Steve Gill wins womens’ ally award

UK: Former IoR president and head of the World Refrigeration Day has won the Women’s Engineering Society’s Men as Allies Award for 2022.

A runner-up for the award in 2019, 2020, and 2021, Gill finally received the award for 2022 in London last week at the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Annual Caroline Haslett Lecture.

The Award celebrates a male engineer or professional man working within the engineering, technical and applied sciences sectors, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to support his female colleagues, and address the gender imbalance within engineering and applied sciences in general.

Announcing the award, WES CEO Elizabeth Donnelly quoted Alex Knight, founder of Stemazing, when she said: “I have known a lot of men who are allies of women in engineering, but nobody comes close to the level of dedication and going above and beyond that I have experienced with Stephen.

“Stephen received multiply nominations each year from different women that he has been an ally to, which is further testament to both his commitment and network.”

His work has included encouraging and paying for 60 women to join the Stemazing programme; launched in partnership with the UN, the International Network for Women in Cooling; donated a prize fund of $500 to encourage women engineers across Africa; personally supported three BAME women with dyslexia in the last 12 months year to become chartered engineers.

“This, and more, is in addition to previous nominations each worthy in themselves as being recognised as a finalist,” Donnelly added. “All this is unpaid, voluntary, and not his day job as a consulting engineer.”

Receiving the award, Steve Gill said: “It is an honour to recognised by the Women’s Engineering Society as an ally. Allyship is vital to the success of our profession and sector. I have been fortunate to have many allies throughout my career who delight in each other’s success. This award is for them as much as it is for me.”