joanna

On the 2 November 2022, the university partners of the Transfire team met up in Peterborough to discuss progress at the 18 month stage; half way through the 3 year project. It was great to meet up with everyone in person particularly as, as the project started during Covid, it has been harder than usual to get to know everyone on the project. Principal Investigator, Professor Mark Jolly, kicked off the day by welcoming everyone. It was great to have the tremendous industry expertise of our Transfire project and steering group Chairs Jon Bolton and Paul Booth CBE at the day with us. Jon was formerly Chair of British Steel and Director of Tata Steel and is currently Chair of the Materials Processing Institute. Paul has been a Director at ICI, has sat on many industry boards and is currently President of the Society for the Chemical Industry. Jon [...]

On 22 October, Mike Tharkoodin, TransFIRe Post Doctoral Research Associate, and I attended the Ethnic Minorities into Leadership Conference in London to gain insight on best practice that we could apply to TransFIRe Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Formerly called the BAME into Leadership Conference, the overarching theme was: ‘The time for talking is over. Now is the time to act!’   In its 11th year, the focus of the conference is on empowering and enhancing the capabilities and leadership opportunities for ethnic minority civil servants.  Over 400 attendees are given opportunities to address persistent challenges, barriers faced and develop solutions. An overview of the speakers is listed below and they all included their lived experiences to provide engaging and insightful sessions.   Bernadette Thompson OBE, Associate Director of Inclusion for the Barts Health NHS Trust Examining the current landscape for Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority leaders - Examining the [...]