We may have still been at home in a UK lockdown as we rang in the New Year, but that didn’t stop the celebrations at Leonardo during January.

After a year which saw apprentices from across our UK sites winning their categories and receiving commendations at the 2020 MAKE UK Regional Awards, Leonardo’s Ella Legg (pictured above) was named winner of the ‘National Manufacturing Award for Business Apprentice: Final Year’ category, a tremendous achievement. Elsewhere, on the same night, we congratulated Anna Hart and Sam Bone, who were both Highly Commended in the ‘Rising Star’ category at the WorldSkills Diversity & Inclusion Heroes Awards.

There was more to celebrate across our business internationally, as Leonardo was added to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the first time. Our inclusion was further recognition of the steps the company has taken to make our business more welcoming and inclusive, and was awarded for our transparency in gender-data disclosure and performance in terms of inclusion and gender diversity.

As we looked forward to another year sponsoring the RAF Typhoon Display Team, we took time to congratulate former display pilot, Flt Lt Jim Peterson, on receiving an MBE in the New Year Honours. After wishing Jim all the best as he stepped down following two years as the RAF Typhoon Display Pilot, we welcomed his successor, Flt Lt James Sainty, to the team.

We continued to make headlines in January, when Leonardo Helicopters UK Managing Director, Nick Whitney, featured on the front page of ADS Group’s Advance Magazine talking about what the company had achieved following the impact of the pandemic. Later in the month, we announced that the Seaspray AESA Maritime Radar was to be integrated on GA-ASI MQ-9B SeaGuardian.