D&I annual conference 2023

Vanessa Burton

Vanessa Burton is a civil engineer with a focus in geotechnical and sub-structural engineering. As a graduate of the University of Surrey with a master’s degree in civil engineering, her career has mainly focused on major multidisciplinary projects in transportation, rail, aviation, and nuclear. She is currently working on HS2 in the foundations design team. Alongside her role, she is the Advancing Race and Culture Employee Run Network Chair, a local authority governor, a STEM ambassador, and a mentor on the Ground Undergraduate Mentoring Programme. In her career, Vanessa has won numerous awards and scholarships such as: Ground Engineering Award’s 2021 Rising Star; the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers’ 2021 Young BME Professional of the Year; Women in Rail’s Rising Star of the Year in 2020; and was named in the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards’ Top 100 Most Influential Woman in Engineering List in 2019.

Air Marshall Dame Sue Gray DBE CB FREng

Dame Sue Gray was Director General (CEO) of the Defence Safety Authority from March 2019 to January 2022. She led the regulation and assurance of military equipment and activity across air, land, sea, nuclear, munitions, medical, fire, and the environment. Previously, she was Air Officer Commanding 38 Group Royal Air Force (RAF) between 2016 and 2019. In this role, she led over 2,000 personnel supporting UK military deployments worldwide. She was also Head of the RAF engineer profession, recruiting, developing and maintaining safe working practices for over 15,000 technical staff, and responsible for developing the strategic plan for the RAF’s estate. Previous appointments include operational tours in Northern Ireland and Iraq, followed by a series of progressively senior roles in defence equipment and support. As a lifelong STEM advocate and mentor, she is also a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Her other Interests include competitive equitation, holiday skiing, fair weather walking, and travel.

Mohammed Marikar

Mohammed oversees the transatlantic Digital Engineering practice within RBC Wealth Management's Digital & Data Transformation group, as well as our A.I. Lab in the UK. He leads a team working on practical applications of artificial intelligence in sales and client service enablement, as well as R&D programmes seeking to improve RBC’s long-term competitiveness in digital solutions for both advisors and clients. Born in London (UK), Mohammed holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with Management from Imperial College London and is an Associate of the Royal College of Science. He is also a trustee of The Brokerage Citylink, a social mobility charity helping disadvantaged young people achieve their career potential. Mohammed started his financial career in 2004 as a trainee with UBS Investment Bank and progressed to become one of its youngest Associate Directors aged 23. He was headhunted by RBC Wealth Management International in 2013 to introduce a data-driven approach to UK sales and created RBC’s UK A.I. Lab in 2015.

David Osei

David Osei is a control systems engineer and an alumnus of the Academy’s Graduate Engineering Engagement Programme (GEEP). He studied a master’s in engineering at Loughborough University.  In his current role, David programs vehicles such as cars and motorbikes. He has previously worked on the battery and vehicle control systems within Formula E cars, electric motorbikes, hybrid racecars, and supercar engines. David’s experience of GEEP helped him develop the skills to apply for jobs in top automotive companies. He now mentors and guides underrepresented engineering students, helping them to negotiate and challenge barriers to opportunities in STEM.

Louise Parry

Louise is Director of People and Organisational Development and a Board member at Energy & Utility Skills, which helps employers in the energy and utilities sector attract, develop and maintain a sustainable, skilled workforce. She is responsible for people, organisational resilience, health and safety, and business continuity. As part of her role, Louise leads on diversity and inclusion. She has played a key role in establishing the award winning Energy & Utilities Inclusion Commitment and sector-wide inclusion measurement framework. A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Louise is a senior HR leader and an executive coach with over 20 years of experience working within HR, diversity and related roles. Louise is on the Board of the Women’s Utilities Network (WUN) and is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Industry Leadership Group.

Aleida Rios FREng

Aleida leads the centre of discipline engineering expertise which houses the most senior engineers and engineering technical authorities in bp. She is accountable for enabling bp’s energy transition to deliver on resilient hydrocarbons and scale up of renewables businesses through engineering solutions. Aleida chairs the heads of engineering forum which represents the company’s more than 3000 practicing discipline engineers. Prior to her current role, Aleida served as Vice President of Operations for the Gulf of Mexico and Vice President for bp’s Lower 48 business.

Ben Rose

Ben is Associate Director at environmental design consultants Atelier Ten, where he is responsible for public health services, water conservation design and services coordination. Ben has wide-ranging experience of sustainable water technologies and design techniques and has implemented this on several projects in the UK and the Middle East. His project experience includes sports venues, residential and high-end luxury residential, educational, mixed-use schemes, commercial, and industrial developments.

Melissa Sabella

Melissa Sabella is the founder and CEO of The Honeycomb Works, an organisation whose mission is for everyone at work to feel like they belong and are free to invent. They use research, evidence, data, and technology to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in organisations. Prior to launching The Honeycomb Works, Melissa led innovation teams in global organisations to deliver innovative, market-leading new products. She has successfully led multiple transformation projects and is regularly invited to speak on human-centred design, learning, and inclusivity. Melissa is an Italian-American living in London trying to follow baseball and be a better global citizen.

