Welcome to our 2022 Annual report

What a year 2022 was! Some would describe it as a recordbreaking year for many reasons. From the rise in energy prices, cost of living crisis, inflation, Queen Elizabeth II passing away in September, at the age of 96. Her recordbreaking reign as the longest of any monarch in British history, spanning 70 years and 15 prime ministers. Then King Charles III’s ascension to the throne, three Prime Ministers in one year! the list is endless. As I reflect on 2022 and the many challenges it brought this was certainly a year of records, in fact a unique season for all of us.

For us at AFBE-UK, this year has been extraordinary. My personal highlight was Dr Ollie Folayan, Co-founder AFBEUK honoured in King Charles III first New Year’s Honours list is my personal highlight having worked together for 15years.

AFBELive attracted over 500 attendees from all over the UK and Europe. We also launched our Transcend leadership programme ably led by Dr Roy Bitrus. Our growth in terms of corporate membership to 70 organizations supporting our ambitions to scale up was really encouraging Throughout the year we continued to receive so many testimonials of personal successes of our members getting chartered, gaining their first graduate jobs, being promoted to senior roles, becoming fellows of engineering institutions, winning awards (see Member News section). We launched The Engineering Ethnicity Index first of its kind in our industry and led by the Dr Ollie Folayan and the AFBE Ethnic Leaders Forum. We welcomed a range of organizations to the AFBE-UK family including talent recruitment giant MatchTech, aerospace and defense organizations and have had promising conversations with other motorsports corporations. As an organization run by professionals working industry our passion to spread the inclusion message is beginning to bear fruits. We have so much more planned for 2023 we can’t wait to get stuck in as our Gala in November 2023 approaches!

For our End of Year awards, we would like to recognise two individuals Toyin Fatokun, Real Projects Lead AFBE

Scotland and Jonathan Fashanu, Industry Events Lead AFBE England.Congratulations to yo both

In 2023, AFBE is expanding and building. We are building capacity for our community, for our membership, (individual and organisation) and of course we are still focused on meaningful change for our industry. In December 2022, I gave a speech at the IET Young Women Engineering Award ceremony on 3 things. These 3 things I intend to have in my toolbox for 2023. I will be intentional in my efforts, I will continue to have expectations for change, and the Tenacity required to keep going is something I intend to hold on to.

My congratulations again to Dr Ollie Folayan MBE who has worked tirelessly and sacrificially to make AFBE what it is today. We as always will continue to care for our members who are at the heart of everything we do. As with 2022, we continue to advocate for inclusion within engineering, we will pay attention to backing the need for legislative reforms on ethnicity pay gap reporting and how we can attain more leadership opportunities for our members. Our theme this year is Building Capacity for Change. It is our hope that the articles in this newsletter will encourage you to support our mission.

Dr Nike Folayan MBE, HonFREng, PhD, FIET CEng, Chair AFBE-UK