The Coolest
Job At RELX
Over the last three and a half years we have written countless stories featuring the extraordinary people across RELX and their work. One way or another, we have featured well over 1,000 colleagues. And we’ve won awards for telling their stories.
In every story we have written there has always been a recurring theme. Our people love what they do and where they do it.
So, we decided to focus specifically on this one idea and asked our people to tell us why they think they have the coolest job in RELX. Not that it's a competition, but maybe it could be.
From making the world a better place and working on your lifelong passion, to partnering with some of the world's greatest innovators and improving patients' lives - this is the story of just some of those people.
Advancing The Rule Of Law In Southeast Asia
Hannah Lim - Head of Rule Of Law, Southeast Asia: Legal
I've been with LexisNexis Legal & Professional since November 2017. That’s almost five years, and the longest I’ve stayed in any organisation. For someone who is always itching to experience something new, that says a lot. I roam Southeast Asia to uncover opportunities that advance the rule of law while contributing to our business growth. I do business development, all while making the world a better place. I’ve travelled to remote communities in East Malaysia to observe the mobile courts, advise judiciaries and government ministries on making laws and data transparent, and work with legal aid organisations to improve their content management capabilities. It’s a lot of fun.
My proudest moment was also the most heartbreaking. The 1 February 2021 was the day we were supposed to go-live with an online publishing system for commercial judgements in Myanmar that we had supported the Supreme Court in developing. We were all ready for the launch ceremony that morning. I woke up to the news that the military had taken over the country again, putting an end to our engagement with the judiciary. The ceremony never happened.
Improving Patient Outcomes
Natalie Vasilyev - VP Market Research, Health: STM
As market research leader across Elsevier Health, it is my job to represent the voice of our customers so that, together, we work to benefit every patient. We work hard to measure the true impact of the solutions we provide, immerse ourselves in how learners and clinicians use our products and explore new possibilities through innovation. I work with amazing people across Elsevier Health and I help my team grow and achieve their best.
I have been at Elsevier ten years now and earlier this year I had the opportunity to take on a new role, leading customer and market research across Elsevier Health. I work across the business to highlight the voice of our customers in all aspects of medical and nursing education to practice. Being able to unite insights and bring new opportunities across the health business was a dream of mine for a long time. I’m honored to be in this position.
Working with some of the best innovators in the world
Creighton Frommer - Chief Counsel for intellectual property, technology and procurement: RELX
I am not a creative or innovative person at all. Inevitably, I’m the type who after thinking of a good idea realises that thousands of people have already been working it for decades, and Wikipedia already covers it. But as Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property, Technology and Procurement at RELX, I get to work with creative and innovative product, marketing, technology and procurement experts who are some of the best in the world - every day. And I have the luxury of working with our amazingly dedicated team to help these experts turn these creative and innovative ideas into valuable intellectual property and practical solutions that make our businesses more valuable for our customers.
Before becoming a lawyer, I solved problems as a software developer. I learned about open source and software licensing and how in-house attorneys can combine similar problem-solving skills with a knowledge of the law to solve different types of problems. Getting to apply these skills with these business area experts who know how to create new products, launch exciting new brands or address problems with complex, multi-million-dollar business relationships, while supporting my fellow legal colleagues around the world is the most fulfilling job I can imagine.
wORKING ON YOUR LIFELONG PASSION
sYLVIE eRNOULT - eVENT dIRECTOR, cANNES yACHTING fESTIVAL: EXHIBITIONS
For some people the word ‘cool’ means relaxed and chilled. Well, that’s not quite how I would describe my role. It’s very hard work. But ‘cool’ can also mean non-standard, different, exceptional and the Cannes Yachting Festival is definitely that. My job is cool because it concerns the maritime world which has been a passion of mine for more than 40 years. It is really exciting to work in your chosen and loved industry, sharing your passion with your clients and your suppliers. But the main reason why I consider my job as the coolest in RELX is because of the dimension of the challenge and the energy, the teamwork and the creativity it requires to bring added value. The transformation of the two ports in Cannes in France is just an amazing thing to see. Each year, when we open the show, we are all exhausted but so impressed and proud of ourselves when we look at what we did. There is a real satisfaction and happiness which make my job the best.
My proudest moment was when one of the biggest French sailing shipyard Directors who was initially sceptical told me, two years after we opened the sailing section in Port Canto, that I was right and that what we had created had been a real success. We worked so hard for four years with political, legal, technical and commercial challenges to open this exceptional new space in our show that the best reward is when your client finally tells you that it was the right thing to do and that we did it well.
Commitment to customer service excellence
Lee David - Insurance Client Delivery Manager: Risk
We often use the phrase ‘every day is a school day’ in our team. We’re always learning. That’s what makes my job so exciting for me. New entrants to the market, new providers, new products and recently the pandemic, offer chances to rethink what has come before. Curiosity to do things better and find new ways for our clients and our people means I am always learning. And I'm privileged to work with amazing colleagues whose generosity with their time and knowledge make my job so fulfilling.
