Catherine Quigley

Senior Conservation Planner, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

There are not many people who can say that they have their ideal job. But as a senior conservation planner for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Catherine Quigley is one who can say exactly that.

Quigley has a broad-based planning background. While studying town and country planning at Heriot-Watt University, she worked as a planning officer at South Lanarkshire Council in her sandwich year and part-time for consultancy Farningham McCreadie. She returned to South Lanarkshire as a planning officer for a year before the job at the RSPB came up.

Quigley works in the planning and development team, overseeing 20 planning officers across Scotland. "I've always been interested in rural planning and the environment, so I welcomed the opportunity with open arms," she says. "It's nice to work for an organisation whose goals you really believe in."

She provides support and advice to regional offices on planning casework, much of which concerns renewable energy proposals. She is also responsible for responding to policy and consultation documents at a national and local level, which is an aspect she particularly enjoys. "We work directly with decision-makers, so we are making a difference at a national level," she says.