Profiles: Anna Fosse Galtier

Meet Anna...

For our very first Profile, we are delighted to introduce Anna, who joined us as an intern way back in October 2019 and since then has gone from strength to strength. A proud Newcastle United fan, Anna was born in France and now lives in London.

Before joining PAG, Anna studied for her master’s in international political economy, and conducted research for a think-tank on the impact of rare earth metals on the environment. She is now one of our Senior Consultants and has developed a particular interest for working in the Social Justice sector as well as in Education.

Editor’s Note: Anna’s responses have been edited for clarity and length.

What kind of projects do you work on at PAG?

As with most consultants at PAG, I work with a lot of education settings, trying to help them achieve their aspirations, goals, and priorities. As time passed, I got the opportunity to focus on areas of work that interest me the most, which brought me to work with organisations that have a focus on supporting individuals that are the most vulnerable. This can be individuals from minority backgrounds, people with special needs, individuals who’ve suffered from traumas, etc.

This logically led me to work with special schools and alternative provision settings on fascinating projects. For instance, I’m really proud to have been working with The Beckmead Trust since my first day at PAG. I believe they are doing incredible work with children who have a high level of needs, and often are at high risk of becoming involved in violence when reaching Beckmead’s door.

Through the years, I have also had the chance to work more and more with stakeholders involved in the criminal justice system. Working as part of a consultancy like PAG has given me the opportunity to have some liberty in the projects I pursue and allowed me to foster my strong interest in the criminal justice system. I have had the chance to work with amazing organisations such as bthechange and their CEO Josh Stunnell, who commit every second of their day to improving outcomes for individuals who have been through custody and supporting them into a successful rehabilitation. While reducing re-offending is a no-brainer economically for the government, it also became the focus and motivation for my work as I see this as a key part of contributing to improving social justice in our society; a topic I could speak endlessly about, but I’ve been told I’ve got a word limit here!

Do you have a project that you are particularly proud of or enjoyed working on and why?

I particularly loved working with the Department of Work and Pensions on the Kickstart Scheme.

This government-funded programme was aimed at providing work opportunities to young people at risk of unemployment and empowering them with valuable employability skills. Through this project, I was honoured to lead a team for over a year, and together we helped almost 190 education and social settings to secure extra members of staff, while supplying valuable opportunities to young people.

We contributed to the placement of more than 300 young people into jobs, and the delivery of employability training to approximately 200 individuals.

I’ve loved working with my team, and it’s been an incredibly rewarding project. Additionally, several PAG employees, who are now on permanent contracts, were initially hired through the scheme! Couldn’t be prouder of them!

Why did you start working in consultancy?

Honestly, I was actually against working in a consultancy at first, I thought it was competitive industry, where everything is about productivity and efficacy. I applied to an internship at PAG because they caught my attention with the social aspect of the consultancy, and I felt there was maybe something for me there.

Here I am, still at PAG after almost 3 years!

What are your best tips for working from home?

Working from home can be really challenging (especially when you have 3 other flatmates all working from home too, a shaky Wi-Fi, and neighbours who really enjoy drilling holes in their walls!).

I think to me the biggest challenge has always been to draw a line between work hours and personal life. When you work from home, the workday isn’t separated by commuting or chatting with colleagues. I’m still in the process of this, but I’d say my best advice would be to make sure you build habits to ensure a good work-life balance. For example, I started taking part in sports or going to the gym at a set time in the evening, which now marks the end of my workday. I try to not open my computer as I get back but it’s really easy to blur the line, especially when you like what you do!

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I think the best advice I received was to make sure to never under-value myself because of who else might be in the room.

It is easy when you’re a young, non-native woman to feel you’re not experienced enough to speak up during a meeting, even if you know the subject like the back of your hand. It’s a very unnatural process for many of us to be assertive or self-confident, but it’s inevitable that at some point we’ll need to get out of our comfort zone.

Do you have any other fun stories from your time at PAG?

Oh, I have many of them, but I believe those are protected by the seal of colleague’s confidentiality and can only be told down the pub!

Lastly, What’s the last bit of content you fell in love with?

Tough question, but I think I’ll go for Arcane, the recent series inspired from the video game League of Legends. I started it thinking it was going to be another failed attempt at making a film or series based on a video game, but I actually really enjoyed it!

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