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Employee Profile: Elaine Williamson
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Getting to know our Product Development Manager a bit better...
Family life
Elaine currently lives in Lanarkshire with her husband and two feisty daughters Kaitlin and Gabrielle who keep all of us at Smith & McLaurin entertained with hilarious anecdotes about them growing up. Also part of the family is Kiley, a Netherland Dwarf Rabbit, who is partial to watching episodes of Coronation Street while perched on Elaine’s shoulder. For those of you who are interested, these rabbits make excellent pets particularly for young children.
Work History
Elaine joined Smith & McLaurin immediately after graduating with a degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in 1988. She formed a vital part of the technical team that dealt with the direct-thermal technology side of our business as well as played a role in the development of our “Pancake” gum formulation.
After working with the company for over ten years, Elaine took a break and travelled with her family to the U.S.A as well as spent some time in China and Thailand. In 2003, when she was offered the opportunity to come back and work with Smith & McLaurin as our Special Projects Manager, she took it and the rest as they say is history.
Since rejoining Smith & McLaurin, Elaine has been the driving force behind the development of our AdaptEco range and she considers its creation and subsequent success in the market as being one of the main highlights of her career.
When asked what it is she enjoys about working with Smith & McLaurin, her immediate reply is the fact that her role as our New Product Development Manager is continuously challenging. Additionally, she enjoys the atmosphere of camaraderie at our office and loves the fact that she’s working with a company whose attitude to customers can be summed up in one line - “We’ll have a go making it, if nobody else will listen to your idea”.
Interests
In her spare time Elaine enjoys travelling and is partial to the occasional evening of fine wine and dinner. She has also discovered the joys of body-boarding and always tries to catch a few waves when visiting family in Ireland. Also, as a die-hard fan of Father Ted, she is planning a pilgrimage to Craggy Island in the near future and has already started her hunt for tickets to TedFest 2010.
Elaine not only advocates all issues of sustainability and environmentally friendly packaging issues at work but tries to make a difference in her home life too. She has her own organic vegetable garden and hopes to get a few chickens in some day as well as setting up a section for alternative herbs and natural remedies.
Future Plans
Elaine hopes to see Smith & McLaurin remain a leader in innovation and continue to grow as a business. She is also currently working on two extremely exciting projects that she has said will be well received by the larger market as well as by our existing customers –she refused to give us any more information I guess we’re all just going to have to wait and see! 
E: Elaine.williamson@smcl.co.uk
T: +44 (0) 1505 707706
Posted on 13 July, 2009
