Women in Logistics Announces Year's Transport Heroines

UK – Another successful night on the 17th June when the annual Women in Logistics Awards were presented, an event held in conjunction with the organisation’s Charity Ball at St. John’s Hotel, Solihull with once again Transaid, which tackles poverty and disadvantage by building transport skills and knowledge in the developing world, being the selected good cause in this, the events fifth year. The celebrations followed on from the day’s conference activities which this year centred on ‘Competency and Talent Development’.

Guest speakers at the conference included supply chain leaders from Eddie Stobart, Hotel Chocolat and Westminster Business School as well as a keynote address by Wendy Manning, Vice President Customer Logistics at Coca-Cola European Partners. For the Awards, four winners were selected from a shortlist of seventeen by a panel of industry leaders, chaired by Richard Wilding OBE, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at Cranfield School of Management. Women in Logistics founder, Ruth Waring said:

"The shortlist for this year's awards was incredibly strong and selecting just four winners was particularly difficult. All winners had extremely inspiring stories, from a career dedicated to helping others in developing nations, to individuals flying the flag for women in logistics, to an organisation which is especially vocal about its efforts to promote gender diversity. Women in Logistics had even more reason to celebrate this year, having surpassed 3,600 members, and recognising four truly worthy winners was the perfect way to cap 12 successful months and to inspire us as we head into the next 12 months."

These annual events are a celebration of ambitious women working in the industry and recognise their efforts in advancing the cause of equal and diverse workforces, and the differing talents of a director overseeing a £30 million budget, a leader organising aid to war-torn countries and a young leader helping 15,000 drivers improve their road safety habits were the big winners this year, showing off the range of skills required by the industry.

This year’s winners were:

• Leader of the Year award (sponsored by Tarmac) Jane Phelan of Greenshields Cowie. Jane started out organising logistics for donor aid programmes into Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She now delivers vehicles and other essential aid items to war-torn countries. Jane recently celebrated 20 years with Greenshields Cowie, which has an almost 80% female workforce.
• Diversity Champion of the Year (sponsored by Forton Group). Marie Forrester of Royal Mail. Marie has risen to become the first female Delivery Sector Manager and is accountable for a £30m budget. She has developed a maternity leave guide and achieved a 50:50 gender balance within her management team.
• The Young Manager of the Year (sponsored by Kuehne+Nagel). Jen Yaxley of Amey. Jen instigated Amey's new programme for 15,000 individual drivers and produced a set of videos to get people engaged in road safety, as well as developing and running safety events for internal and external audiences.
• Company of the Year award (sponsored by IMHX). XPO Logistics. XPO Logistics is championing flexible working which has led to an increase in the number of women within its workforce. XPO Logistics was also involved with promoting International Women's Day, securing its place on the map as a champion of gender diversity.

Photo: At the back, Andrea Balogh on the left and Chloe Barratt on the right of XPO Logistics, At the front, left to right, Jen Yaxley of Amey, Jane Phelan of Greenshields Cowie and Marie Forrester of Royal Mail. (Courtesy of philhynds photography)