Vice-Chancellor, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Dame Dawn Childs – engineer, pilot, and Chief Executive Officer of Pure Data Centre Group, a global data centre company. Dame Dawn is an accomplished engineer and operator and is known for her dedication to promoting STEM education for young people across the UK and addressing the gender imbalance within the world of engineering.
Dame Dawn studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, graduating in 1991, but her engineering career began straight after school when she joined the RAF to begin a cadetship. Here she made history as the organisation’s first female Senior Engineering Officer (SEngO) on 216 Squadron and the first female Officer Commanding Engineering Wing (OC Eng Wg) at RAF Waddington. Whilst at Bath she was a keen member of the gymnastics and trampoline club and continued to practice her life-long love of horse-riding.
Dame Dawn served in the RAF for 23 years and she was recognised with the Barrie Smart Memorial Award in 1997, for her exceptional contribution to the RAF community. 1997 was also significant for her in that she gained her pilot’s license. Childs moved to Gatwick Airport in 2012, where she continued her pioneering streak as the airport’s first female Head of Engineering. As part of this role, she was responsible for all Gatwick’s infrastructure and technical services.
Childs moved to Merlin Entertainments plc in 2016, following the Smiler rollercoaster crash. Dame Dawn was responsible for implementing engineering standards, practices and processes to improve safety across 120 sites from theme parks to resorts and attractions. This involved designing processes for safe running and maintenance of rides, working with safety and inspection bodies and ensuring the attractions met international legal requirements. During this time, she continued her engineering advocacy work and spent 18 months working with and mentoring female engineering students at Kingston University (as part of a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professorship).
Other highlights of her career include her role as UK Change Director for National Grid. She successfully led the transformation to meet efficiency expectations while delivering to net zero, adding environmental impact to her already ground-breaking career. Driven by her own experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field, Dame Dawn is passionate about supporting fellow female engineers. As the longest serving President of the Women’s Engineering Society from 2018 to October 2023, she had a key role in securing the financial sustainability of the Society from a period of significant financial precarity. She also used the platform that the presidency gave to continue to advocate for diversity and encourage more women and girls to pursue engineering. Childs is a Trustee and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Deputy Chair of Worldskills UK, Chair of the iMasons Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
She was honoured with a Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020 and appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to engineering.
Dame Dawn has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to improving access to education and challenging inequity. This commitment echoes the University’s own values as we seek to foster inclusion, equality, diversity and accessibility. Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Dame Dawn Childs who is eminently worthy to receive the degree of Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa.