Inverness Courier, 27th November 2009 Kirsty Pryer in Women In Work feature. WHEN Kirsty Pryer joined Highland ISP Calico UK as a trainee administrator in 1998, she had little idea that six years later she would be the company's managing director. But that is the position she found herself in following a staff buy-out in 2004. "The last five years have simply flown bye and the company has shown steady growth throughout," she said. This is no mean achievement, considering part of this period included the worst of the recent recession. Kirsty revealed: "When we saw the downturn coming, we set about a programme of reducing costs and streamlining our cashflow. These changes, coupled with good teamwork, enabled us to weather the storm. "We're expecting to see some exciting changes in the next few years, fuelled by improved Internet connectivity in the Highlands. We also look forward to seeing more community-based Internet projects taking off soon." The other areas where Kirsty expects to see growth are in anti-spam, security and backup products for individuals and small businesses. "Even home users are becoming more and more dependent on computers. They want to be able to receive e-mails without being bombarded by spam or infected mail. Businesses, in particular, need to protect themselves against losing data through computer failure by using some form of automated backup system."