AESSEAL®, the Rotherham-based manufacturer that specialises in the design and manufacture of mechanical seals and support systems, has announced the appointment of former Institution of Mechanical Engineers President (IMechE), Carolyn Griffiths, to its board.
Carolyn (pictured), a senior professional from the rail industry who established and was the first Chief Inspector of the UK's Rail Accident Investigation Branch, is vocal in her support for change within the engineering profession. She joins AESSEAL® as a Non-Executive Director.
She was elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2017 and used the platform to focus on the need to attract more young people to the engineering profession and, in particular, to make engineering more attractive to women. She is also committed to further developing professional standards in engineering and to that end, she also serves as a Board member for the Engineering Council.
The announcement of Carolyn’s appointment comes ahead of this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, on June 23rd, which aims to focus attention on the career opportunities available to girls in this exciting profession and celebrate the outstanding achievements of women engineers throughout the world.
In her presidential address in 2017 Carolyn described how she had been the first woman in all nine of her jobs; in all but two of them she had been the only female engineer. She said: “I chose a career in engineering simply because that’s what really appealed to me. I did not join the industry to overtly campaign for women since at that time, and often as the only woman in my workplace, it was unlikely to have been the best way of bringing about change. Instead, my contribution to the gender agenda has been to make sure I succeeded in challenging roles, to leave a positive mark in the hope that my work might make it easier for other female engineers. Several decades later it’s very clear that more needs to be done now to enable and encourage more women to join and to progress in engineering.
“With the current exciting changes in technology there is an ever-increasing opportunity for engineers to improve, in some way, the way in which we live our lives. It is a particularly great time to be an engineer.”
“AESSEAL is a really exceptional company for its superb products and services, its investment in people and more generally its promotion of engineering. I am extremely happy to join the Board.”