ACTIVITY REPORT 2017
women in power
Diversity, stereotyping, gender equality. These are a hot topic today, instilling controversy from time to time. What does it mean to be a woman in our day-to-day (business) life? And, in particular in an engineering world which is mainly populated by men. Three women in power Ariadne Szekut, Cristina Romero and Rashmi Verma give their bold insights.
It’s not just a man’s business 22
Ariadne Szekut
Could you describe your job in a few words? Ariadne: “I’m managing the Energy Transition team in the Middle East. At the same time, I’m the point of contact for our clients and try to commercialise our entire range of products: from power system consulting to renewables and decentralised solutions. Every time we get an opportunity, we build a project team based on the best expertise in Dubai, Germany, Romania or wherever our colleagues are located.” Cristina: “As Scrum Master, I form part of the Digital Solutions team in Brussels. I studied telecommunication engineering and have always worked in software development firms, where we used to work with Scrum, which is basically an Agile framework for managing software development. So, my role is to introduce this Agile process, to coach the teams and help them to continuously improve, so they can create more awesome products, leading to happier customers.” Rashmi: “I’m currently heading the Transmission & Distribution department in India. My key responsibilities include the proper execution of our projects, the development of new competences and the mentoring of young engineers to take up enhanced roles and responsibilities.” When did you realise that technology, engineering, science was your passion? Cristina: “In Spanish, my mother tongue, the word ingeniería derives from ingenio: ingenuity, inventiveness. I have always been keen on inventing, on understanding why the things work the way they do. And I loved maths. At secondary school, I was very good at it. And my older brother is an engineer…” Cristina Romero
Rashmi Verma