Leonardo’s Carol Marsh receives OBE from Princess Anne

Dr Marsh is based at Leonardo’s Edinburgh site in Crewe Toll and the ceremony was held in the city’s Holyrood Palace.

Apparently she first met The Princess Royal back in 2014, when she was the President of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), attending an event hosted by Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) (of which the Princess Anne is the Patron). They had discussed the importance of getting more women into engineering.

Dr Marsh explains:

“When I met the Princess Royal at Holyrood Palace we spoke about how important it is to get more parents and teachers engaged in STEM. I explained that we are making real headway in this area with our STEM activities aimed at this audience in Scotland, both through the IET and Leonardo. While we have links with teachers at local schools, it can be harder to reach the parent community as our contact with them isn’t as direct.”

Carol has been an engineer for almost 40 years, with a Doctorate in System Level Integration from the University of Glasgow. For over 14 years she has led STEM activities for a new generation of engineers, hosting many events for Leonardo, an aerospace engineering company with over 2000 employees based at Crewe Toll.

“People don’t understand how important engineering is to society, yet it can offer a secure, innovative and creative career where children of today can invent devices we can’t yet imagine. Prince Philip, patron of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said “everything not invented by God is invented by an Engineer”. We still haven’t put that message across fully and I also don’t believe many are aware of the shortfall of engineering talent that is envisaged in the coming years. In summer last year, the IET reported that they estimated there will be a shortfall of over 173,000 workers in the STEM sector. That’s an average of 10 unfilled roles per business in the UK.”

Congratulations, on the award, to Dr Marsh.

Leonardo has also highlighted her recent work.

“While Carol has always worked hard to increase the number of women in engineering, in recent years her focus has expanded to incorporate other types of diversity that she feels are equally important. These include joining Leonardo’s Ethnicity and Enable networks, where she is championing diversity for people from ethnic minorities and those living with diverse abilities.”