Alumni in the media January to March 2022

Here is your quarterly summary of some of the successes of Cranfield alumni:

• Linda Venables (Fellowship in Manufacturing Management 2004) has been appointed by pwc as its first-ever Chief Supply Chain Officer.

• Aishah Ahmad (MSc Finance and Management 2008) featured in women you should know article for being a strong advocate for female and youth empowerment. She is currently a deputy governor of the central bank of Nigeria.

• Dr. Adesola (“Sola”) Kazeem Adedunta (MBA 2006) is the managing director/chief executive officer of First Bank Nigeria Limited. In this interview, he discusses the future of the bank and trends that shaped the economy in 2021.

• Mirko Cattini (Cranfield Development Programme 2017) Dorchester Collection announces the appointment of Mirko Cattini as general manager of Rome’s Hotel Eden, starting from 14 February 2022. 

• Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh (Master's Global Security 2005) took over as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C), Western Naval Command. 

• Shahid Abbas (Master's in Administration and Planning) appointed as the new Director of Transportation in the city of Glendale. 

• Colin Hughes (MBA 2004) appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Irish-owned pizza chain Four Star Pizza.

• Steve Hogg-Maclean (MSc Thermal Power 2001) appointed Head of Technical at FPG Amentum.

• Marc Watkins (MSc Air Transport 1998) anna.aero Editor for six years between 2012 and 2018, has joined Cardiff Airport as its new Aviation Development Manager.

• Marta Ferran-Marqués (MSc Aerospace Materials 2019) and is currently studying a PhD in Manufacturing. Marta is one of the all-female crew members set to visit the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA. She chats to Andrea Gaini about venturing into space exploration, inspiring young women, and her dream of becoming an astronaut.

• Anthony Jenkins (MBA 1988) discusses starting 10x Future Technologies, his fintech company, within a year of departing from Barclays.

• Ahmad Lawan (PhD Applied Remote Sensing 1991) discusses his principles of politics and leadership in his role as Senate President.

• Sara Lopes da Silva is the new director of human relations at L'Oréal Portugal.

• Angus Clarke (MSc Air Transport 2002) leading strategy at Air-France KLM has left the group, a little over three years after his arrival. Angus Clarke leaves the operational world to return to more financial functions, but still in connection with the airline sector.

• Pascal Zurlinden (MSc Motorsport Engineering and Management 2007) Current Porsche Motorsport Director will be joining Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations (MSVO) as Director of Performance Engineering on March 1, 2022 to focus exclusively on the development of high-performance vehicles and on Multimatic's motorsport programs, including supplying the chassis for the Porsche LMDh hybrid racing cars and Audi LMDh.

• Siddhartha Vikram Lal named in top India CEOs.

• Dr Lulwa Al Mutlaq (Residential Executive Development Programme 2001) awarded SMEStreet Global Women Leadership Award 2021 for her visionary entrepreneurship ventures and initiatives.

• Cristian Sfichi, (MSc International Defence and Security Marketing 2014) appointed general manager of the French group, Thales Romania on Saturday 1 January 2022. 

• Professor Augustine Osamor Ifelebuegu (MSc Water and Wastewater Engineering 2005) appointed as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs (DVCAA) at Victoria University. 

• Kwabena Asante-Poku (MSc Finance and Management 2006) CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, announced Kwabena as Coverage Director for Ghana, effective 1 February 2022.

• Gita Amperiawan (PhD in the School of Applied Sciences 2001) appointed as the new president director of state-owned aircraft manufacturer Indonesian Aerospace (IAe).

• David Grailey (MSc Postharvest Management 1992) appointed as managing director of the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre. 

• Hugo Spowers (MBA 1999) article discusses the new Rasa, the first two-seater hydrogen powered road car built by Riversimple, founded by Hugo.

• Kanat Sharlapayev (MSc Finance and Management 2006) appointed as the new chairman of Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC. 

• Simon Maguire (Accelerated Talent Development Programme 2013) discusses his company Luxury Family Hotels have turned to glamping to provide customers with a different kind of staycation.  

• Kwabena Asante-Poku (Msc Finance and Management 2006) has been appointed as the new CDC Group Coverage Director for Ghana.

