We are starting our new meet the team series by introducing you to Sarah Leonard. Sarah joined the team in April 2023 as our new Head of the UK Shipping Concierge, and in this blog, she shares a bit about her background, her responsibilities and more.
Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Sarah Leonard. I grew up in Formby, a coastal town near Liverpool. I live in London with my dog, Jasper. I love reading, watching TV and listening to podcasts – all genres but mostly crime!
Before joining the civil service, I lived in Australia, Poland, and Malaysia. Very different places but brilliant in their own way.
Can you please tell us about your background?
For most of my career, both as a civil servant and in the private sector, I have worked in international roles. When I worked at the Department for Business and Trade, I covered UK exports to Asia Pacific and at the Department for Transport, I worked in International Aviation Safety.
Both of these roles prepared me for becoming the Head of the UK Shipping Concierge.
What are your responsibilities as Head of the UK Shipping Concierge?
What is great about being the Head of the UK Shipping Concierge is that no two days are the same. Our work covers a wide variety of areas and government departments.
At the UK Shipping Concierge, we connect, promote, improve.
- Connect international businesses with UK government to support them working in the UK. This could involve us helping businesses to understand changes to visa rules or connecting them with policy experts to discuss areas of interest such as freeports.
- Promote the UK Maritime Offer to attract inward investment – which we do through attending events and presenting to those working in the shipping community, as well as through our new website.
- Improve the maritime offer through reform where we can and where needed. This is shown through the opening of the Tonnage Tax Election Window.
The UK Shipping Concierge Service is still very new to the maritime industry, having been set up in September 2021. What are the goals for 2023?
The goal of the UK Shipping Concierge this year and beyond is to continue to deliver the three key elements of our service.
We are currently helping a number of international companies do business in the UK so we want to keep that going and raise our profile so we can help even more.
We have an important event planned at London International Shipping Week in September so we are continuing preparations to ensure it succeeds in order to promote the UK maritime offer to as many people and businesses as possible.
We are also furthering our analysis of other shipping markets so we can ensure that the UK maintains its competitive advantage in an ever-changing world.
