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This week I was asked if I would be the subject of an article by Andy Middleton from Catena Network….read on to find out more

Now you’ve probably heard Vikie’s name in conjunction with Catena before and that’s because Vikie is the PA behind the scenes at Catena. Vikie is our glue and engine who looks after all the paperwork, calendars, meeting dates etc and it’s fair to say that Catena wouldn’t be the personable team it is today, as we would all be buried in paperwork! 

But what do you know about Vikie? Have you ever spoken to her before, if so you’ll realise, she’s not from these parts. She’s a southerner hailing from London but despite that, she’s a lovely person who seems to be able to just churn through work no matter what we throw at her.

As a PA, Vikie spends most of her time in front of a computer (she has a Mac and a PC to cover all eventualities) and can turn her hand to most PA things such as financial management, diary management, event management and general admin but can also be found in meetings in the capital or her (now) home town of Nottingham.

Vikie joined the London banking world at sixteen and soon became the youngest Team Leader in the company at seventeen. Nine years later, due to family reasons, Vikie made the move to Nottingham. After a few years, a marriage and increased family, her role evolved which led to one exec director realising Vikie had the skills and attention to detail that he was looking for in a personal assistant. The proposal was put forward and agreed and soon Vikie became the PA to this one global executive, travelling around the world supporting him and his Team.

In 2016, twelve years and many air miles later, the exec decided to retire and Vikie took redundancy with an eye on what’s next. Having worked as a PA for many years, she realised there must be a market for this service and along with a friend who had done a very similar role, they set up moreTime PA. The idea was to give busy business people ‘more Time’ to do the part of the job they enjoy and hand over anything they didn’t like doing (namely admin) to a trusted team who could handle it. 

So off they went into the world of networking, meetings etc, doing what they could to promote their services to busy execs. Ironically, one of the very first contracts they acquired was looking after a busy London based exec having been told they found moreTime PA #1 on Google! Along the way, they picked up various accounts including the rapidly growing Catena through Claire and started to make their mark on the Nottingham Business Scene. 

Come 2018, Vikie’s business partner Helen had a change in circumstances and needed to find a full time job, leaving Vikie as the sole owner of moreTime PA which she continues to be to this day.

Vikie is very grateful and loves her job as every day is different and has given her valuable time with family members no longer with us, whereas employment wouldn’t have given her that flexibility.

Outside of work Vikie has a passion for shoes, pilates, shoes, bags, shoes, the finer things in life and oh yes, shoes! If you’d like a zoom call with Vikie about shoes, she’s always available and the background is a delight! 

I asked her if she prefers cold or hot places to travel to and her answer was typically London…’I’m from London, we don’t do cold!’ (feel free to say in a Cockney ‘apple and pears’ accent!)

Recently she’s travelled to Lake Garda and Kefalonia to name but a few ‘warm’ places with Sardinia and many more in the ‘to do’ pile. 

Well, if anyone can get through a ‘to do’ pile, it’s Vikie!  

Great to get to know more about you, so thanks for your time!

Andy  

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