By Alan Irving

Published at 11:11, Thursday, 17 May 2012

SELLAFIELD’S chief engineer is in line to become the top ‘trail-blazing’ woman in UK industry.

Dawn James

Dawn James is one of the leading nominees in the First Woman Awards which recognises trail-blazing women from the business, entrepreneurial, engineering, science, technology and media sectors.

They are said to be “laying the foundations for the next generation of female talent” and Dawn has reached the pinnacle of what has been a male-dominated nuclear industry.

The First Woman Awards are promoted by Real Business and the Confederation of British Industry.

Dawn, 43, came to Sellafield from the Lancashire area, starting working life as an apprentice and rising to her present position in 2011 at Sellafield as executive director engineering for Nuclear Management Partners.

She said: “I am very pleased to have been nominated for the First Women Awards and it’s a great honour to be short-listed for a prestigious award.

“I am encouraged to see more women are finding their way into engineering.”

The winners will be announced on June 28 in London, at a ceremony hosted by BBC sports presenter Clare Balding.

Also shortlisted for awards are inspirational teenager Shauni O’Neill, who was apprentice ambassador/station manager for London Underground at 19; Kim Mears, who leads the development of the £2.5 billion UK super-fast fibre-optic network: and Suzanne Flynn, the UK’s first ever RAF engineering officer.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk