Craig Shanaghey is Executive President of Wood's global Projects business. He assumed this role in February 2023 and took on executive responsibility for 14,000 talented people who deliver high value capital investment solutions in energy and materials markets across the globe. With three decades of experience garnered in the pharmaceuticals, oil, gas and broader energy industries, Craig is a seasoned and proven leader. He has worked at Wood for almost two decades and was previously Executive President of the company’s global Operations business. Throughout his career, Craig’s focus has been on delivering business growth and increased quality of earnings through innovative client and supplier partnerships, end market diversification, and an empowered and motivated workforce. Craig is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and formally chaired Offshore Energies UK’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Group. In addition, Craig is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a fellow of the Energy Institute and has also been appointed to the Advisory Board of AFBE UK, the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers.

Dr Carol Marsh works in the field of electronics, specializing in programmable logic. She is the Head of Digital Systems at Celestia-UK, a member of the AFBE Advisory board, Vice President and Trustee of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University. A winner of 7 technology and diversity awards, Carol is passionate about prompting engineering and in 2020 was awarded an OBE for Diversity and Inclusion in Electronic Engineering.

Coming soon

Helen West is a Digital Transformation director of Strategy and Performance at Thames Water; accountable for performance management and driving continuous improvements across Team Digital. Helen is responsible for driving alignment of all Team Digital strategies, ensuring focus and prioritisation across the team through its strategies and governance, as well as doing things right through performance management. Helen is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) as well as a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv). With an unconventional pathway through education and her career, Helen believes that with the right guidance and vision anyone from any background can be successful.

Carol Stewart is the founder of Abounding Solutions and author of Quietly Visible: Leading with Influence and Impact as an Introverted Woman listed as one of the 10 best books written by women to read during lockdown. She is an Executive, Career, and Leadership Coach, Speaker, Trainer and Author. She specialises in introverted women who are senior leaders. She coaches leaders to lead with confidence, influence and impact. She also provides workshops and talks on a variety of topics to organisations and at conferences. Carol was recognised as one of Britain’s Top 50 business advisers by Enterprise Nation; a Rising Star Champion (for her work with women leaders) by We Are The City and named a LinkedIn Top Voice UK 5 times (including 2022 Top Voice for gender equity). In 2023 she was added to the Northern Power Women, Power List which recognises trailblazers who challenge the norm and shift the dial towards a more equitable world for women in work; listed as a Top 32 Business Influencer by Business Leader Magazine; and was the winner of the Inspirational Woman Award for the 18 th Wise Women Awards. Carol is a semi-regular columnist for the Sheffield Telegraph and hosts the Quietly Visible podcast. She gives her time to causes that support the next generation, gender and racial equality, and social inclusion. She is a co-founder of the Black Northern Women, International Women’s Day conference which sees women from 22 cities congregate in Sheffield for a day of learning, empowerment, and Transformation. Further information is available at https://aboundingsolutions.com/

Edward Obi, M.Litt., PGDip, PGCert, FCIPD is a certified Senior HR Professional in Human Resources and a multiple award-winning Leader. He has worked in both the public and private sectors. After working in various senior HR management roles Edward went on to establish multiple award-winning companies HR Hub Plus Limited and Peridot Recruit Limited in 2018/2019 respectively. His area of expertise includes employment law, recruiting, onboarding, training, employee relations, performance management, leadership training and development, and safety. He is a father of 3 lovely kids. In his spare time, Edward enjoys spending time outdoors with his children and friends. Edward also loves reading, writing articles, playing table tennis, and supporting the local community. He is well known within the business circuit in Scotland either supporting local business owners, delivering workshops, and speaking at various event. He is a passionate people’s orientated person.

Carmen Morris is the Founder and Managing Director of Kenroi Consulting. With over 3 decades experience in the field of diversity and inclusion, she has significant experience across a wide spectrum of diversity and inclusion, including strategic diversity management, training and development and consultancy. Supporting organisations, across industries and sectors, to develop leadership around inclusion, Carmen works with leaders and teams to design more inclusive workplace environments. She has supported a wide range of clients across industries, to design and develop and roll out diversity and inclusion priorities, taking a strategic approach to developing, and cultivating, a mindset for equity and belonging, within project deliverables. Carmen also assists organisations and teams to challenge effectively and enables team and individual development, through coaching and mentoring around inclusion. As well as being noted as a compelling speaker on racial equity, she is also the Founder and Managing Director of Kenroi Consulting, a global diversity and inclusion consultancy. Carmen is a former Contributor on diversity, inclusion and leadership on Forbes.com

Coming soon

Catherine Liebnitz brings over 20 years of experience to the role of President of People & Organisation for Wood’s global Operations business. In this role, Catherine is accountable for developing and delivering the people and organisation strategy - a key enabler for the business’s ambitious growth strategy. With her career spanning a range of industries, Catherine has held a variety of senior generalist human resources roles as well as specialising in Reward for number of years and is passionate about harnessing the full potential of people. Catherine is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD).

Folayo graduated with a first class Aerospace Engineering degree from Queen Mary, University of London receiving a university award for outstanding academic achievement along the way. Having joined the prestigious Rolls-Royce Engineering Graduate Development Programme, he progressed to Chartered Engineer status and certified Programme Manager. He has worked on the Trent 900, the engine that powers the Airbus A380 - the world's largest passenger jet; and has led the development of safety critical components for the Trent XWB, the engine which powers the Airbus A350 the worlds most fuel efficient aircraft. Whilst at Rolls-Royce, Folayo founded the first ever employee resource group which enables people of African and Caribbean descent who represent less than one percent of employees to bring their whole selves to work. Folayo now heads a business unit at Leonardo that develops airborne connectivity products and is currently developing key technologies for Tempest - the UK’s future combat air system. At Leonardo, Folayo has continued his passion for inclusion and as founding Chair of Leonardo’s Ethnicity Inclusion Network Folayo is once again at the forefront of cultural transformation to enable a more ethnically balanced workforce.

Hiran started her career in Marketing and has worked for several large organisations, including Which mMagazine and Barclays. She became involved in Barclays’ Diversity programme as a volunteer in 2002 and was so passionate about it that she re-evaluated her goals and changed careers, fulfilling the role of Equality & Diversity lead for Barclaycard until she joined Cranfield University in 2006. Hiran went on to hold a number of roles in the EDI space at Cranfield and lead a range of strategic initiatives to attract, recruit and develop diverse talent across the organisation. This led to the University winning a number of EDI awards, including being recognised as a Working Families Top 30 employer. Hiran joined the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team in 2023 as Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, where she will use her expertise to develop and implement the Team’s EDI strategy and partnerships. Outside of her role, Hiran is a Trustee of Women Leaders UK and a qualified Coach.

Mavis is the Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Harbour Energy. Her career began over two decades ago with the UK Civil Service, where she worked in various Economics leadership roles to support UK Macroeconomic policy at its highest level, working with decision-makers in the Bank of England, Ministry of Defence and Her Majesty’s Treasury. She subsequently progressed to the energy sector, working across the value chain for an operator, supplier and the Oil & Gas industry regulator. Until recently, she managed a bespoke diversity consultancy, supporting businesses in the energy industry with their inclusion strategies. Mavis was an inaugural member of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Group set up in 2019 by Oil and Gas UK to drive inclusion in the UK oil & gas industry. Mavis is a passionate advocate of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and frequently writes on the subject. She is co-founder of a Scottish charity, Africulture, set up to drive cultural integration in Scotland. She lives in Aberdeenshire with her family and, outside work is a keen hillwalker and amateur sailor.

Lesley Jonas-Nartey is a Senior Manager at IBM Consulting. She has over 7 years’ experience supporting complex digital transformation programmes in Healthcare, Government and Energy sectors for the UK and internationally. In the last 24 months, Lesley has predominantly worked in Senior Delivery Manager roles on large-scale NHS programmes. She is passionate about applying cutting-edge technologies and translating them into meaningful solutions to solve the biggest challenges in science and healthcare. Lesley is on a mission to challenge the stereotype of who works in STEM and shine a light on role models who are actively being the change they want to see. In March 2023, Lesley was named ‘Employee of the Year’ by the Black Tech Achievement Awards.

Ian Phillips has over 35 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas and climate change industries, including 18 years with oil operating companies (Shell, BP, Marathon and Ramco) and 6 years with a major service company (Halliburton). In 2007 he became a founding Director of CO2DeepStore Limited, and in 2013 he and his CO2DeepStore colleagues launched Pale Blue Dot Energy – an energy transition business consultancy. Having spent 6 years as CEO of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre Ian re- joined Pale Blue Dot Energy – now an energy transition development company - in March 2020 as the Acorn Project Director. Pale Blue Dot merged with Storegga in 2020 and he became involved in developing the carbon storage and low carbon hydrogen businesses of Pale Blue Dot / Storegga. Since October 2022 Ian has been an independent consultant in the Energy Transition space. He obtained an M.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot Watt University (1983), and an MBA through the Open University (1994). He is also a Fellow of the UK Energy Institute and is a Chartered Petroleum Engineer. He has long been active with the Society of Petroleum Engineers including 2 four years periods as Chair of the SPE Aberdeen Section and as a Regional Director on the SPE International Board. He also chairs the local Young Enterprise Board, and lecturers on Energy Transition on the MBA programme at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and at the University of Dundee.

Yewande Akinola is a chartered engineer, innovator and speaker. Her engineering experience includes the design and construction, innovation and manufacture of buildings and systems in the built environment. She has worked on projects in the UK, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia and has been named the UK Young Woman Engineer of the Year by the Institution of Engineering & Technology. She has also been awarded the Exceptional Achiever Award from the Association for BAME Engineers and the Association of Consultancy and Engineering, U.K. (ACE). She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster. She is passionate about STEM communication and has presented Engineering programmes for Television. In the 2020 New Year Honours list, Yewande was awarded an MBE for services to engineering innovation and diversity in STEM. She has served as the UK's Innovation Agency (Innovate UK) Ambassador for Clean Growth and Infrastructure.

Dr Alix Thom joined Offshore Energies UK (previously Oil & Gas UK) in December 2011 as Skills and Employment Issues Manager. In her current role, Alix is responsible for facilitating the development of industry-wide employment related policy for OEUK’s 400 member companies. Alix is also theme lead for the implementation of the People and Skills element of the North Sea Transition Deal, agreed in 2021 with the UK government. This includes retaining talent in the oil and gas industry whilst facilitating the transition of people to other energy sectors, as well as leading on diversity and inclusion. Alix is an experienced employee relations specialist with a proven track record in major and independent exploration and production companies, including BP, Cairn Energy and EnQuest, as well as Wood Group and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). A Fellow of the CIPD and holder of the Distinguished Badge of Merit, Alix is also a member of the Executive Board of the IPA (Involvement and Participation Association) and an Alumna of the Advanced HR Executive Programme, Michigan University. Alix lives in Aberdeen with her beloved westie called Ollie.