'Engineering Heroes': International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) Celebration #INWED21

Major Angela Laycock has served as a Royal Engineer Officer for 15 years after studying engineering at Cambridge University, sponsored by the Army. She has operational experience in Iraq as a construction project manager and Afghanistan as an improvised explosive ordnance search advisor. She became a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2015 and has since worked as an infrastructure specialist. Currently she is the Officer Commanding of a team of military engineers who specialise in the design of physical security measures on operations. In the last 2 years she has supported UK Resilience by deploying to Whaley Bridge after the Toddbrook Reservoir dam collapse and Birmingham for the Nightingale Hospital construction.

Fadeelah is a professional electrical engineer with 15 years’ experience. She spent 12 years as a Senior Telecomms Contracts Manager at Eskom Distribution, Africa's largest power utility. She is now a Principal Professional Officer at the City of Cape Town Municipality, specialising in MV and LV networks and enabling the connection of embedded generation to the utility grid by residential, commercial and industrial customers. She recently completed a Masters Degree in Nuclear Power Engineering at the University of Cape Town.

Jane Priston is the founder and Director of the Amy Johnson Project, leading on their objective to bridge the gap between aviation and engineering history and the next generation. Project successes include the Amy Johnson Memorial Airshow and the installation of two lifesize, lifelike bronze statues of Amy: one in Hull, where she was born, the other in Herne Bay, the town associated with her tragic and untimely death.
Alongside this, Jane is a trustee at Eastchurch Aviation Museum on the Isle of Sheppey, the birthplace of British aviation, leading on the museum’s strategic growth and development. She is also supporting the school engagement programme for the reopening of Manston Airport and has started work on her first book.
Her most recent project is the development of a brand new aerospace charity taking learning out of the classroom and into a 737 airliner! Watch this space…

Janette Marx is the CEO of Airswift, a global workforce solutions company focusing in the energy, infrastructure and process industries. In 2014, she joined Swift Worldwide Resources as COO and led the integration of Swift and Air Energi in 2016. As CEO of Airswift since June 2018, Janette has the confidence of the company’s shareholders and employees around the world due to her focus on growth, both financially and culturally. Prior to joining Airswift, Janette spent 19 years at The Adecco Group, ultimately running the engineering, technical, medical, and science divisions. Marx is very involved with the community and serves on five non-profit boards, including the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer, Junior Achievement, American Staffing Association, University of Houston’s Bauer School of Business and the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce. Marx also serves as an Ambassador to the US Department of Energy.

Dawn Childs FREng is the UK Change Director for National Grid and is leading the transformation required to meet efficiency expectations whilst still delivering to net zero. Prior to this she was the Group Engineering Director for Merlin Entertainments Group with responsibility for engineering delivery, standards, practices and processes across the worldwide portfolio of more than 130 theme parks, resorts and attractions. This followed a tenure at Gatwick Airport as the Head of Engineering, responsible for all of the infrastructure and technical services at the airport. She joined Gatwick in 2012 after 23 years as an Engineering Officer in the RAF. In October 2018 she became the President of the Women’s Engineering Society and is also a Trustee for World Skills UK.