WIP Retal
Elena Ralchenko
In the following article for Women in Plastics, guest writer Emma-Jane Batey interviews Elena Ralchenko, a technologist at RETAL, a global plastic packaging solutions manufacturer, about her life, work and career.
Women in plastics are as varied as women in any other profession, yet with just 35 per cent of core STEM students identifying as female, it is clear that the gradual tail-off of girls studying the subjects these careers demand is not supporting the career opportunities that are available in plastics worldwide.
For Elena Ralchenko, her unique STEM-focused studies were just the start of a rewarding and challenging career in plastics, with her natural aptitude quickly recognised by her teachers as well as her family.
Today, glamorous salsa-dancing Elena is a technologist for RETAL, a global plastic packaging solutions manufacturer with 17 factories worldwide, creating preforms, closures and films for well-known food and beverage brands.
Ukrainian national Elena, who speaks English, Russian, and Ukrainian, had a clear potential from a young age, with her strong understanding of complex science studies, particularly chemistry, meaning that she stood out from her peers.
Elena explained: “Standing out from your peers isn't always what you want when you're 12 years old! But thankfully I've learned to love my scientific brain and it's given me a rewarding and interesting career.”
Elena studied Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Biology, as well as Occupational Psychology, at high school. “I've always been interested in educating myself and understanding what drives other people, so the mix of science, maths, and psychology is fascinating,” she explained.
“It's in my DNA too; my parents and my grandparents were engineers and my grandfather was also an inventor. I loved my grandfather so much, he really taught me to be empathetic and I wanted to be just like him – I still sometimes refer to a big technical library he gave me.”
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Unique education
Towards the end of her degree, Elena was personally invited to consider 'special disciplines’ at the Military Industrial Complex of Ukraine, which is connected to the State Secrets of Ukraine.
Elena explained: “I'm really proud of my education because it started an interesting chain of events that created a special framework for my life. I gained a master's degree in Chemistry and Chemical Technology of high-molecular compounds (polymers, explosives and solid rocket fuel) with technological practice at the enterprises of the Military Industrial Complex of Ukraine.
“This learning experience was connected to the State Secrets of Ukraine. I am able to talk about it to some extent now as the secrets have expired, but we should still defend the technologies used and it is very important to me to be respectful of the code by which I learned.”
Internal promotions
Initially joining RETAL as a quality engineer in 2001, Elena was promoted to technologist in 2006, with additional promotions leading to her coordinating projects of new products from 2016 onwards, including supervising full product cycles from initial customer request up to series-produced batches.
Elena said: “Working at RETAL I realised what team work and colleague support means! I can’t forget our first ISO:9001 Quality Management System implementation - it was a really great experience in teamwork and team building. Knowing polymers’ nature helped me to be part of the implementation of our system of raw materials incoming control.”
Explaining how “the work of a technologist is continuous studying and never-ending experience”, Elena added that she is inspired by “seeing the result of my professional contribution immediately on products, on effectiveness figures and also on bottles and caps on the supermarket shelves.”
She continued: “I like applying my knowledge to difficult tasks and coming up with innovative solutions. By understanding the predictable and ready to face with the unpredictable, you can make wonderful things happen! I'm regularly inspired by customer requests as they teach us to push ourselves and our capabilities.”
Staying Inspired
Staying inspired is a common thread in Elena's professional and personal life, with her promotions and continually increasing responsibility at RETAL a reflection of her skills, hard work, and positive character.
She said: “I still stay in contact with my teachers from the university, they regularly bring students on educational excursions to RETAL and they always ask me to tell students how useful their course is and what interesting careers are available for those that study hard and make the most of the opportunities given.
“I'm very pleased to be a part of this and to share my experience of how a career in plastics is rewarding and interesting.”
