In March, we marked Women’s History Month by thanking to all the women who work for Leonardo and celebrating their contribution to our business.
We published videos with female colleagues talking about the joy of inspiring young people into STEM subjects, and encouraged our followers to learn more about our award-winning women engineers, two of whom were invited to RAF Scampton by the RAF Red Arrows in recognition of their commitment to promoting inclusion.
Later in the month, we shared updates from our Springboard personal development programme, which is aimed at women who are looking to take clear, practical and realistic steps to progress their careers and take more control over their future.
Our Women’s History Month celebrations culminated on International Women’s Day 2022, when we gathered colleagues from across our global sites to pledge their commitment to gender equality and share how they will be helping to ‘Break The Bias’. Meanwhile, our Equalise Network Group joined gender diversity network groups from GKN Aerospace and Rolls-Royce to address gender balance and explore different ways to empower teams to forge even more inclusive workplaces.
Also on International Women’s Day, we announced the return of AeroWomen, organised by female helicopters trainees at our Yeovil site, following its successful launch in 2021. The event would take place in June, on International Women in Engineering Day.
Continuing our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, we launched our Wellbeing employee-led network group, with the Chair, Jane Saunders, explaining how the group would build upon the company’s inclusion strategy and help ensure our people and their wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do.
March was also Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, when we spoke to Bethany Colburn, Vice Chair of our Enable Network Group, who shared a moving and personal account of the daily challenges of living with Cerebral Palsy.
With such a focus on people, it was only right that we launched our AW149 People campaign, a twice-weekly glimpse behind the scenes at our Yeovil site, the Home of British Helicopters. Throughout the year we spoke to employees from all areas of the business about what it would mean to them if the AW149 is chosen by the UK Government to fulfil its New Medium Helicopter requirement, sharing their responses on Instagram. Later in the month, we shared another AW149 people story when teams from Leonardo’s Centre of Excellence for Aerostructures in Brindisi, Italy, welcomed their colleagues from Yeovil to showcase the engineering skills, and techniques used when building the latest-generation AW149.
Staying in Yeovil, we were proud to sponsor the town’s Half Marathon, in which many colleagues from our helicopters site ran in support of the Yeovil Hospital Charity Breast Cancer Unit appeal. We also supported the Flying Start Challenge regional final at RNAS Yeovilton, with Leonardo STEM ambassadors tutoring the teams since January. The regional winners went on to compete at the Grand Final in May.
March also saw us return to the UK Home Office’s Security and Policing event in Farnborough for 2022, with a stand to showcase how Leonardo technology is contributing to the UK security and resilience, and improving the capability of blue light services around the world. On the eve of the show, we spoke to Homeland Security Campaign Manager, Nigel Lidster, about the security and port management challenges at border crossings driven by rising passenger and cargo traffic volumes.
Leonardo senior leaders were making headlines in March, with Paula Clarke, UK Senior Vice President, Customer Support and Service Solutions, shared her views on the future of leadership with The House magazine, the leading publication for MPs and peers, in her article, “Ladders for Leaders: How can we ensure others overtake us in the working world”. Allan Leggetter, UK Managing Director, Cyber & Security, spoke to ADS ADVANCE magazine about Leonardo’s approach to Cyber Resilience.
We also supported Scottish Apprenticeship Week, highlighting the wide range of apprenticeship opportunities at our Edinburgh site, and putting the spotlight on some of our Scottish Apprentices, past and present.