Yohanes Scarlett (1)

Yohanes Scarlett is an experienced Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) professional with expertise in race and ethnicity. At a young age, Yohanes volunteered at local youth clubs, and the young people he worked with informed his interest and knowledge of equality and social justice. He is currently the Policy and Research Advisor for D&I at the Royal Academy of Engineering, where he has carried out primary EDI research. He has also overseen a robust and action-focused EDI research programme, exploring the engineering profession. Yohanes attended the US Embassy’s Young Ethnic Minority Leadership Programme in 2014. In 2020, he worked as one of the principal researchers on the influential Hamilton Commission report: Accelerating Change: Improving Representation of Black People in UK Motorsport.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE

Hayaatun is CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. She co-chairs with the Science Minister the government’s Business Innovation Forum and co-chaired with Sir Lewis Hamilton his Commission on improving Black representation in motorsport. She is a trustee of various charities, member of the government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council and Digital Skills Council and NXD at construction company Laing O’Rourke. She has been named as one of the ‘Inspiring 50’ women in tech in Europe and one of the most influential women in both UK engineering and UK tech. She has a Masters in Biochemistry (MBiochem) from Oxford and a PhD from Cancer Research UK/UCL. She is a Fellow of the IET, Honorary Professor at UCL and Honorary Fellow at The Queen’s College, Oxford. She has received honorary doctorates from UCL, Imperial College London, Newcastle, Brunel, Huddersfield and Southampton, as well as a Science Suffrage Award and the Engineering Professor’s Council President’s Medal. She was a finalist for the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award and was made a CBE for services to International Engineering in 2019. Prior to her current roles, she was Deputy CEO at the Academy and served as Committee Specialist and later Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee.

Dr Shini Somara

Dr Shini Somara, originally a mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist, is an award-winning science, technology and innovation broadcaster. To date, she has authored seven STEM books for young people, most recently including the illustrated, Imperial College-supported ‘Engineers Making a Difference’, aimed at 12–15-year-olds considering their future careers. Shini translates technical information into entertaining media for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS Digital, UKTV, Sky, Discovery, The Science Channel and Al Jazeera. On YouTube, she hosts two free educational series: Crash Course Physics and Crash Course Engineering, which have received over 58 million views altogether. Through her broadcasting work and podcast, mentorship for PhD and masters students and experience in engineering, Shini is determined to help boost innovation by championing equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM. Her new book, Engineers Making a Difference, celebrates and represents equality, diversity, inclusion and talent involving 46 engineers across many genres of engineering in the UK. It will be published on 2 March 2023. Further information can be found at: http://www.drshinisomara.com.

Dr Arun Verma

Dr Arun Verma is a leading figure in implementing and integrating intersectionality in systems, policy and programmes both nationally and internationally. He is a Senior Manager for D&I at the Royal Academy of Engineering, an academic tutor at the University of Dundee and a Fellow of the RSA. His work at the Academy focuses on contributing insights and innovation to further D&I through policy, research education and the professional engineering institutes. He has led the integration and embedding of intersectionality and anti-racist practice in government commissioning, national and global programmes development, and education. He has been granted several awards supporting and facilitating his research including a Nuffield Research Placement and Higher Education Authority doctoral funding. In 2022, he was nominated as an Inspirational Diversity and Inclusion Leader by d&I Leaders.

Tim Walder

Tim is a Senior Director with Arcadis and is the company’s UK Aviation Sector Leader. He has over 40 years’ experience in the construction industry. His role includes leading a multidisciplinary team of design and engineering and consultancy services professionals, undertaking multimillion pound projects for aviation clients. Tim is on the Board of the British Aviation Group (BAG) as Deputy Chair and sits on its equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDI&B) Advisory Group. He is the Executive Sponsor for allyship in Arcadis’ mobility sector. Time is also a qualified life coach, enterprise careers advisor and sits on the Coast to Capital LEP Careers Hub Steering Group.

Ed Warner

Ed Warner is Co-Founder and CEO of inclusive design business Motionspot. He founded the organisation in 2012 after his friend and Co-Founder, James Taylor, was paralysed in a diving accident and left underwhelmed by the clinical design and poor quality of adaptations in his home. Ed has since built Motionspot into a Royal Institute of British Architects award-winning industry leader in inclusive design. The organisation provides inclusive design consultancy and accessible products to workplaces, the hospitality industry, retirement and later developments, care and housing providers, and leisure and retail venues across the world. Ed was also the Government Sector Champion for the design of accessible spaces and products for a three-year term between 2019 and 2022. He has also spoken on topics related to the built environment, and how inclusive design supports the S for social in ESG and is a vital component of EDI strategies.

Joanna Whiteman

Head of Diversity and Inclusion