Rebecca Venton

Senior International Development Manager, Met Office

My present role at the Met Office lies within the International Development Team where I am working with National Meteorological Services in Africa, predominantly Rwanda and Kenya. This work is providing me with the opportunity to utilise all of my experience to date in order to support these developing NMSs in terms of observations networks, forecasting, product development and stakeholder management – all working in a collaborative, cross-cultural environment!

My previous role at the Met Office was in the Government Business area, where I helped to establish a strategic partnership between the Met Office and other public sector organisations that specialise in environmental science, including hydrology and hydro-geology.  My focus then was on finding opportunities for the development of multi-disciplinary science and associated services.  Before this, I worked in the product development area, developing and establishing a new internal process for new product development.  This job was preceded by work in the Observations Programme where I was the Deputy Upper Air and Remote Sensing Manager as well as the Operational Weather Radar Network Manager.  I that role, I was responsible for the provision of good quality and timely weather radar data to both internal (Operations Centre forecasters, modellers etc.) and external customers (for example, the Environment Agency’s flood forecasters).  My previous experience as a forecaster (see below) enabled me to actively engage with the Operations Centre staff regarding the quality of our observations and in the scheduling of planned maintenance work for the networks, for which it was essential to be aware of the prevailing and forecast weather conditions.

Before joining Met Office, I served for ten years as a Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy, where I sub-specialised in the Hydrography, Meteorology and Oceanography (HM) branch.  In the HM branch, I served as an operational forecaster both at sea and shoreside, providing both meteorology and oceanographic forecasts to aircrew and warfare staff in both peacetime.  During the 2003 Gulf War, I served with 814 Squadron, then the first operational Merlin helicopter squadron.  814 was the first squadron to operate the Merlin’s new active dipping sonar and I was heavily involved in establishing a means of minimising the environmental impact of the sonar on marine life, utilising my oceanographic knowledge and skills to provide dynamic guidance to aircrew and ships staff.  I also served in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Weather and Oceanographic Centre (the Royal Navy’s equivalent to Met Office’s Operations Centre), producing numerous products for all three services as well as NATO, both routine and in support of exercises and operations.