Job Profile

What does your job involve and what might a typical day involve?

GoinGreen created the electric car market in the UK with the launch of the G-Wiz in London in 2004.

As the MD, my role is broad, from setting strategy to ensuring we provide our customers with the mobility solutions they want and the aftersales service they need to keep them mobile. I don’t have an office or desk, and when I am not travelling a typical day starts around 6.30 at home with emails from our manufacturer in India, their joint venture partner in the US, or perhaps one of our Directors in Australia. The world seems like a very small place nowadays. This is followed by time with our management team at Green Station, our office and workshop in Southall, or meetings in London with journalists, or local authorities, or affinity partners in order to develop initiatives to promote the G-Wiz, our electric car, or to discuss new products. The working day finishes around 6.30 pm with more emails and preparation for the next day’s schedule.

What qualifications and experience did you have before starting the job?

My background is advertising and marketing and this is my fifth start-up, so for me it is about turning an idea (take the pollution from the air and the cost out of motoring) in to a business, whilst understanding what it takes to get a new business off the ground.

What are the best and worst bits of your job?

Your choice of car has a greater impact on the environment than any other choice we make as consumers, so it is rewarding to have launched the first commercially successful zero emission car. As transport is both the biggest user of energy as well as the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, it is really important that we are successful in changing behaviour, because the big car companies are not doing anything except to protect their cosy duopoly with the oil industry.

The worst bits are the sheer effort required to do this, but thankfully we are getting more and more media coverage and forcing the debate.

What satisfaction do you get from your work and how does it make a difference?

I get huge pleasure from knowing that a small company such as ours could change an industry by providing real alternatives to polluting vehicles and in so doing help to reduce the impact of climate change and city pollution. As the threat of climate change is, in Tony Blair’s words “the biggest single threat facing mankind, more serious than terrorism or war”, then we have the potential to make a significant difference from our efforts and those like us in other parts of the world.

Do you have any tips for someone looking for a career in this area?

Yes. Do it. Do it because it is important, because the environment matters and is going to become increasingly relevant to all our lives. Being a social entrepreneur is the most fun and the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

More about GoingGreen