Today is international women’s day, so we’d love to introduce you to our Managing Director, Pam Knight.    Pam set up Flame UK in 2015 after a change in career into the waste and energy business.  Here’s how she got to where she is today.

Pam is no stranger to hard work. Being brought up on a busy farm in Nottinghamshire meant she was busy helping on the farm throughout her childhood: “I have two brothers and a sister and we all helped. I was driving a tractor from the age of 8, doing all the ironing and cooking the family breakfast at 10 and potato picking at 12.  I was brought up to appreciate hard work from a young age”

The hard work continued when Pam got a Saturday job aged 13, selling on the shop floor in Curry’s, followed by an apprenticeship position at Yorkshire Bank. Having left school at 16 and begun work in the bank, working her way up to Bank manager of Yorkshire Bank in Newark. 

Taking a career break from the bank to start her family, she decided to pursue her passion for property, setting up a successful property development business. 

So how did Pam get into the energy and waste business?  She says “when my boys were little on a cold winters’ morning, I was watching my eldest son play football and got talking to one of the football dads who was looking for some admin help in his waste business… the rest is history”.

This was where Pam’s career in energy and waste began.  She set up the energy department for the business, moving from part- to full-time within a month to meet the needs of the busy business. She then worked up to a Directorship position and helped grow the company to 55 staff when the business was eventually sold.

Following the sale of the business Pam then set up Flame UK, a waste and energy consultancy, in 2015. Taking risks including selling her small property portfolio, taking no wage for the first few years.

Pam says: “very much like farming you sow your seeds and have to nurture them, and wait a long time for them to grow.  I feel business is very similar, and when I set up Flame UK I knew it wouldn’t be for instant rewards.”

Having faced several challenges, including a former director who embezzled money from the company, Pam took on two investors in order to grow the business.   Since then the hard work has paid off, and the company has gone from strength to strength and is now a thriving and continually growing business, providing expert waste and energy solutions to businesses and corporates across the UK.