AFBE-UK Advisory Board

James is chair of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, chair of the Carbon Trust and chair of the advisory board of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College and LSE. He is a Trustee of the Science Museum, Past President of the Energy Institute and on the board of London South Bank University, where he is a visiting professor.

Before retiring he was on the advisory boards of Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity, the employer groups for gender and racial diversity.

James retired from Shell in April 2011 after 7 years as Chairman of Shell UK. He joined Shell in 1983. He and his family lived for 41/2 years in Malaysia and Brunei. He worked on Shell business in a number of Middle Eastern countries and in the US. He was head of technology in Shell Chemicals. James grew up in the far north of Scotland. He has a degree in physics and is a chartered accountant. Before joining Shell he worked with Accenture.

Dr Carol Marsh has worked in the field of electronics for over 35 years, specializing in programmable logic. She is the Head of Digital Systems at Celestia-UK, a Visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University and a volunteer for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), where she is the Chair of the Council, Chair of the Engineering Policy Group Scotland, a Fellow Advisor and a Professional Registration Advisor and Interviewer.

Carol graduated with an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Edinburgh Napier University in 1985 and was awarded a degree in Doctor of Engineering in System Level Integration from the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde in 2011.

She is the Past President of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), where she founded the Female Engineering Student Conferences, managed the Doris Gray Awards (which provided over £100,000 in funds to promote and support women in engineering in Scotland) and digitised the WES journals from 1920 to present day. She is also a Hammermen of Edinburgh, a Burgess of the City of Edinburgh, a STEM Ambassador and the proud mother of 2 boys.

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.

With over 20 years of experience in the Energy industry which has taken him to various countries including Norway, Denmark, the US, and Canada, Dushyant joined bp in 2009 and has held leadership positions in the areas of Digital, Performance, and Process Improvement, across many teams. He joined the North Sea business in Aberdeen in 2017. He is passionate about people development and believes in DE&I being an important part of the business.

He has a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London, and Postgraduate qualifications in Senior Management and Strategy.

Dushyant actively mentors professionals both within and out with bp, with mentees across the diversity spectrum. He has helped women colleagues obtain promotions and into jobs, they never thought were possible for them. He finds bp a very active company in the space of DE&I and this is measured by the numerous awards the company has won for multiple initiatives in this space.

He firmly believes that there is much more to do to get the world of work to an equitable place, and active conversation, transparency, and courage are the key themes required.

Chi Onwurah is a British Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and is also the Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy. Prior to Chi's election to Parliament in May 2010 she worked as Head of Telecom's Technology at the UK regulator Ofcom focusing on the implications for competition and regulation of the services and technologies associated with Next Generation Networks.

Prior to Ofcom, Chi was a Partner in Hammatan Ventures, a US technology consultancy, developing the GSM markets in Nigeria and South Africa. Previously she was Director of Market Development with Teligent, a Global Wireless Local Loop operator and Director of Product Strategy at GTS. She has also worked for Cable & Wireless and Nortel as Engineer, Project and Product Manager in the UK and France.

Chi is a Chartered Engineer with a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School. She was born in Wallsend and attended Kenton Comprehensive School in Newcastle, where she was elected the schools MP in mock elections aged 17.

Denis is a Flow Measurement and Hydrocarbon Allocation Consultant with extensive commercial and engineering skills in hydrocarbon measurement for the oil and gas industry.

He has been working in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years, during this time he worked in a number of engineering posts within the Burmah Oil Company, British National Oil Corporation, Britoil and BP.

Denis has worked both in the UK and overseas. Currently he is the Measurement and Allocation Technical Authority, UK Business Unit for Premier Oil. He is also very actively involved with the Energy Institute where he was Chairman of the Aberdeen Highlands and Islands Branch and helped to grow the membership of the branch.

He developed The Energy Institute Young Professional Network and helped reshape the Energy Institute Constitution to have a Young Professional Network. He is currently helping to develop young members in all Energy Institute's UK and International Branches. At present he is Chairman of the Hydrocarbon Management (HMC 1) Upstream Technical Group developing Energy Institute guidelines/standards and also joint guidelines/standards with API.

He is also a member of Robert Gordon University Industry Board for the School of Engineering where he has been involved with helping to develop industry relevant courses.

He has been actively involved with the AFBE since it formed its Scottish Branch (AFBE-UK Scotland) and regularly participates in AFBE Transition Events.

He is also a mentor to the World Petroleum Youth Committee with mentees in several countries. In 2008 he worked with the International World Petroleum Youth Committee to run successful Youth Events at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC).

