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That is reflected in the stories of Erica Santos, Business Development Manager, Kirstie Jones-Williams, Director of Innovation & Sustainability, and Janne Hetland, Chief HR & QHSE Officer. Their journeys into the company are far from similar, but together they show how drive, insight, and different perspectives help strengthen Geminor from the inside out.
Erica Santos: Creating her own path
For Santos, the journey started far from the waste and recycling sector. Originally from Lisbon, she studied economics and began her career in banking in Portugal before moving to London. There, she worked in one of Europe’s most demanding financial environments, an experience that taught her pace, pressure and the importance of staying sharp.
“In London, I learned that if you want to succeed in a demanding environment, you cannot do it alone,” says Santos. “You have to work as a team, communicate well and help each other.”
After several intense years in banking, she returned to Portugal ready for a change. She moved into waste management through a back-office role, quickly stepped into team leadership and spent seven years supporting international markets across Europe. Later, a personal connection to Norway and a strong desire for a different quality of life brought her north.
Today, Santos is responsible for plastics and paper in Norway and works closely with off-takers, pricing, market dialogue and new opportunities. It is a role that demands persistence, quick problem-solving and the ability to keep things moving.
“What inspires me most is that no two days are the same,” she says. “There is always a new challenge, a new material, a new question to solve. You have to be creative, persistent and keep moving things forward.”
That mindset has also helped her navigate a male-dominated industry.
“You cannot be afraid,” she says. “You have to talk to people, be clear about what you need and get the job done.”
Kirstie Jones-Williams: Turning insight into action
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If Santos brings commercial energy, Jones-Williams brings another kind of force: science, innovation and long-term perspective.
As Geminor’s Director of Innovation & Sustainability, she leads the company’s R&D and sustainability work and helps turn complex questions into practical progress. Her remit spans everything from innovation projects and policy analysis to ESG reporting and strategic sustainability work across the business.
One important part of that work is leading composition analysis projects, mapping waste streams in more detail to better understand what they contain, how they behave and where there is room to improve recovery, reporting and decision-making. It is work that sits right at the intersection of data, regulation, operations and future business development.
Jones-Williams also plays a central role in Geminor’s broader sustainability agenda, including ESG reporting and knowledge development linked to policy and market change. She has been closely involved in innovation work connected to Geminor’s Africa project, where the company is exploring how stronger waste solutions and value chains can support more sustainable resource use.
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Her background gives that work unusual depth. With an MSc and a PhD from the University of Exeter, she has researched microplastics in some of the world’s most remote environments, from the Canadian Arctic to Antarctica. Before leading innovation work at Geminor, she was the kind of scientist who set her alarm for 5.30 in the morning on the Antarctic ice, climbed out of expedition sleeping bags and headed into the field to collect samples in conditions where frostbite and crevasses were part of the working day.
That sense of curiosity and endurance still runs through her work. In public comments on her polar research, Jones-Williams has pointed out that plastic pollution means “nowhere on Earth is truly untouched”, a perspective that gives real weight to the innovation work she leads today.
At Geminor, that scientific mindset has become a practical asset. She is a key resource in helping the company look ahead, ask better questions, build better knowledge, and turn sustainability from ambition into something measurable and actionable.
Janne Hetland: Building structures that help people grow
Hetland, meanwhile, has helped build another important part of the company from the inside. With a background in nursing, preventive health, occupational health services and quality management, she joined Geminor to establish HR in a company that had not previously had this function in place. Her role has since expanded significantly and today spans HR, quality, health, safety, compliance and due diligence.
“I’ve always liked building things from the ground up,” says Hetland. “Clear processes and structure help improve everyday work, enabling employees to operate more efficiently and make well-informed decisions that support Geminor’s success.”
That work now reaches far beyond traditional HR. As Chief HR & QHSE Officer, she is closely involved in strengthening the frameworks that support Geminor across markets and functions, from leadership support and competence development to compliance processes, ISO certification work, and the wider quality system.
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It is a substantial responsibility, much of it happening behind the scenes, but it is central to how the company operates and develops. In many ways, Hetland has become one of Geminor’s key all-rounders, moving between people, systems, governance and quality work wherever the business needs strength and structure. Good systems do not just create order. They make it easier to work consistently, meet requirements, manage risk and build trust internally and externally.
Her work is also closely tied to growth. As the business becomes more specialised and more complex, Geminor needs stronger structures for competence, documentation and follow-up. That also means helping employees develop their skills and supporting them in their day-to-day work.
“In our industry, we depend on specialists and strong expertise. What we deliver to our customers is our competence and our ability to find good solutions,” says Hetland. “That’s why our people are our most important resource. It’s essential that we support employees well, create fair opportunities, and help people develop their skills in different ways.”
She also believes that diversity strengthens organisations. “It’s healthy to have a mix of people with different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences,” she says. “When people see things differently, we make better decisions and become a stronger company.”
“It is healthy to have a mix,” says Hetland. “Different people see different things, and that makes us stronger.”
Different paths, shared impact
The three women represent very different parts of Geminor, but they share some of the same values: curiosity, determination and the confidence to step into roles where women have not always been highly visible.
That visibility matters for culture, recruitment and the way the industry develops.
“The more women people can see in the industry, the more women will apply for jobs like this,” says Santos.
Their stories reflect something bigger than individual career journeys. They show the breadth of Geminor itself: a company shaped by many kinds of competence, and by people with different perspectives who help move it forward.