Meet Rhiannon
Tell us a bit about yourself
I've just turned 50 and am very much in the middle of a journey of rediscovering the true 'me' after losing my way a bit in terms of priorities, during my 20s and 30s. So far, this has included a very significant change of career: having been a patent attorney for twenty years, I'm now settled working as a Programme Manager at the Carbon Trust.
I manage PREO, a programme which provides grant funding to African or Pacific Island businesses who seek to provide renewable energy products and services to businesses, farmers, schools and healthcare facilities. I'm excited to see how much more diverse my LinkedIn network of contacts has become, and I feel privileged to be facilitating the work of some incredibly entrepreneurial people in some of the less well-off countries in the world.
For various reasons I have done a terrible job of making it along to Bath Women's Fund meetings over the last few years, though this is something I hope to improve!
What inspired you to join Bath Women's Fund?
I really liked the combination of it being a women-led initiative, the community that is built by the regular meetings, alongside the encouragement to give my resources to support those less fortunate than me. The ability to contribute to decisions about where funding goes, and to hear from the organisations and people who benefit from the group, is also great.
What are the issues that you are most passionate about?
Doing all we can to slow the pace and severity of climate change has become my main focus and was a key element of my career change. My time so far at the Carbon Trust has underscored how people in marginalised groups of all sorts, in all parts of the world, will be the ones who will be impacted the hardest by the existing and coming changes to our planet. Therefore, I have particular interest in how we can make the necessary transition to a zero carbon future without leaving people behind, ensuring that the people who have the least are helped the most. This will be necessary in our own communities, as well as some of those global communities that I now have contacts in.
What would you be most interested in learning about as a Bath Women's Fund member?
How can those of us with more challenge ourselves to share more? I find myself keeping resources to myself, even though I understand the power of giving and the greater good that can be done with my money than is possible if I sit on it in a bank account. I have a tension between wanting to feel 'secure' whilst also believing that until all of us are secure, none of us is. I'm always interested to explore this stuff with like-minded people!
What is your favourite place/thing to do in and around Bath?
Anything to do with the outdoors. I live in a village near Bath and I feel so blessed to be surrounded by trees and birds. Happy Rhiannon is to be found in woodland, breathing it all in.