• Neil Dykes (PhD Carbon Fibre Technology 1989) appointed as UK R&D manager for Global composites expert Exel Composites in Runcorn, England. 

• Calum Laming (Executive MSc Air Transport Management 2011) appointed Director of Business recovery at British Airways.  

• Michelle Morgan (BGP 2011) named an inspirational woman in an interview about her experience as an Entrepreneur, Author & Mental Health First Aid England Ambassador. She names Cranfield as being a major factor in achieving her success. 

• Dr Sarah Qureshi (PhD Aerospace 2015) featured in an article recognising women in STEM from Pakistan for International Day of Women and Science. 

• Prashant Nikam (MBA 2008) Chairman of Sapio had successfully conducted their first ever event of selected Investors and Strategic Partners, inviting business, government and financial leaders to present the growth story of Sapio. 

• Okan Erol (MSc Strategic Marketing 2009) appointed as the Chief Marketing Officer at Yemeksepeti marketing team since working for the company since 2012.

• Dr Altaf Siyal (PhD/MPhil at Cranfield University at Silsoe 1999) appointed as Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering of Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam for a period of three years.

• Senthil Vel (MBA 2002) has been appointed as the new chief medical officer at BAT, based at the research & development hub in Southampton. 

• Sofia Georgaki (PhD School of Applied Sciences 2004) describes her role as a Process Lead at engineering major Jacobs.

• Claus Springborg (MRes in Management Research 2011, PhD Leadership and Management 2014) is a guest of Man Alive Podcast discussing finding freedom from the inner critic. 

• Andy Palmer (PhD in the School of Applied Sciences 2003, DSc Honorary Graduand 2019) discusses moving from the Chief Executive of Aston martin to the company Switch Mobility. 

• Chris Cooper (Talent Development Programme) is joining the luxury hotel The Grand, York as the new Hotel Manager. 

• Daniel George (MBA 2014) company StepEX has added Spanish IronHack, Northcoders and French Le Wagon as clients These partnerships allow StepEx to add even more data to further enhance its ability to reliably predict, verify and collect an applicant’s future earnings by using cutting edge analytics and algorithms.

• Marc-Philippe Lumpé (PhD in the School of Engineering 2006) has been appointed as the new head of Air Transat operations commencing 1 June 2022.

• Manish Singh (MBA 2007) CEO of Ocean Technologies Group has received the 2022 SMART4SEA Personality Award for taking outstanding action to shape the vision of digitalization within the maritime industry, investing in partnering relationships with key stakeholders and acquiring further capabilities and digital technologies to deliver new maritime solutions. 

• Ioanna Papadopoulou (MSc Air Transport 2002) listed in the first list of Marketers Powerlist 100 published by Marketing Week. 

• Paul Browning (MSc Medical Technology Regulatory Affairs 2012) honoured the British Citizen Award in January 2021. 

• Vahit Kirişci,(PhD Environment and Agrifood at Silsoe 1994) is Turkey’s new Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. 

• Melanie Welsh (MBA 2003) featured in an ‘Strong Female Founders’ article sharing her biggest business lessons learnt and what international women's day means to her.  

• Tim Taylor (MBA 2010) appointed as the new commercial director for Veka. 

• Evrydiki Fekka (MDes Design and Innovation for Sustainability 2014) argues that women are key to unlocking a greener future for our energy needs. 

• Samer Tarraf (MSc Air Transport Management 2021) appointed Revenue Delivery Executive at British Airways. 

• Dr Suzy Walton (PhD College of Aeronautics 1998) shares her achievements and successes over the years and uses her skills and experience to support many organisations as a board director – including The Institute of Directors.

• Amanda Ramgobind (MSc Water and Wastewater Engineering 2019) shares her passion for wastewater treatment, now being the Water and Wastewater Engineer attached to the Programme Planning, Design and Implementation Department of Guyana Water Inc (GWI).

• Dr Osaren Emokpae (MSc Managing Organisational Performance 2014) appointed chairman of the Wilson Badejo Foundation. 

If you've been featured in the media, don't forget to share your successes with us so we can include them in our quarterly roundup. Email our Alumni Communications team including a link to the web site or press release.

Check out last quarter's summary (October - December 2021) here.