Wendy Osborne

Apollo Fire Detectors, alongside Portsmouth-based recruitment firm Astute Technical, recently hosted "Build Your Brand: Power Your Potential," a speaker event celebrating and focusing on women in engineering. The event, held at Lakeside North Harbour, Portsmouth, hosted two renowned speakers who provided tips and practical ideas to help organizations support female engineers, with the aim to help improve diversity in the industry. Personal branding expert, Jennifer Holloway presented her talk, Personal Branding for Women Engineers, building on the insights from her book, Personal Branding for Brits, and educating guests on the importance and value of personal brand and the impact it has in order to excel professionally. Diversity within innovation is crucial The best-selling author, speaker and businesswoman also provided interview and public speaking advice to the audience. Dr. Inken Braunschmidt, Chief Innovation and Digital Officer at Halma plc, parent company of event co-host Apollo Fire Detectors also spoke at the event. Dr Braunschmidt gave insights into her journey in engineering and how diversity within innovation is crucial through her talk, Diversity, Innovation and You, as well as talking about what it’s like to work at Halma. In October 2019 she was named as one of the most influential women in engineering. Inspiring more females for engineering careers Wendy Osborne, Head of HR at Apollo, said, "We’re committed to achieving a diverse workforce in our company. We know that engineering is a male-dominated industry, which is reflected within Apollo. As such, we’re taking positive action to address this. Not only is this the right thing to do, but more importantly, we recognize the value all diversity brings to our business.” "It’s our intention that initiatives, such as our ambassadors visiting local schools to do fun STEM activities with the aim of inspiring more females to consider careers in engineering, and events such as ‘Women in Engineering’ that we held recently, enthuse women in their motivation to excel professionally, regardless of the industry in which they choose to enter." Charles Lombard, Managing Director of Apollo EMEA, explained in a video why gender diversity is so important to all at Apollo, and he hopes that one day his daughters will work in a world where gender diversity is a non-topic.