WORK HORSE Balance
Key accounts manager for Merck
How I make it work: My husband and parents are a great help financially, while the staff at the livery yard are like an extension of my family
The key accounts manager for an international science and technology firm juggles a demanding job with honing the talents of her once challenging KWPN mount
My job…
I work for Merck, an international science and technology company. I’m a key accounts manager and look after the major accounts in the Cambridge and Norwich area. I sell exclusively into academic and government funded research organisations. My customers range from researchers to PhD students, stores workers and professors. We have a large and diverse portfolio at Merck and so what I sell changes on a daily basis. Sometimes it will be culture media to help cells grow, or fragments of synthetic DNA called oligonucleotides, while at other times it will be larger scale items such centrifuges. I enjoy being on the road a few days a week and getting out in person to see my customers and discuss their requirements.
How I got here…
I’m American and I spent my first 22 years in the United States. I went to the University of South Carolina and studied biology and chemistry and rode on its Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) team while I was there. Upon graduating, my long distance boyfriend, Zach (now my husband), was stationed in the UK (he’s in the US military) and so I decided to make the big leap and move across the Pond to be with him. We soon got married and I found a job in scientific sales with a smaller local company in 2015. I worked for them until last year when I was hired by Merck in October. The move was largely motivated by the salary which was necessary not only because of the ever increasing cost of living, but also because I had purchased my horse, Roman, in December 2021 and my previous salary just wasn’t enough to provide for him!
My horse…
Roman, or Streamside Kir Royale, is a 10-year-old, bay, 16.1hh KWPN. I bought him with the intention of selling him in 2025, when Zach and I will have to move again due to his work. I was looking for something that was mostly trained, but needed a bit of finishing off and Roman has all the athletic ability in the world and all the makings of a fantastic showjumper, but soon after getting him home I realised that he no longer wanted to be a jumper. In fact, he didn’t want to do much of anything and asking him to perform tended to result in a meltdown, usually on his hind legs.
I tried all the ‘traditional’ methods and got him checked head to toe by multiple profession
