Meet the SATRA team: Hannah Coe

Our series introducing members of the SATRA footwear team continues with a profile of SATRA’s head of footwear and innovation.

Hannah Coe’s career journey demonstrates how ambition, determination and a willingness to learn can open doors to new opportunities. However, her route into the footwear industry was not entirely straightforward. After leaving school, she found herself uncertain about her future, having not achieved the A-level results she had hoped for.

Fortunately, footwear was already part of her family story. Both of her grandfathers had enjoyed successful careers in the industry, working their way up from entry-level positions to become company directors. They frequently stressed the importance of gaining practical experience and understanding a business from the ground up.

It was also Hannah’s grandfathers who first told her about SATRA. Soon afterwards, her mother spotted an advertisement in a local newspaper for a half-day SATRA recruitment event. Hannah applied for a footwear technician position and was invited to attend alongside around 30 other applicants. With only three vacancies available, the competition was intense, but she was successful and secured a place.

Learning the fundamentals

Hannah began her SATRA career in October 2012. As with many technical roles, she started by learning the essentials. Her early work involved routine footwear and automotive component testing. Hannah spent six months operating SATRA's slip-testing equipment, as well as gaining valuable experience using tensile testers to assess material tear strength and Martindale abrasion machines to evaluate wear resistance.

These practical testing roles provided Hannah with a detailed understanding of products, materials and performance requirements, creating a strong foundation for her future progression within the organisation.

Moving into certification

A significant career opportunity arrived in February 2016 when Hannah transferred to SATRA’s product certification department as a certification assessor, reporting to Pete Doughty.

The role exposed her to a much broader range of personal protective equipment (PPE). She assessed gloves, footwear, fall arrest equipment and sports PPE. As her expertise grew, she oversaw footwear and fall arrest certification projects, and became the principal contact for many customers in these sectors. This position also revealed another side of the business that she particularly enjoyed.

A talent for customer relationships

While working in certification, Hannah realised how much she valued customer engagement and business development. She successfully won significant footwear testing business for SATRA and managed a number of high-profile fall arrest equipment accounts.

Alongside her day-to-day responsibilities, Hannah became involved in standards development, taking a seat on the European VG11 fall arrest standards committee as secretary. This provided valuable insight into the regulatory and standards landscape affecting the PPE industry. She later joined the European CEN/TC161 safety footwear committee and also became chair of the UK’s PH/1 committee, which is also concerned with safety footwear.

Despite her growing success, Hannah's ambition remained focused on further progression. She became increasingly aware that Darren Roberts, SATRA’s head of footwear, was considering retirement, and the prospect of one day succeeding him became a personal goal.

Returning to education

Determined to strengthen her management credentials, Hannah decided it was time to revisit formal education. With SATRA’s support, she enrolled on an Open University business management degree. Balancing higher education with a demanding full-time role required considerable commitment, but her efforts paid off when she graduated in 2023 with a 2:1.

By this stage, Hannah had also recognised that achieving her long-term career goals would require strategic career moves, as well as academic qualifications.

A calculated step back

In 2022, Hannah made the unusual decision to side-step into a footwear technologist role for a year, taking responsibility for safety footwear testing. Although this represented a move away from the position she had held in certification, it enabled her to rebuild technical expertise in a core area of SATRA's footwear operations.

The decision proved to be a crucial one. In January 2023, she was appointed technical lead for safety footwear testing, overseeing a team of five colleagues. Her combination of technical knowledge, customer experience and leadership skills continued to attract recognition both within and beyond SATRA.

Leading the footwear division

Some 20 members of the team report to Hannah, including technical leads, technologists and technicians

The next major milestone arrived in April 2025 when Hannah was appointed head of footwear and innovation. Today she has responsibility for all footwear testing, innovation, training and consultancy activities carried out by SATRA. Around 20 colleagues report to her, including technical leads who oversee testing, technologists, technicians, calibrators and facilities coordinators who care for SATRA’s extensive range of test methods.

Her achievements have also been recognised across the industry. Hannah is a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers and received its prestigious ‘Young Manager of the Year’ award in 2023. In 2025, she was also named in the British Footwear Association's influential ‘Footwear 50’ list.

Looking to the future

Travel has been another rewarding aspect of Hannah’s career. Her first overseas business trip was to a PPE trade exhibition in Dubai, and she has since travelled extensively throughout Europe, China, Vietnam and the United States, supporting customers and representing SATRA internationally.

Although she has already achieved one of her major career ambitions, Hannah remains focused on the future. Looking ahead, she hopes to continue her development and move into a senior management position within SATRA during the next ten years. Given the determination, adaptability and commitment that have characterised her career so far, few would doubt her ability to achieve that goal.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 24 of the October 2026 issue of SATRA Bulletin.