unique market offering from Nexus pulled me in. Although I came from outside the industry I’ve always embraced and relished change and new challenges, so it felt like the natural next step for me.
What attracted you to Nexus?
Initially it was the opportunity itself and the chance to shape a new role from scratch that grabbed my attention. But after doing a bit of research and speaking with Stuart Miles (Nexus’ Chief Revenue Officer), Nexus seemed like quite a unique business with an exciting proposition. It had a really nice feel to it and Stuart painted a great picture, especially given he had only been with the business about a month himself.
I’m a real people person, and who I work with and for is everything. It’s good when you have a similar kind of outlook and belief. He was a big part of me exploring the opportunity further, plus having the opportunity to define a new role is exciting too.
Given Nexus was your first step into the industry, what was your background before joining?
It was quite varied really and so different to where I am now. I always like talking about my first job out of university because I’m proud of the nine years I worked there. It was for IPC Media who were the biggest magazine publishing house at the time. I started there and was lucky enough to work on some exciting consumer magazines over the years such as Marie Claire, Women and Home etc. We also launched brand-new magazines whilst I was there which was exciting to be part off, to watch evolve especially given it was my first job!
After that I took a career break to have my daughter, and when I went back to work, I wanted to try something completely different. I like a challenge and always have, it hasn’t ever been about the industry for me, it’s about the people and the work itself. I’ve worked in energy and sustainability, office supplies and furniture, construction and more. I find learning a new industry from scratch challenging and inspiring. It means you come at things with a fresh pair of eyes and different viewpoint. I’ve been chosen for roles before because I am an outsider and they wanted fresh blood to come in and look at things differently, and not be afraid to challenge the norm.
One of the only constants with the businesses I’ve worked for is that they have all been businesses going through significant transformation, so I do have good experience in business change, change management and business transformation.
What does a typical day look like for you at the moment?
Extremely busy! No two days are the same which I enjoy. I’m responsible for four pillars at the moment, which includes new business, account management, bids and tenders and Plant, which is one of our strategic growth categories. Each of those is quite different, and you’re dealing with different people. Although my day to day is generally about ensuring we are delivering sales, revenue and growth across our existing and new customer base, I’m also quite heavily involved in project work. There are lots of meetings, but I think that’s the best way to get to know people and how the business operates.
I’ve also invested a lot of time with internal stakeholders around the business, getting to know them, their departments and how we can move forward together. There’s always ways we can do things better or approach things in a new way in order to get better results and improve efficiencies. So when it comes to my day to day, it’s a lot of different things. It’s always worth asking questions and shaking things up.
Have you learnt anything new since starting at Nexus?
Yes, a lot! I’ve learnt about the industry, about Nexus and about Iris®. I’ve also learnt a lot about the people behind the business. It has been a big learning curve, but that is one of the main things I love about the role and entering new industries. I am fortunate to be surrounded by some extremely talented, experienced colleagues who I have an enormous amount of respect for.
What do you enjoy most about working for Nexus, and what do you see for Nexus’ future?
It’s certainly the people. One thing that Nexus is in abundance is collaborative and supportive! People want everyone to succeed and overcome any obstacles in the way. There is a really strong can do attitude around the business. It is also a fairly flat structure across the business, and everyone is willing to get stuck in and help wherever they are needed. There’s always someone who will put their hand up and help.
The Iris® technology is also already brilliant, but we are always looking at what else we can do, how we can make it even better than it already is. I think world domination would sum up the kind of future I see for Nexus. I’m involved in a big upcoming project which is very exciting, and the future for Nexus is big and very bright. I can see us expanding into new markets and categories, building on the success of Iris®, growing in areas like EV and Plant, and just continuing to innovate and push the boundaries.
What kind of changes do you see happening within the industry, over the next 12 to 18 months?
I think there will be a lot of developments around the EV market. I think there’s still a lot of hesitancy amongst businesses and around the infrastructure to support the growing market. It will be very interesting to see where that goes. Of course there’s technology too with the introduction of AI, so I think that will also have a big impact in the coming year or so.
What is your biggest career achievement, or standout moment, to date?
One standout moment for me is my time at IPC. I was the advertising manager on Wedding and Home magazine and Hair magazine, and the team and I pulled off quite an important strategic advertising deal. From this we were put forward to the big industry leading awards, the Media Week Awards. Although we didn’t win, we did get shortlisted and highly commended. I’ve had a lot of great achievements since but that’s one I will always be extra proud of because I was so young!
Aside from Nexus and the fleet industry, what else interests you?
As a family we’re heavily into rugby, and we support the Saracens. We try to get to as many England and Wales internationals as we can. I also do a lot of strength and conditioning work, like flipping tires and kettlebells! And I just really love a good meal out with family and friends, a nice bottle of wine and putting the world to rights. And, of course add a few holidays into that mix and I’m happy.