Black History Month Conversation Series

Nike Folayan MBE is a Chartered Electronics Engineer with a doctorate in Electronics Engineering.  Nike is currently Technical Director and the Technical Discipline Leader within the Transport and Infrastructure Division of engineering consultancy WSP. 

Nike is chair and co-founder of AFBE-UK, a not-for-profit organisation which promotes higher achievements in education and engineering, particularly among people from Black and minority ethnicity backgrounds. Nike was featured in Britain’s 100 most influential people of African and Caribbean heritage 2012 Power list.  

Nike was awarded an MBE for Diversity in Engineering in the Queens 2020 honours list.

Stephanie Travers is a Senior Trackside Fluid Engineer who co-manages the Petronas Trackside Laboratory. Stephanie was selected from over 7,000 candidates in Petronas’ inaugural global talent search to become a Petronas Trackside Fluid Engineer.  

Stephanie was chosen to represent the Petronas team on the Podium collecting the constructors trophy at the Styrian Grand Prix in 2020. It was a historic moment as she was the first Black female to get the opportunity to go on the podium. Stephanie is very passionate about education and specifically ensuring access to STEM related educational opportunities and career trajectories.  

George Imafidon is the CEO of Motivez, a Performance Engineer with Sir Lewis Hamilton's racing team, Team X44, and Board Member at The Hamilton Commission improving diversity in STEM and motorsport. George is passionate about building products that improve lives and communities.  

In 2015, George co-founded award-winning venture Motivez, the UK's first mobile app connecting thousands of young people aged 16 – 25 to free personalised opportunities on a weekly basis.  

As a diversity champion, George leads the #AB1Million campaign raising £1 million for the Amos Bursary to ensure talented men of African and Caribbean descent have the opportunity to excel in education and beyond.

Noah is currently an Assistant engineer at WSP. Noah is currently working within the Systems Engineering & Assurance team within WSP’s Railway division where he has worked on notable projects such as HS2 and Crossrail. 

Noah is currently a board member of AFBE (Association of BME Engineers) where he is a part of the transition team which helps undergraduates and graduates build their interviewing and CV building skills. In his free time, Noah practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu. 

Ollie Folayan is visiting professor to School of Engineering, University of Dundee and a chartered chemical engineer working in the energy industry. He is the chair of the award -winning AFBE -UK Scotland and co - founder of AFBE -UK. 

In 2018 Ollie Folayan was accepted into the Fellowship of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and since has co-authored three publications on the influence of role models in the transition from academic study to the workplace and on the sustainability of the engineering profession in the UK.  

In addition, Ollie has also been involved with a number of successful community initiatives through organizations such as Shell and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Ollie has chaired a number of AFBE -UK annual seminars featuring key industry leaders and politicians and is a regular speaker at events on varied engineering topics. Ollie has participated in All party parliamentary group roundtables on STEM education, and he is a member of the All Energy Diversity and Inclusion task group set up in 2019 by Oil and Gas UK.   

Roma Agrawal MBE (Mega Badass Engineer) is an award-winning engineer, author and broadcaster. From footbridges and sculptures to train stations and skyscrapers - including The Shard - she has left an indelible mark on London's landscape during her 15-year career in construction.   

Roma is an inspiring promoter of engineering and technical careers to young people, particularly under-represented groups.  As an engineering storyteller, Roma presents documentaries, hosts podcast Building Stories, and is now excited to be writing her third book about engineering, Nuts and Bolts, which will be published in 2023.  Her first book Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures was published to glowing reviews in 2018 and her children's book How Was.

Diane Chadwick-Jones, former Director Human Performance bp. Diane is a graduate of Imperial College, London and had an extensive career in bp spanning a number of businesses and functions including Exploration & Production, Refining and Chemicals, working in Belgium, Brazil and Egypt in operations and safety roles.  

In her positions related to Safety Culture and Human Performance, she was instrumental in the refresh of the bp values, and delivering cultural change to enable safety improvement. This included operationalizing a “systems thinking” approach by improving the way work is set up to reduce the possibility of mistakes and make work more effective.  

Diane now focuses on education, mentoring and advocacy related to modernising the approach to safety. 

Dr Hayaatun Sillem has extensive leadership experience in UK and international engineering, innovation, and diversity and inclusion activities. She chairs the UK government’s Innovation Expert Group and the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, and co-chairs with Sir Lewis Hamilton his Commission on Black representation in UK motorsport.  

She is a trustee of EngineeringUK and the Foundation for Science & Technology; a member of the Made Smarter Commission on Industry 4.0; a director of Festival*UK 2022 Ltd; and an advisor to accelerateHER and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. She has been named as one of the ‘Inspiring 50 Women in Tech’ and one of the most influential women in engineering. 

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. She was made a CBE for services to International Engineering in 2019.

Emeka Emembolu is currently bp’s Senior Vice President for the North Sea region. After receiving a degree in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, he joined bp in 1998.  

Emeka has since worked in a range of technical and leadership roles in key bp regions across the globe including the UK (offshore & onshore), Angola, US (Alaska), Algeria, Egypt and most recently in the US (Texas) as the Vice President, Reservoir Development – Gulf of Mexico & Canada.  

Emeka now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland with his wife and their four children. He is passionate about people development, helping teams succeed through collaboration and using technology to improve our business and deliver the future.

Dr Rashada Harry is recognized as one of the UK’s top 100 Ethnic Minority Leaders (Empower and Yahoo, June 2020) and Most Influential women in UK tech (Computer weekly 2021). She is most recognized for her thoughts on diversity in the workplace, employee engagement and helping the next generation of talent reach their potential in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Maths careers. 

In a professional capacity Rashada is an Enterprise Technologist at Amazon Web Services in the UK. She possesses a strong track record of new business development, account management and consultative selling into Enterprise client organisations. 

Rashada co-founded and launched the award winning Your Future, Your Ambition (YFYA) initiative in 2012 as a vehicle to help corporate organisations and students connect and help to bridge the diversity gap in STEAM.  To date YFYA has opened its doors to over 7,000 students and has helped to build a successful pipeline of STEAM talent in the UK. 

Prof David Mba is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise) at University of the Arts, London (UAL) where he is responsible for strategic leadership and developing a broad and ambitious academic vision for research, knowledge exchange and enterprise.    

Prior to joining UAL, he was Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise, at De Montfort University (DMU), where he led the creation and development of a strategic alliance with the city council to reinforce the university’s commitment to the public good.  

David studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire and completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University, for which he was awarded the Lord King Norton Gold medal for the most outstanding doctoral thesis. He is a leading authority on machine health monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics (Mechanical Engineering) and his research has been funded via numerous commercial, EU and EPSRC grants. He has published over 330 journal and conference papers.