Emma Winkworth

I am a senior project assistant supporting Landell Mills’ portfolio of agriculture, fisheries and food systems projects in the following areas:

• Business development: preparing administrative documents for expressions of interest and tenders, completing due diligence checks on partner firms, CV searching, and making online submissions.
• Implementation of our ongoing projects: processing invoices, formatting reports and CVs, and drawing up contracts and letters; as well as supporting our consultants with flights, visas, accommodation, and other logistic matters.

Another large part of my role (and my favourite) is event coordination – for study tours, workshops, and conferences on our projects as well as internal staff events such as the Christmas party and the company day out.

This is always a difficult question to answer as the project assistant role is very dynamic. My day always starts with checking my emails as this tends to shape my day and my to-do list. I’ll respond to any urgent emails and then move onto my tasks. These could be anything from formatting a large report or CVs for an upcoming tender, booking 20 flights for a study tour, or processing invoices and payments for a project. I know it sounds cliché, but no two days are the same.

I’ve worked on a variety of global projects for donors such as the European Union, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank. The projects that I’ve worked on have covered:

• ADB transaction technical assistance in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea.
• Coffee value chains in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.
• Aquaculture in East Africa.
• Coconut rehabilitation in Tuvalu.

I think my favourite project to work on has been our regional ADB-funded project, Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security Program (SAFSP), as I was involved in the organisation of high-level project events and was able to travel to China and Laos to support them.

As I support multiple members of the team on a variety of tasks, my most used skills are good communication, time management, organisation and problem solving.

In a previous role, I worked as a recruitment consultant in the marketing sector. The experience and skills I learned in this role have been really helpful when working on business development and searching for consultants at Landell Mills.

The thing I enjoy the most is working with the team – it is such a collaborative and supportive environment. In the eight years that I’ve worked here, I’ve built some great professional relationships and wonderful personal friendships.

A memorable experience for me was organising and attending the 3rd GMS Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting under the SAFSP project. It was a four-day event held in Kunming, China in 2024 which featured a two-day international workshop on climate-smart agrifood systems; the GMS Annual Working Group on Agriculture meeting; and the 3rd Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting, which was attended by the Agriculture Ministers of the six GMS countries that were involved.

Over 200 people attended and participated in the event. I was responsible for the logistics, including booking flights, airport transfers and accommodation; and organising visa letters and assisting in visa applications. Doing these tasks for such a large event was very challenging. There were a lot of late nights and very early mornings to combat the time difference! I was able to travel to the event, so it was very rewarding to see it all come together.