Women in Engineering - Katerina Liana
To celebrate the Beyond the Hard Hat competition launch, read below Katerina Liana's experience working at LR.
Have you entered the Beyond The Hard Hat competition yet? Enter now to win a week's work experience at an LR site office and an iPad!
Area Technical Manager, Katerina Liana explains why she chose to follow career in engineering instead of medicine.
“A career in medicine was always at the top of my mind when it came to choosing my future direction, but coming from a town which produces around 70% of all electricity for Greece I have always been around people who have worked in electrical engineering, including my father,” explained Katerina.
“As the power company was a public company, I soon realised that the flexibility offered by them and a career in electrical engineering would allow me to pursue a wider range of opportunities and maintain a better work-life balance as I was starting out after university.” Katerina continued.
“The LR brand is known around the world and in Greece particularly, it is a sign of history and reputation in the shipping industry; I knew it was meant for me.”
With her future direction chosen, Katerina trained on the job to further develop her skills which helped her to make the move to LR; “I discovered a passion for auditing as my career began to develop and thanks to my electrical engineering background, I understood the complexities of a number of specialist sectors which helped me obtain my first role as ATM in 2005 with LR in Greece.”
“In my time with LR, I have been fortunate enough to work with so many clients around the world and working in a technical role, I’ve been lucky to work on a number of industry leading projects.”
“The LR brand is known around the world and in Greece particularly, it is a sign of history and reputation in the shipping industry; I knew it was meant for me.”
Moving from Greece to the United States was a big step for Katerina, but how do you pick one highlight from a career which has seen the world? “In my time with LR, I have been fortunate enough to work with so many clients around the world and working in a technical role, I’ve been lucky to work on a number of industry leading projects. Perhaps one of the most rewarding was the development of remote audit capabilities to help a client in Turkey to audit a site in Iraq. Thanks to this, a new accredited process was put in place and for our clients, this helps them to overcome and manage some of their critical business challenges.”
As a final thought, Katerina shared her career advice; “Go for it. When you start working, it’s funny how some of the things you prioritise change. I thought I would always remain in my home town and here I am in the United States with the world at my feet.”