Powerful Women at SSE: Eunice

I’m Eunice, and in my 10 years at SSE I have worked in a few different roles and seen some huge changes.

I can see vast differences in the business over my time – we are certainly going in the right direction. I left school without going to college or university as I wanted to start earning. My career starting in banking. I undertook banking exams and was at one point the youngest person to head up a department there. Then I decided to see the world and took a year off to travel. I loved seeing different cultures and different ways of doing things, it was certainly worth the year out as it gave me a new perspective.

When I came back, I worked for a SME doing basically everything you need to do to run a business, and again I learned a multitude of elements over time. Then I outgrew the opportunity, plus I had started to have children, so began to work part time in the public sector. It was a backward step but back then, having the children, it worked for my working life balance.  Then I took a secondment into Environmental & Sustainability Management – it was very new then but really interesting, so I decided to take the risk and change direction, this included study, gaining qualifications including Chartership. My career has been involved in various levels of sustainability and net zero ever since.

I worked for a couple of blue light public sector organisations and then joined SSE working on a joint venture (JV) in the southeast, managing sustainability across the JV, running a £30m spend to save programme.

Director of Digital Services

At that time, SSE had acquired a Building Management Services company and as that was a good fit I moved there and worked my way up to board director. After a re-organisation that company became a part of our Distributed Energy business and again, I worked my way up to became Director of Digital Services, where I am today. I didn’t really appreciate SSE as a company until I joined. The company is very good at letting you move in different directions. I know people who started as graduates and have had a 25+ year career here – the business areas across SSE are different therefore it is like moving to a different company yet with familiarity, so all very positive.

Over the last five years you can really see the focus on inclusion and diversity – we are much better about being flexible and the drive to become a sustainable inclusive company is very visible. The change and growth is not achieved by lip service. 

Many things go into the business improving. Part of this includes training, of late we have had training around neurodiversity, mindfulness, and psychological safety, and it has been cascaded to everyone from leadership to the various individual teams. I think it is great how we are all getting the same training, from the SSE Board to the shop floor, and that we have such a strong culture of improving as a Company.

I would recommend SSE as a really good company to join, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. There is real strength in the brand, and for me it is the strides we are making in having an inclusive workforce along with making a tangible difference in the transition to net zero. So yes, I would definitely recommend joining to anyone who is proactive, hardworking, likes teamwork and is determined to build a career with a working life balance.

"There is real strength in the brand, and for me it is the strides we are making in having an inclusive workforce along with making a tangible difference in the transition to net zero."

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