OGA Ambassadors The Old Girls’ Association relies on the support of many St Swithun’s alumnae who volunteer their time to help with the annual calendar of activities. We call these kind OGs our OGA Ambassadors. They share their expertise and give us their advice and time… all things we are hugely grateful for.
One of these Ambassadors is Lisa MacLaren (HA 1988). After finishing her A-levels at Epsom College Lisa took a year out in South Africa with her dad and then came back to the UK to study Business Law at City, University of London. Her next stop was the College of Law, York which looked right out on to the racecourse.
who look after the recruitment and human resource needs of their many clients.
Although Lisa was sponsored by the Army from the age of 16 and dearly wanted to work as part of the Army’s legal services, changes made to funding by the government at the time meant that the arrangement was terminated. Lisa didn’t enjoy the ‘civvy street’ law firm she went in to after university and left after nine months to take a different career path. She has never looked back! It is a career that has been global, provided her with the opportunity to work and live in APAC and North America and given her the chance to experience so many cultures.
The pandemic has also caused previously unseen problems for companies and Lisa and her team have had to be creative with their responses in order to support their clients’ talent strategies. Lots of changes have been fast-tracked due to COVID as many employees needed to relocate or change their core hours. It has required some thinking ‘outside the box’ and added more vital experience to Lisa’s 24 years in the profession.
Lisa is now the Senior Vice President of Cielo Talent, a recruitment outsourcing firm Lisa
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OGA Chain 2021
One of the things she enjoys most about her work is that every day is an unknown. She says, “Working with people is fascinating as they are the most unpredictable commodity there is.”
One of the events Lisa helped us with this year was to give L6 students a practice interview before they applied to universities. She feels it was a privilege to help them