He is also involved with Student Energy and has been on the board of two successful International Student Energy Summits in Norway and Indonesia and an European Student Energy Summit in Aberdeen. He is also a member of the Axis Network where he is responsible for the Mentoring Programme.

Professor Mba is the Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham City University. He is also a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is an expert on Rotating Machines Technology and a leading international authority on machine condition monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics. He obtained his first degree in Aerospace engineering (1st) at the University of Hertfordshire and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University (1999) for which he was awarded the Lord King Norton gold medal for the best doctorial thesis. He has led numerous industrially funded teaching and research programmes, nationally and internationally.

With David's support , the London Transition programme launched in 2016

Dr Safia Barikzai is an Associate Professor at London South Bank University. She is currently seconded to the Nathu Puri Institute for Engineering and Enterprise where her focus is Engineering Enterprise and Entrepreneurship education across the Engineering Talent pipeline. Dr Barikzai leads on Employability & Student Enterprise initiatives within the School of Engineering and has worked with AfBE-UK to get Engineering students transition into graduate employment.

Dr Safia Barikzai is passionate about diversity and inclusion. She is Creative Director of Robogals Chapter at LSBU to inspire young girls (and boys) into Engineering; an Ambassador with STEM Learning; and leads the Robotics Project within AfBE-UK's flagship 'Making Engineering Hot' programme.

Sandra Kerr is the Race Equality Director for Business in the Community which is a business led network of organisations from the private and public sector working and committed to race equality as part of their business agenda.

Sandra is particularly passionate about raising the profile of senior role models from diverse backgrounds to inspire the next generation and creating an inclusive environment. Before joining BITC, Sandra worked in the Cabinet Office advising Cabinet Ministers on diversity and policies on race, disability, gender, and work life balance across Whitehall.

Prior to this she worked for the Department of Work and Pensions delivering frontline services to 33,000 customers whilst managing a diverse team of 120 employees.

Myrtle Dawes, Net Zero Solution Centre Director for Net Zero Technology Centre in the UK and the Netherlands, has more than 20 years experience in the upstream business, having worked in project development and execution, operations, engineering and process safety. She has all-round experience, having managed development and modification projects for BHP Billiton in the UK, amongst others. Myrtle is a Chartered Chemical Engineer.

Myrtle Dawes is also on the Institution of Chemical Engineer's (IChemE) UK Board. In 2014, she was a finalist for the Black British Business Award for her contribution to the UK infrastructure industry. She is also an active STEM ambassador, helping to inspire young women to become engineers.

She joined Centrica in 2009 as Engineering Manager for the UK and the Netherlands, and latterly in Norway, before returning to the UK in her current role.

Craig Shanaghey is President of Operations for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) at Wood, a role he assumed in 2020 following his previous position as President of Operations Services for Europe and Africa.

Craig leverages his three decades of multi-industry experience, and diverse expertise developed through operational and strategic roles to lead a resilient and high-performing business, focused on delivering solutions to the world’s most critical challenges.

With a focus on achieving business growth and increased quality of earnings, Craig founds his business on building strategic partnerships, enabling decarbonisation, and driving diversification to achieve a strengthened foothold in sectors beyond oil and gas; such as renewables, circular economy, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.

Much of Craig’s ethos is about setting out clear targets, mobilising and empowering a team, and driving focus, effective leadership, and pace to achieve results.

Craig is passionate about dialling up the dialogue on the issues of diversity and inclusion, aiming to drive meaningful action and change in his role as Chair for Oil & Gas UK’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Group, as well as in his role as a member of the Energy Leaders Coalition. In addition, Craig is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a fellow of the Energy Institute and engages on the board of Opportunity North East (ONE) Energy.

Patrick has day-to-day responsibility for managing the distribution of electricity to eight million customers in East Anglia, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and London.

He is currently responsible for an annual budget of over £400 million and employs 3,600 people plus 2,000 contractors. He joined the electricity industry in 1978 and has risen from an apprentice to an executive director over that period.

Patrick has undertaken a number of significant senior level roles during the past 25 years and has been an executive director for the past 12 years, in roles such as Human Resource Director, Connections Director and his current role as Operations Director.

He has placed a strong emphasis on community investment for almost 30 years, especially supporting and mentoring young people to achieve their dreams. In 2005 he co-authored "Made in Britain" a book majoring on inspirational role models from British BAME communities (almost 10,000 copies sold).

He holds a Honorary Doctorate in Engineering, OBE, MBA and an MA. In 2008 Patrick was Prince Charles's ambassador for London.