SEMLEP’s Energy Champion celebrated as Top 50 Women in Engineering: sustainability announced

Dr Kerry Mashford OBE is announced as a winner, in the Top 50 Women in Engineering: sustainability awards.

Now in its fifth year, the 2020 WE50 celebrates women who have made a significant contribution within sustainability. Winning nominees were required to provide evidence of their successful support of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals or the Net Zero Carbon Programme.

Dr Kerry Mashford said: “I am really pleased that WES chose sustainability as its focus for this year’s awards. The need for action is urgent and engineers have a huge contribution to make as we strive to create a better world. I’m even more delighted to have been selected for the WE50 award this year. For many years, long before sustainability was a recognised topic, I’ve been using my engineering knowledge and systems engineering skills to make more sustainable products, places, processes, systems and value chains.

“As SEMLEP continues its work to make our area a great place for people, for nature and for business, I will use this award as a way to bring focus to sustainability, putting it at the heart of business, individual and public sector decision making, to bring a thriving sustainable future for the area.”

The WE50 awards seek to recognise the wealth of female talent within engineering and related disciplines; an annual celebration aligned with the campaign International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) taking place today, 23 June. INWED celebrates the achievements of women in engineering and related roles and highlights the opportunities available to engineers of the future; this year the campaign is partnering with UNESCO UK.

Sally Sudworth, WE50 Head Judge, the Environment Agency’s National Programme Manager for Asset Management & FCRM Sustainability Lead (Net Zero Carbon Programme) and WES Honorary Secretary said, “The panel of judges was thrilled by with the outstanding achievements demonstrated by all of the winners and were thrilled by the difference being made by the candidates”.

The 2020 winners are published on the INWED website and celebrated during WES’ own virtual INWED event on 23 June and across social media and press throughout the world. A full list of the WE50 winners is available at http://www.inwed.org.uk/we50-2020.html.

Hilary Chipping, Chief Executive at SEMLEP wished Kerry, “huge congratulations. Kerry has been at the forefront of championing our work on the South East Midlands’ energy strategy, our strong sustainability and clean, green growth priorities and commitments in the Local Industrial Strategy, and now latterly keeping sustainability high on the agenda as we put in place plans to rebuild our economy.

“The South East Midlands and right across the Oxford Cambridge Arc has major opportunity to be a beacon in sustainable growth. Kerry’s achievements will certainly help to inspire engineers, particularly the next generation of female engineers, to come forward.”

INWED is only made possible through sponsorship and in 2020 the following organisations are providing their support: Boeing, Dialog Semiconductor, ECITB, GCHQ, Institute of Refrigeration, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, NSIRC, OPITO, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Air Force, Sonnedix, V12 Footwear and Wiley. The WE50 theme changes each year to recognise women working in different fields and from varying routes into engineering.

All enquiries about WE50 to ceo@wes.org.uk