Winners 2016

Carpenter’s job is to lead the planning for future Transit models sold around the world – one of the most senior roles at Ford. She has worked in product development at the company for 26 years, liaising with Ford’s main partners, in a variety of international locations including Turkey, Russia and China. Carpenter says one of her proudest achievements at Ford is leading the planning for the current Fiesta: establishing what customers wanted, working with the design studio and then engaging the engineers. She says her customer‐led approach to design was disruptive at first, but became a global standard across the company.

Any new component, product or material that is mooted for use in Bentley cars is first tested by Davock and her team, who analyse everything from engine parts to wood veneers. Davock, who has a science background, is also a visiting professor for Liverpool University’s Engineering and Materials Education Research Group (EMERG). Davock says she finds it difficult to recruit into quality control, and has called for more students to enter materials science degrees, especially wood science.

Haslam’s role at Ford is to head up the global integration of new engines and transmissions into all new Transits. Based in Dunton, Essex, she oversees the work of 25 specific engineers, but on some projects is responsible for teams of around 100. Haslam graduated from Bristol University in 1992 with a mechanical engineering degree, and has worked in a variety of engineering roles within Ford since the mid‐ 1990s, including body engineering. She works hard to promote engineering as a career, particularly among women, and is deputy chair on the Education and Skills Strategy Board at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Hopkins occupies a very senior position in one of the world’s foremost vehicle testing facilities. After gaining a degree in mathematics and engineering and a PhD on crash victim simulation, she joined MIRA in 1990 with a focus on safety development. Since then, she has held management positions within vehicle development, braking, the proving ground and the engineering test facility. She also established the UK’s first battery and hydrogen fuel cell test capability. Hopkins currently oversees a staff of around 180 engineers and technicians and is tasked with doubling MIRA’s annual revenue from £23 million within the next five years.

Mara manages the 21‐strong team responsible for using computer‐aided engineering (CAE) to achieve the best frontal and pedestrian crash protection for all Jaguar and Land Rover models. She started at the company in 2012 as a senior analyst in occupant crash protection, before being promoted as a principal engineer for vehicle safety. Mara is also a respected sports science consultant, as well as an athlete herself, winning medals for Team GB in dragon boat and white‐water canoeing.

Mortiboys is essentially the chief engineer for all vehicles that emerge from JLR’s high‐end special vehicle operations (SVO). She joined back in 1989 as part of a two‐year Youth Training Scheme and was then offered a permanent position in the releasing department, which is the section that takes the engineering drawings, CAD models and specifications for each component and formally issues these parts into the business enabling either virtual or physical builds to take place. In 1991 she moved on to electrical engineering and has since worked on every JLR model except the XJ. Mortiboys was programme leader for the development and implementation of JLR’s Stop/Start technology, receiving the firm’s Product Development Women in Engineering Technical Excellence Award for her work. At SVO she has led the Range Rover Sport SVR and the Range Rover SV Autobiography from paper through to production.

Saville’s role at the electric car company is to make sure vehicles are engineered to budget and on time – no easy task in a firm that’s constantly pushing boundaries. Saville took the role last year, moving from her position as project manager in Tesla’s IT department, a role she started in 2014 following on from a job as a senior account manager for Lincoln‐based horticultural supplier William Sinclair. Saville previously worked in automotive in 2003, when she was a financial analyst for Aston Martin, a placement that was part of her degree in business studies and marketing at Sheffield Hallam University.