Employees support women in science and engineering awards

Thales employees have been supporting the annual WISE awards in London, an annual event that recognises individuals who have made a significant contribution to the issue of women working in the fields of science and engineering.

The black tie dinner and awards ceremony was held earlier this month in London. The Princess Royal was invited to present the Awards as patron of the WISE campaign. 

The awards categories reflect the two strategic areas of the organisation’s campaign. The first is for individual women and girls who are ideal role models to inspire the next generation of girls. The second recognises teachers, careers advisers and women in leadership for growing the talent pipeline.

This year, the awards were preceded by a WISE daytime event at the city’s Southbank Centre. This included a programme of challenging panel discussions, lively debate and key industry speakers. 

Thales employees involved across the day were Marion Broughton, Dr Paul Gosling, Eve Maywood, Lydia Prentice, Dawn Ohlson, Dawn Gilbert, Carol Marsh, Laura Shrieves, Anna Sandham and Gemma Adam.

Dawn Bonfield, President of the Women in Engineering Society, also joined the Thales table at the evening awards. 

Marion Broughton, Vice President, Land and Air Systems, was one of a number of our employees who spoke to Princess Anne.

It was great to meet Princess Anne who was well informed on all the businesses that people represented on the evening; we discussed the origins of Thales in Racal and Pilkington and the value we place on our graduate programme as an excellent source of female talent.” Marion Broughton

Sasha Roberts, a Thales maritime engineer, was also at both events in her new official capacity as a member of the inaugural 10-strong Young Women’s Board for WISE.

The board members, who are all WISE members, were selected through certain criteria: the women must be born after the WISE campaign was established, hold technical qualifications and work in a technical position. 

WISE provides its members with a variety of STEM related resources and workshops and membership is free for any student; membership fees for companies and individuals are available from the organisation. For more information on WISE, visit www.wisecampaign.org.uk.