Deborah Down Email & Phone Number

Reading, England, United Kingdom

Guildford, England, United Kingdom

Basingstoke

Basingstoke

Primary responsibility for supporting the Head of External Affairs with all our public affairs work including attendance at stakeholder conferences. I project manage corporate stakeholder events including our AGM, investor roadshows and employee and resident conferences.I promote the business positively and exert our influence not only in the housing sector but also in government circles is an important strand of our corporate plan. Our aim is to be sector leading so I seek speaking opportunities for our senior leaders to share our strategies and research, preparing content for presentations and acting as speaker liaison.I support the Press Officer to proactively identify positive media opportunities.

Basingstoke

Following the Wessex Housing Group´s merger with SHG I provided executive support to the PR Manager and External Communications Manager, deputising in their absence and positioning myself as first point of contact. I was responsible for identifying and writing winning award entries, working with a supplier to introduce a suite of corporate merchandise and managed the websites of the five SHG housing associations.

Newbury

Basingstoke

In a natural progression away from secretarial I worked closely with the Marketing Manager, deputising in her absence, to protect the reputation of the business and promote positive news stories in the media. I manually monitored our news coverage against our main competitor, drafted news releases and was responsible for producing the organisation’s monthly employee newsletter.

Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom

I joined one of the largest social housing landlords in the south of Hampshire, with 4,850 homes, in 1995 - a very exciting time as the local authority transferred its entire housing stock between two housing associations. As PA I supported the Operations and Development Directors and their teams with responsibility for minute taking and producing board reports.

Chapter Street, London

I provided secretarial support to a team of six, was PA to the Under-Secretary Legal & Parliamentary. I undertook full administrative and secretarial support to the legal and parliamentary team, tracking Hansards, assisted the PR team with press briefings and provided secretarial support to the PR team and LGA at national conferences. Worked closely with colleagues in the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and Association of County Councils.

Sherfield Building

My first job - a Trainee Secretary to the Assistant Financial Secretary. I typed up financial statements and accounts for the team and general day to day admin duities. I was quickly promoted to Junior Secretary and then Secretary to the Financial Secretary with a junior secretary under my wing. Grabbing opportunity when I could, I moved to the Chemistry department where I became Professor's Secretary. I was PA to one professor, two doctors and provided administrative support to a research team of 15 or so students.