Relaxed Approach!
Joana is Smart Separations’ HR Manager with over 8 years of experience in managing people in the Health and Social Care sector, in her previous job as Project Manager. Her background in Psychology, from the University Fernando Pessoa in Porto (Portugal) and also completed a MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at Goldsmiths, University of London. Joana is a people’s person, with a strong sense of ethics and very sensible. She heads the Human Resources department at Smart Separations, ensuring that the company follows regulations and laws effectively and that its employees are treated fairly. Joana is also responsible for recruitment, on-boarding, off-boarding, disciplinary and day-to-day HR requirements, including training and development.
Formal Approach
Smart Separations is a family company that she saw growing from an idea to this awe-inspiring company, committed to make a difference in people’s lives, including their own staff! She loves being with friends, cooking and playing with the two most precious people in the world: her two children.
Get to know Joana
Name a favourite scientist, inventor or researcher and tell us why you like them?
There are so many brilliant minds out there who have made remarkable discoveries for humanity, however I quite like Harry Harlow and his Surrogate Mother Experiment, showing that love, as demonstrated by physical body contact, is a more important aspect of the parent-child bond than the provision of basic needs. More than 70 years later, Harlow’s discoveries continue to inform the scientific community of the fundamental basis of human behavior.
What do you think is the most interesting area of research for the future? (Yes, it’s broad).
Perhaps Stem Cell Therapy for the treatment of innumerous medical conditions?
Tell us one of your favourite quotes?
‘What’s for you, won’t go by you’.
What gadget or piece of technology are you most excited by?
Google Glass it’s amazing!
If you could put SSL’s filter in anything, where would you put it?
I wonder whether we could use SSL’s filter around ‘sound separation,’ if that makes any sense!
Which book have you given away the most. Why?
Francis Bacon once said: “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”
I have devoured many books in my life, but recently I have chewed and digested ‘How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk’. I found fascinating the last bit ‘listen so kids will talk!’ And also ‘Raising Girls’.
I love the mission and the knowledgeable and fun people we have onboard. I love the flexibility, the celebrations and the gatherings. Being together makes us stronger.
Joana Santos, MSc
Fun Filtration Facts
Juice with or without pulp/bits? (i.e. filtered or unfiltered)
Juice with pulp (sorry SSL!).
Where/what was the best water you ever tasted? (i.e. tap water in Lisbon or Volvic water etc.)
My Favourite mineral water: LUSO.
But I found very very refreshing drinking cold water from an Oasis in the middle of the desert in Tunisia.
What’s the freshest air you’ve ever experienced? (i.e. on a mountain in the Pyrenees).
I still remember the sensation of filling my lungs with that fresh, salty air, in the first hours of the morning, as I stepped out of our cabin in Maldives.
If you could put SSL’s filter in anything, where would you put itIf you had to get rid of one tiny particle, which would it be? (i.e. cat hair, pollen)
Coronavirus, please! Also, dust… I hate to dust off my furniture.
If your air purifier had to emit an odour instead of absorbing them, which smell would you choose?
