A day in the life of Jen Johnson, Managing Director

Kicking off our new ‘Day in the Life of’ series, we sat down with our Managing Director, Jen Johnson to get an in-depth perspective of what a day in hers shoes looks like.

Welcome to our first ‘Day in the Life of’. A series of interviews with our people here at Thermatic Energy Services, providing insight into our day to day activities and who our people are. So who better to start their series with, than our Managing Director, Jen Johnson.

Can you give us a brief insight into your career path which has led you to be in the position you are today?

I started working in finance as group credit controller for an energy management and BMS company called Nobbs and Jones, after a few years I was looking for a new challenge so managed to secure a move into the support sales team. I loved the chance to get out and see clients and learn about the technology that we installed and supported.

During this time Nobbs and Jones became Evolve Energy, which became ESG, which is now today a part of SSE. There was a lot of opportunity for progression and I found myself moving to London and getting more involved with the strategic contracts, energy management and leadership.

I then spend 18 months working for a small energy performance contracting company, getting more involvement with energy management strategy and a further few years working for BMSI a national BEMS provider, as head of energy solutions, managing their energy offering, building the remote bureau offering and leading the support sales team.

I then met with the chairman of Thermatic for a chat as we had worked together a good few years before and he told me about the culture and the ambitions of the business and it felt like the perfect fit for me to take another step forward, building a team to deliver our unique offering.

Are there any moments in your career, past or present, that stand out to you?

Although securing any contract was always a fantastic feeling, a few contracts have really stood out where the customer trusted us to make a significant change to the way they managed their estates. Seeing those contracts come to life and our customer rewarded for breaking the mould is an amazing feeling!

What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?

I think the role of MD is so varied depending on where you are and what you are trying to achieve, but I’d say for me it’s about being resilient, having strong values of what you’re trying to achieve and sticking to these, no matter what.
I also think being approachable is very important. I’ve built my team based on their skills and strengths, they need to know they can speak up if they disagree or have other ideas, and that their input is just as important as anyone else’s.

Steve Jobs — ‘It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to to , We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.’

Can you tell us about a typical working day for you?

I don’t really have a typical working day. I make sure my time has structure and look ahead at what time I need to dedicate to which projects, but due to the client base we have no two days seem to be the same, and long may it continue.

How do you think Thermatic Energy Services reacted to the pandemic and what kind of effect on the overall industry do you think it will have?

Due to the nature of what we do, remote monitoring services have been really busy and I think the need for this type of technology has really been highlighted more than ever before. We did miss seeing a lot of our clients face to face and although we have embraced the video calling, I think creativity can be stunted by the lack of physical interaction, but we have achieved so much through this time and I’m very proud of the team for still performing so well under these different conditions.

Where do you see Thermatic Energy Services in 5 years?

I see us growing the team substantially and as we bring in new expertise, branching out into new sectors. The sky is the limit and with our team and the support of the rest of the Thermatic Group, there is no reason we can’t do whatever we set our minds to.

Can you tell us about the hardest moment in your career and how you overcame it?

I once worked for a person who managed me and the rest of the team in a very manipulative way. There was no stability or support for the team and it was heavily affecting a number of peoples mental health. I felt anxious and like everything I did wasn’t quite good enough, when it was.

Once I left I promised myself I would never work for someone who made anyone feel like that again.

I always swore that if I was in that position I would create a positive environment, where people could speak up if they wanted to and where everyone knew they were part of the same team and I’d like to think I’ve stuck to that promise!

Thermatic’s culture is at the heart of the business – can you describe what the culture means to you?

For me, our culture is all about being proud of what we do and being happy in delivering it. Being able to walk into a room and know everyone in there is on your side and trying to achieve the same overarching goals and knowing there is support there for you.

What do you believe is the greatest thing that Thermatic Energy Services has achieved so far?

Our people. We have some great clients and we have worked on some significant projects but our people is the greatest thing we have.

Do you have any advice for people who want to work in the industry?

The internet is full of great blogs, articles and examples of what is happening within energy management and with Net Zero. I’d say do some reading, find some topics that are of interest to you and dig into those further. Our industry is so vast, so understanding what you want to do and what you will enjoy doing within that is key. Then I’d say get connected to some companies of interest on LinkedIn, get involved with their posts and make contact, see if you can have a conversation.

What do you love most about your job?

I love the variety of things I get involved with and the places my work takes me that I would never see otherwise.

Finally, if there was one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Make sure you love what you do – it means work doesn’t feel like work (well not all the time ????).

About Thermatic Energy Services

We work with end-user clients to help them achieve their energy management targets. Our support ranges from Install, monitoring and compliance to procurement. Our main focus is giving our customers visibility to their systems and data to allow them to make actionable decisions to reduce their energy consumption, improve their building operation and achieve their sustainability targets.