NMITE bolsters its board with five new trustees including three successful women
New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) is pleased to announce the appointment of five new Board Trustees: Aimee Clark, Dr Wendy Finlay, Marc Leppard, Professor Nicholas Lieven and Dr Kierann Shah bringing specific skills and breadth of knowledge to NMITE which is now delivering its promise to its students to “learn to be an engineer, rather than study engineering”. They join existing Trustees, Jon Gorringe, Martin Hitchin, Rowena Innocent, and Chair, Terence Jagger CBE as well as President and Chief Executive Officer Elena Rodriguez- Falcon.
Chair of the Board, Terence Jagger, CBE who joined in March 2021 commented on the appointments: “We are delighted with our new Trustees who together with our current members reflect the needs of an organisation that is now in full delivery mode with our next (second) cohort joining in January 2022. Their varied backgrounds in diversifying educational opportunities, energy and the environment, space, aircraft dynamics and their combined interest in achieving NMITE’s ambitions in engineering education will have an immediate impact.”
Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, added: “I am delighted to welcome our new Board Trustees, all of whom share our vision for providing a place for individual transformation and 21st century engineering. Their wide-ranging experience and expertise will help us to continue to lead the way with our innovative ways of learning and our forward-thinking approach to all that we do, helping to inspire the next generation of engineers.”
The new Trustees are:
Aimee Clark
With a Masters in Mechanical Engineering with Industrial Management (Sheffield University), Aimee is now Head of Commercial at Octopus Energy Group, responsible for bringing new innovations to market to help decarbonise home heating & transport. Alongside her business role she is also an advocate for social entrepreneurship and has spent several years supporting student social enterprise organisation Enactus.
Dr Wendy Finlay
Wendy holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has nearly 20 years’ experience working in higher education at a range of providers including Russell Group Universities, a small and specialist HE provider, and an Ofsted Outstanding Further Education College. Since 2016 she has been Vice-Principal of the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) and has held the role of Independent Director/Trustee of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) since April 2017.
Marc Leppard
Marc has 30 years’ experience in risk, corporate governance and compliance and his last role was as Global Head of Business Integrity at BP plc. He is now a management consultant, a trustee of Marches Counselling Services (a mental health charity) and Gwent Wildlife Trust (a conservation charity) and was recently appointed as a Lay Observer for the UK’s Ministry of Justice. Since joining NMITE , Marc has been appointed Chair of Audit & Risk Committee.
Professor Nick Lieven is Professor of Aircraft Dynamics at the University of Bristol. Previously, he was the Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for the University’s overall strategic development following on from the roles of Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and International. Nick has recently been Chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework Panel in Engineering and Technology, is a visiting professor at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in the US and was the founding director of the AgustaWestland University Technology Centre in Rotorcraft Vibration.
Dr Kierann Shah
Dr Kierann Shah is a freelance STEM Engagement Project Manager and Science Communicator. Kierann has a background in physics, nanotechnology, and the UK space sector. For nine years she managed the National Space Academy, facilitating engagement with space and STEM for young people and teachers as well as working on skills development for the UK space sector.
NMITE’s vision is to deliver a different model of engineering higher education developing work-ready, talented engineers. It aims to recruit a diverse cohort, including learners who may not have considered engineering as a career. These learners won’t be studying engineering, instead they’ll be learning how to become engineers. NMITE’s curriculum brings the engineering disciplines together and integrates the liberal arts and the interpersonal skills needed by today’s employers to tackle the world’s problems.
NMITE welcomed its Pioneer Cohort in September 2021. The second intake will be in January 2022. It was inaugurated on 19 October 2018, was listed in the register of English higher education providers by the Office for Students (OfS) in August 2020 and in November 2020 received validation by The Open University, the UK’s largest academic institution and a world leader in flexible distance learning. The long-term goal is to be educating 5,000 students.
NMITE is supported by engineering businesses, the Herefordshire community, Herefordshire Council, Olin College of Engineering (USA), professional engineering bodies and the UK Government, which awarded up to £23million in initial funding. £8million of this funding was awarded by the Marches LEP via its Growth Deal with Government with details provided in two separate announcements in October and November 2019 regarding our redesigned city centre location, Blackfriars, and the building of a new campus Centre on Hereford’s Enterprise Zone, Skylon Park. A further £400k was awarded (March 2020) to enhance an additional building on the Blackfriars site and, in August 2020, £1.6m to accelerate the delivery of the Centre for Automated Manufacture (Skylon Park) in response to the Government’s call for projects that can be brought forward to stimulate the economy.
