Meet Carole

With over 40 years of administrative experience, Carole has a natural aptitude for operational and administrative tasks. Her experience and knowledge together with diplomacy, confidentiality and loyalty are key to her success.

In Carole's own words, she tells you a little about herself below so you can get to know her.

Get to know me

Hi, I’m Carole, an Executive Virtual Assistant living in Barnsley, South Yorkshire with my husband, Martin and labradoodle Buffy.

We have six children between us and they have all flown the nest. It makes me very happy that they all have good and varied careers and although none of them lives locally, one being as far away as Brazil, we still manage to get together quite frequently.

I have held various roles during my working life for both the public and private sectors. Latterly working for the NHS for over 25 years and owning my own floristry business. Working in the NHS has afforded me a unique opportunity to develop my skills in liaising and coordinating with multiple agencies. Within this dynamic healthcare environment, I consistently collaborated with various organisations, including local government bodies, social services, and community support networks, to ensure the holistic well-being of patients and staff. It has also given me the knowledge and skills to work with neurodivergent individuals including clients with ADHD.

I am organised, proactive, reliable and meticulous with a keen focus on attention to detail, accuracy and the impact of the finished product. I am very much customer/client orientated. Being flexible and friendly I consider my customer service second to none.

In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, having two allotments to tend to and feel happiest getting my hands dirty growing flowers and vegetables. I also attend the gym a few times a week and have found a love for Zumba and Yoga. I have even trained as a Zumba instructor and have held my own classes.

Key Skills & Experience

Having over 40 years of experience in various administrative roles including high-level Executive Assistant/PA roles, I am confident working with clients at all levels. Some of the tasks I can attend to are your calendar, inbox, clients or travel arrangements. You can in fact, confidently delegate any number of tasks to me that you face in both your professional and personal life.

A few years ago I recognised the need for a sustainable work-life balance and I took a step back from my high-level role to build my dream business as a florist. This allowed me to develop my skills further into understanding areas such as social media and client relationship management along with the pressures of running a business.

My experience and knowledge together with my transferable skills, diplomacy, confidentiality and loyalty are the keys to my success. Hiring me as your VA is a cost-effective way of employing a PA and you will wonder how you ever managed without me!

My key skills include:

  • Email & diary management

  • Scheduling appointments & meetings

  • Event planning & coordination

  • Travel booking & itinerary planning

  • Transcription & copy typing

  • Project management

  • Personal lifestyle management

  • Social media support

  • CRM management and maintenance

  • Preparing training materials

  • Co-ordinating training

  • Proofreading

  • Research

  • Customer care

  • Dealing with client/member enquiries

  • Carole is the most experienced and diligent PA I’ve ever known in my 30 years as a Finance Director. She is extremely well organised, hard-working, exceptionally well presented, great with clients and her IT technical skills are excellent - she’s a pleasure to work with.

    Janet Ashby, Finance Director

  • I worked with Carole in my role as Executive Medical Director at Barnsley Hospital Foundation Trust where she worked as an Exec PA to the Chief Executive. Carole is organised, highly skilled in her chosen field, and very good at managing her time. Her people skills are excellent and she is committed to the task at hand. Being a natural leader Carole believes in the development of teams for them to be productive and effective.

    Dr Jugnu Mahajan, Executive Medical Director, Barnsley NHS Foundation Trust

  • Carole's most profound attribute is her ability to engage effectively and productively with diverse groups of stakeholders and target her skills and behaviours pointedly at the level and needs of each specific group. Carole's unique communication skills make her an excellent facilitator and enabler in successful multi-professional collaboration. Carole demonstrates such integrity that makes her unquestionably credible and builds confidence in the people that Carole engages and works with.

    Matthew Cobbah, Associate Commercial and Business Development Director, Barts Health NHS Trust

  • I worked alongside Carole as colleagues in the Executive team at Barnsley, and have continued to follow her success story as she has built up her successful business. Carole is professional, creative and resourceful. She is a highly skilled Executive Assistant and a natural trainer, generous at sharing her knowledge and experience. She has used her natural creativity to build a successful business and now has a rich combination of executive and business knowledge to share.

    Hilary Brearley, Executive Director, Barnsley NHS Foundation Trust

  • Carole supported me in managing a very difficult diary due to excessive demands on my time and availability. She evidenced excellent organisation and administered skills, and superb communication at all levels. She has the ability to remain calm and polite in the most challenging of circumstances. I do believe she is a person who will find success in all she does, given her considerable range of professional and personal skills and her rare combination of an outgoing friendly and engaging personality with a high level of efficiency and organisation.

    Sandra Taylor, CEO, Barnsley NHS Foundation Trust

Work with Carole

If you would like to be introduced to Carole so you can arrange a chat and see if she's the right VA for you, get in touch.