Rose Bailey

What is your role at Ricardo?

I work with developing country governments at national and city level, strengthening capacity to tackle climate change, including tracking emissions and developing ambitious plans for low carbon and resilient futures.

What does your average day at Ricardo look like?

I don’t think international climate change work has an average day. But typically, my day might start with an online meeting with country stakeholders to support information and data gathering for an NDC implementation plan, before jumping straight to another meeting with a development agency to discuss country support needs and key emerging capacity challenges, and how our experts can help. Grabbing a quick coffee, I have a catch up with one of my team, helping to trouble-shoot challenges and plan upcoming international travel. Later, I have an internal meeting to review an innovative proposal we have developed, to provide technical assistance to a country on their long-term climate strategy before wrapping up the day reviewing some technical guidance.

What do you look forward to at work?

People! Speaking with international colleagues and stakeholders is the best bit of my day. Hearing their challenges, discussing their needs and providing support, as well as learning about different countries is the most interesting part of this job. Even better to be able to travel and meet in person again.   

What do you find most rewarding at work? / Are you proud to work at Ricardo?

As someone who cares deeply about the environment, working directly with countries and cities on their international climate commitments is really rewarding. When the data, plans, and associated climate actions we help to identify are then realised, I feel really proud to think that our support helped to create positive change. 

What was you or your team’s latest achievement and how was it celebrated?

At our monthly team meeting we share positive feedback and celebrate team successes. The most recent ones included successfully delivering training workshops in Bolivia to 2 municipalities, and a new project win in Kenya with the World Bank, that will build on outcomes of our previous climate action planning work with C40. 

How have you developed your career at Ricardo?

I joined Ricardo 8 ½ years ago as a Senior Consultant, working initially in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) team. I was given the opportunity to work on an international project, travelling to Ghana with a senior colleague, and realised this was what I was really passionate about. I was also given the opportunity to develop a new workstream focussed on cities. I was promoted to Principal in 2016, before becoming an Associate Director in 2022.

How do you support career development opportunities for your team?

I am a team leader for 5 of our team, who in turn are also team leaders. I have monthly meetings with each of them where we talk about their successes, goals and objectives, and ensure they are working on the things they do well and are passionate about. Career development – through training, work shadowing, mentoring etc – is a regular item of discussion. 

What do you most enjoy about working with your team?

I am amazed every day by the knowledge and expertise in the team. No matter how unusual the question, someone will know the answer! The people I work with daily make this job what it is. They are also a lovely bunch – we enjoy sharing anecdotes, holiday snaps, pet stories, family news… everyone really cares about each other.

What opportunities do you have at Ricardo to share your knowledge or expertise?

As an Associate Director, I regularly spend my time sharing knowledge through guiding and supporting teams and with some other senior colleagues, we recently ran a team training day on core concepts of Transparency and GHG inventories. Externally, I have also sat on technical committees, participated in workshops and spoken at conferences. 

If you have had a career break, how has Ricardo supported your return to work?

I took a sabbatical in 2019-2020 for 6 months for personal development. Ricardo and the team were really supportive, with the team stepping up and covering some of my responsibilities. This was good for their own development, but also enabled me to broaden the range of projects I worked on and focus on my own career progression when I came back.