Luxury & Leadership with the Top Influential Woman In Engineering at Bentley Motors

Dr. Astrid Fontaine, Member of the Board for People, Digitalisation & IT at Bentley Motors, has been announced as one of the top 100 Most Influential Women in the Engineering sector.

The list, produced by board appointments firm Inclusive Boards in partnership with the Financial Times, features senior leaders who hold a range of roles across the engineering sector. It will be officially released at the Inclusive Boards: Women in Engineering Leadership Conference on October 22nd.

Dr. Astrid Fontaine became Bentley’s first Member for the Board for People, Digitalisation and IT in January 2018. In this newly created role she combines leadership of Bentley’s human resources function with the delivery of the company’s digital transformation and IT services.

Since joining Bentley, Astrid has driven the development of a new digital strategy that will see the piloting of new digital services. Her team also drives the digital transformation of business processes, enterprise product and customer solutions.

As an ambassador for women in STEM, Astrid has also introduced the company’s first digital technology apprenticeship programme. She is fostering Bentley’s company-wide diversity programme, and this year the business welcomes the highest ever intake of female trainees to the business, with 35% of all new apprentices and 63% of the digital technology apprentices being female.

Astrid comments:
“With women still underrepresented across the STEM sector, the Inclusive Board report is an important initiative and I’m delighted to have been featured in the list published today.

“Our industry offers a wide range of career options from automotive design, engineering and manufacturing; through to information systems, technology and digitalisation, where I’ve been fortunate to be supported in the development of my own career.

“As Bentley celebrates its centenary and enters its next 100 years, my priority is to ensure we attract a diverse range of candidates into all of our functions and develop their potential as part of our journey to inclusiveness.”

Inclusive Boards will also be publishing extensive research into engineering in the UK as well as the results of their diversity survey of the UK’s top 500 engineering firms by revenue.

Inclusive Boards Development Director Elizabeth Oni-Iyiola explains:
“The Engineering sector has an impact on almost every area of our day to day lives. Astrid and those featured today are role models who inspire those around them and demonstrate leadership and influence in the work that they do.”

Patrick Clarke, Director of Network Operations at UK Power Networks and judge for the list said:
“I am personally inspired but not at all surprised by the tremendous talent on the Women in Engineering list. Sadly there are still plenty of people who will be surprised due to a mind-set which say Engineering equals males not females. I took part as a judge because I wanted to be inspired.”

Mr. Bradley has over 35 years’ experience in the power, utilities and infrastructure sectors. He has worked in these sectors as a corporate officer, investment banker, investor, advisor and public sector procurement officer in Canada, the USA and Asia.

Currently, Paul is an Operating Partner for Northleaf Capital, advising on renewable energy transactions. Paul retired as Chief Financial Officer at Northland Power in May 2020, where he served for over 9 years. Northland Power is a global developer, owner and operator of sustainable infrastructure assets currently operating in over 10 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Northland was founded in 1987 and has been publicly traded since 1997 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NPI).

Prior to joining Northland, Paul was Managing Director and Head of Power and Utilities (Corporate Finance) at Macquarie Canada. Earlier positions include Vice President at the Ontario Power Authority with responsibility for generation procurement, administration, and information technology; Executive Director at CIBC's global power and utilities group; and development and finance roles at Duke Energy Corporation (USA). Paul has also served on the boards of directors of several renewable energy and clean technology companies, and currently serves on the advisory board for Origin Merchant Partners.

Paul is a graduate of Boston College, a CPA (inactive) and certified as a board director by the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors.