Clearview National August 2019 - Issue 213 | Page 30

DIRECTOROFTHEMONTH
Gender Shouldn’t
Come into it
Ultraframe’s Marketing Director Alex Hewitt,
speaks exclusively to Clearview about working in
fenestration, balancing a career with two children, and
Pampers (but maybe not why you’d first think…)
experience I gained prior to taking up my role
at Ultraframe is a great blend of B2B and B2C
which has given me the skills to understand
how to translate consumer insight into top
line growth, as well as how to really help
retailers grow and develop their businesses
with a local audience.
WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN
ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES?
There are many facets to my role, but a key
focus is attracting new trade customers and
helping our existing customers to win in the
marketplace. Myself and my team do this by
ensuring that both the wider market and our
existing customers understand what sets them
apart from the competition. We then help
them to adopt the products and market them
to their own customers. I am also responsible
for insight to drive the future direction of the
business. This includes carrying out consumer
research to explore homeowner needs and
trends, the results of which are then fed into
our product development pipeline.
WHAT IS YOUR HISTORY IN
TERMS OF CAREER/EDUCATION
AND HOW DID IT LEAD TO
THIS CURRENT ROLE?
I began my career working in consumer
goods for 10 years at Procter & Gamble; one
of the most marketing-focused companies
in the world. I then spent the next 10 years
gaining more business experience as a mentor
helping small businesses to increase their top
line growth. I first came to Ultraframe on a
project basis in 2013 and really loved both
the company and the industry but wasn’t
able to stay as my children were still quite
young . I was delighted to return in 2016
once my children were a bit older. I feel the
30 » AUG 2019 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE
THE MAIN CHALLENGES THAT
FACE MODERN PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN IN GENERAL?
I think the main challenge is juggling
different priorities such as family and work
and the acceptance that to do this, you often
have to let someone down. If I choose to
see my children in their school play, this
may mean letting down my colleagues at
Ultraframe, and if I stay late at work, I may
miss bedtime for my youngest or that all
important but rare chat with my teenager.
‘sometimes the smaller
jobs are the ones where
you can really make
a difference and gain
immense job satisfaction’
DO YOU THINK FENESTRATION
IS A ‘BOYS CLUB’, PLEASE
COULD YOU EXPLAIN
WHY IN EITHER CASE?
The industry is obviously male-dominated
but I don’t see it as a boy’s club – on the
contrary, I’ve always been made to feel very
welcome. I work with great professional men
(and women) here at Ultraframe who see me
for what I bring to the business, rather than
focusing on me being female. Diversity is always
good, however, I also believe that identifying
the right person for a role is about skills and
experience – gender shouldn’t come into it.
HAVE YOU NOTICED
A DIFFERENCE IN THE
REPRESENTATION AND
TREATMENT TOWARDS WOMEN
THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER?
I think that over the last 25 years there
has been a general acceptance of women
in industry and a lot of men have helped
with that. Men and women definitely have
different stereotyped qualities that some
people believe make them more suited
to different roles. The R&D/Technical
Team at Ultraframe actually turns a lot of
stereotypes on their head as some of our
most technically-minded team members are
female.
HAVE YOU HAD TO OVERCOME
SPECIFIC HURDLES AS A
WOMAN IN INDUSTRY?
While my children were young, I chose to
take on project work as a freelancer and so
while I gained fantastic experience and got to
spend valuable time with my young family,
on paper, my CV suffered.
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR
BIGGEST AND PROUDEST
ACHIEVEMENTS IN YOUR CAREER?
During my time at P&G I took on a
leadership role in the Pampers team at a time
when the brand was about to lose its market-
leadership. My ideas and plans completely
turned around the business; adding 10%
share points in a year.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD
YOU GIVE YOURSELF AT THE
START OF YOUR CAREER?
I would say “don’t necessarily strive for
the ‘high-profile jobs’, sometimes the smaller
jobs are the ones where you can really
make a difference and gain immense job
satisfaction”.