My proudest achievement is not a personal one, it's a collective one. The team came together from several businesses, some that were acquired, and we are based in several different locations. What started out as five teams has grown and evolved over the years to become one truly unified team. This wasn't something that happened overnight but grew over the years through our commitment to providing excellent customer service to our clients and helping each other to achieve our aims.
Engaging Decision-Makers in Latin America
Carolina Costa - Head of Latin America Government Affairs: RELX
I joined RELX in January 2020 - little did I know that a few weeks later we would all go under lockdown. As the head of RELX’s Government Affairs for Latin America, my day-to-day is all about identifying opportunities in government and regulatory initiatives, to see around corners to help mitigate risks, and connect legislative, regulatory and policy activities to key issues relevant for our businesses in Latin America. In today’s increasingly complex business and global political environment, it is rewarding to have the opportunity to educate Latin American stakeholders on issues that are important to us, to alert our business leaders on policy risks and opportunities and to work to ensure our corporate purpose-driven views are reflected in policy debates and outcomes.
Policy issues often have long-term and broad implications on businesses, requiring thoughtful and comprehensive government affairs solutions. Being able to provide this perspective and counsel to RELX’s senior executives and business managers to aid their strategic planning and decision-making process for a market in Latin America always feel like a great achievement.
Listening to customers and driving innovation
James Muñoz - Senior Customer Experience Manager: STM
I am part of the central customer experience team at Elsevier and my role is focused on helping Elsevier accelerate its efforts on the path to becoming a customer-led organisation. My role is specifically focused on Elsevier’s customer experience skills and culture transformation to ensure we can better listen to customers and drive customer experience innovation. On a global scale, I have the unique opportunity to influence our customer-led culture through developing customer experience training, community and through maturing our customer insights.
I joined Elsevier in early 2022 and was a little hesitant to leave my stable and rewarding career in banking. However, the allure of helping Elsevier transform and build upon its effort to be a more customer-led organisation was too great. In these past six months I’ve launched organisation-wide customer experience training and worked closely with other leaders to create a more customer-centric culture at Elsevier. I even work across RELX with other customer experience leads in trying to drive RELX as a more customer-led organisation. I’ve also enabled Elsevier to be a finalist in the prestigious European 2022 Customer Centricity awards. In short, I’ve had a great six months and I think I have one of the coolest jobs in RELX.
Creating inspiring workspaces for our people
Jacki Sharrer - senior project manager: RELX
I’m a Senior Project Manager in Global Real Estate and Corporate Services. I’ve been with the company for almost 18 years and have seen our offices develop over those years from spaces with high walled workstations to the direction we’re moving today with open collaboration spaces and shared seating. Creating workspaces our people love, that improve efficiency and help drive productivity is hugely rewarding.
Yes, there can be a lot of late hours, early morning flights and worked weekends but I’ve made a lot of friends in offices all over the United States, worked with great project teams and am proud of the role I play in creating workspaces that serve the needs of all employees regardless of what their ‘cool job’ is within RELX.
Improving the user-experience for information professionals
Natasha Den Dekker - UX Researcher: Legal
I’ve worked at RELX on the Global Nexis Solutions team as a UX Researcher for a bit less than a year now. I spend my time figuring out how to engage with users of our products to elicit the most useful and actionable feedback to drive product improvements. I’ve had the opportunity to work with our customer success managers, multiple products such as Newsdesk and Nexis and to work with an absolutely brilliant UX team. Getting to talk to users and ask ‘How do you search for x?’ is honestly the best thing I could be doing on a weekly basis at work. It means that our customers get what they need and we can innovate in ways that are immediately useful for them.
At the moment, we’re in the process of migrating Nexis to a new search platform. I’m immensely proud to be part of an award-winning team that was able to interview over 50 users in just nine days across multiple time-zones to contribute to a decision of when we should migrate. The level of trust placed in user research within our organisation is one of the best things about working here.
Working in one of the fastest moving industries in the world
Alistair Pardoe - Sales Director, UK, ReedPOP: Exhibitions
I’m working in one of the fastest moving, biggest and most exciting industries in the world – videogames, with some of the industry’s biggest and most important websites, YouTube channels and events. The huge global campaigns and activations that my team and I create are often media and experiential firsts. They excite our clients and inspire our readers, watchers and attendees - connecting them with products with which they often form lifelong bonds. I feel privileged to have one of the coolest jobs in one of the coolest industries in the world.
My proudest moment was when I created a concept for a competition for a small indie game developer. Their little-known game, Superhot, was launching and I went to them with a proactive pitch to turn their game into a cult success, where gamers would refer to other games as being ‘Superhot-like’. We encouraged our communities to modify other games to make them similar to Superhot. We engaged a partner to offer the winner a $50,000 publishing contract as a prize. The competition got millions of impressions through organic media coverage alone and had hundreds of entrants. Alongside this, I created a number of new, unique ad formats to help communicate the premise and concept of Superhot to our fans. The combination of these things meant that campaign was a runaway success, and directly led to Superhot becoming a hit franchise with multiple successive releases.
Looking for a cool job? Join us
Built with Shorthand