JCH Consulting
Women in Coolings:
I stumbled into the refrigeration industry at the age of sixteen, there were two apprenticeships available at the time one in electrical and the other in refrigeration, although I has no idea of what refrigeration encompassed, the refrigeration apprenticeship was two pounds more a week and the rest is history. 36 years later I still have the same passion and still learning new things.
I spent my first 19 years in the UK working mainly in commercial & industrial refrigeration, in 2004 I emigrated to Australia. In 2006 I joined Bitzer Australia just when the Australian supermarket sector was transitioning to CO2 systems and was fortunate to be part of the engineering team that pioneered the use of CO2 in hot climates.
In 2011 I left Bitzer and started my own consulting business specialising in natural refrigerants with a particular focus on CO2. I spent the first year living and working in Shanghai before moving back to Adelaide. In 2016 I bought Glaciem Cooling Technologies, at the time Glaciem was a R&D company and an industry partner carrying out collaborative research with the Barbra Hardy Institute part of the Low Carbon Living Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) at the University of South Australia. Over the last 6 years Glaciem has grown to be one of the leading engineering companies in the application of CO2 systems and Thermal Energy Storage Batteries in the Asia Pacific region, winning multiple academic and industry awards in innovation and sustainability.
The refrigeration industry has given me a sound career path, I have worked in so many different areas within the sector, service, contracting, project management, application engineering, manufacturing, consulting & R&D. I have also held nearly every position from apprentice to Managing Director.
Now in my early fifties looking back on my career I am so glad I made the right choice I love that no project is ever the same and always has its unique set of challenges. I often say to people its not rocket science we are only making things cold or hot, but the complexities of thermodynamics, coupled with refrigerant changes, environment and sustainability means that the industry is always in a state of flux, there are always new things to learn and different ways of making things cold or hot and that exiting.
Finally, I would like to say a big thankyou to all the colleagues and peers I have worked with, particularly in my early career for the knowledge and the mentoring passed onto to me, without this I wouldn’t be where I am now.