A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ROSA GÓMEZ

Give us a quick introduction about you:

My name is Rosa Gómez Escalada, here in Spain where I live and work, we have 2 surnames (something not really very common) one from my father and one from my mother. The network knows me only under my first name. I have always worked in the Madrid office and next July it will be 16 years since I joined. Since 2019 although my working space is in Madrid I am a full-time employee for BVCH Services Head Office based in Paris. Currently, my position is Food Accreditation Manager.

In a few words, could you describe your career path?

Currently, my position, in brief, is putting in place all the necessary actions in order to maintain our UKAS accreditation for Food standards, these are ISO 22000, FSSC 22000 and BRCGS. Our UKAS accreditation is used worldwide by our local offices currently having certificates in around 80 different countries. I started my career in BV in 2007 as a technical reviewer for BRCGS and IFS standards. Quickly I got involved in the standards that were part of BV Spain's portfolio like ISO 22000 or Globalgap and with all accreditation activities around Food Standards.

After some time I was formally appointed as Accreditation responsible for Food standards under ENAC accreditation. The portfolio at that time had grown very much and I was keeping more than 15 standards under ISO 17021-1 and ISO 17065 accreditation. It was in 2019 when TQR HO opened a position specifically for Food Standards and after some interviews I was given the position. Since then my tasks have been pretty more or less the same and still taking care of our accreditations and licenses with standard owners and at the same time helping our local offices to deliver the standards within the rules.

How could you describe your work at the Technical, Quality and Risk (tqr) team on BV?

TQR Certification where I specifically work does have an essential role in order to deliver certification activities around the network. We are there to set the rules and to establish the processes, but we are also there to help the network in delivering their day-to-day work, to help out with their difficulties and support them whenever we can.

HOW IS YOUR WORK ROUTINE?

My day always starts the same way: I open my mailbox, check what I have received since I closed in order to identify priorities or urgencies and then I start answering as much as I can. Sometimes it's overwhelming the high number of questions with this or that issue that can be received overnight. At the same time, I also check my Teams chat as people do tend to drop me questions there.

Once I have addressed the most urgent issues I do have a look at my list of pending issues, and the deadlines for the same and I establish a priority for that day. Of course, in the interim, I attend meetings and calls that sometimes are fixed a long time ago or are just last-minute scheduling. Sometimes my days are fully booked with audits either external audits from accreditation bodies or standard owners or myself performing internal audits of critical locations that operate under our accreditation. I can confirm that the cases are so varied and the challenges from the different countries are so different, that every day is different, there is always something new to learn about or to investigate.

What do you enjoy the most about working in the food sector?

Since an early age, I have always loved cooking, eating and new experiences around Food. Food safety comes first in all of this, so for me, my career at university was a great opportunity to get more to know about how to manufacture food, the chemistry behind and much more. When I joined Bureau Veritas I was given the opportunity to really make an impact and have a responsibility through the food chain from farm to fork and I can say very proudly that our work in certification makes people be safe when buying products in the supermarket for themselves, for their families or their friends.

What would you say to someone considering a career at BV?

Believe in what you do, and make an effort each and every day to do your best. Trust your colleagues and work together with them, the career in BV is built with the teams and the people around you. I would not be where I am without the people, my friends and my colleagues in BV.