International Women’s Day: Meet the women who’ve risen through the ranks at Mount Charles
Saturday marked International Women’s Day when we celebrate everything that women have achieved while also calling for equality.
To mark the occasion, three of our female leaders that have progressed through Mount Charles from very junior positions to the top of their game, spoke to Belfast Live about how they got to where they are.
Patricia McErlane, Louise Andrews and Suzi Bell back up the impressive trajectory that female employees and managers have enjoyed at Mount Charles, one of Northern Ireland’s leading independent catering, cleaning, events and facilities management companies, with 67% of employees being female, in roles ranging from part-time staff and graduate/entry level right up to senior management.
Patricia McErlane, 36, started as Human Resources Administrator in 2013, progressing to HR Manager and she is now Head of HR. She also won the Mount Charles prestigious Chairman’s Pride of Mount Charles award at the 2024 Trevi Awards.
Patricia told Belfast Live: “Mount Charles is a company that really champions its female workforce and within our own HR Department, we pride ourselves on the fact that anyone who wants to progress and develop your career, it’s a great place to do that. They really do champion development from within and for that reason it’s an extremely encouraging place to work. Our leadership team is passionate about its people and empowering us to excel in our careers.
“For me International Women’s Day is about celebrating not just women but how far we’ve come over the years and how we can do it. Being part of a family-run business means you can do it all in terms of having that work-family life balance and Mount Charles really does champion that ethos.”
Louise Andrews, 40, started out as a Site Manager with Let’s Go Hydro in 2020, taking care of the management of the cleaning on-site at Carryduff. She then progressed to Area Manager for the company’s contracts with Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council; NI Water and Down Royal.
She said: “The company has been really brilliant to me over the past almost five years and it’s been a great journey so far. I’ve been given every opportunity to grow and do something different. With that in mind I think it’s important for women to be recognised on International Women’s Day and a company like Mount Charles certainly helps its female workforce and really sees their potential.”
For Suzi Bell, 32, her career journey with the company began as Operations Finance Co-Ordinator back in 2018 within catering and events. In that time she has risen through the ranks to become Events Manager and she is now Head of Operations with the events division.
“My role has evolved down the years as different projects came on board and new sites opened. That has given me such vast experience of every aspect of the business, which was great and I’ve been able to carry that with over the past seven years. No day is ever the same and I really thrive in that environment.
“It’s great to be part of a firm where women are always coming on board and progressing. I love being a woman and it’s great to celebrate it.”
