Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day 2020

International Women in Engineering day is celebrated each year to recognize the valuable contribution of women in the engineering field and to encourage more young women to consider careers in engineering. Despite some progress in recent years, women still make up only a fraction of the engineers around the globe. For instance, women make up just 12% of engineers in the UK and 13% in the United States.

Today we celebrate and honor the many women across our company and throughout our industry that are tackling the tough, breaking down barriers, and bringing different ideas and approaches to #ShapeTheWorld.

Betty Lin, materials engineer, backfill expert, and recognized role model

 

Betty is a manager and global expert in our backfill services team. She joined Hatch in 2008 to develop the group’s technical knowledge of the properties and characteristics of thickened tailings, paste, and backfill. She has extensive experience in fill design, process optimization, and designing different types of backfill plants for mine waste management. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in materials engineering from the University of Toronto, is a designated Professional Engineer (P.Eng) and a Project Management Professional (PMP), and is both a published author and award winner from international technical societies.

 

Even more impressive than her technical acumen is her commitment to contributing to the broader mining industry and her passion for mentoring others. She mentors students and young professionals, both at her alma mater and at Hatch. She has a passion for championing women in engineering, and proudly represents Hatch as a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM).

It’s for these reasons, and many more, that CIM recently awarded Betty with the CIM Presidents’ Role Model Medal. This isn’t the first time that CIM has honored Betty’s outstanding contribution, she was awarded with the District Distinguished Service Award in 2017.

In addition to serving as Executive Director of CIM GTA West for many years, she is also past President of the Chapter, and a recipient of the University of Toronto Arbor Award. She participates in various community volunteer programs including charity runs, the Daily Bread Food Bank, and other fundraising events.

Noqobo Bongoza, project manager, water engineer, and advocate

Noqobo is a project manager in our infrastructure group, having joined Hatch in 2004 to bring water infrastructure into our scope of services in South Africa. She obtained her National Diploma in Civil Engineering and her Bachelor of Technology degree in water engineering, is a designated Professional Technologist (PR Tech), and is currently Assistant Project Manager to Metsi a Senqu-Khubelu Consultants (MSKC-JV), a joint venture between South African and Lesotho engineering consultants. MSKC-JV provides engineering services to the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) for Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase II.

During her time managing a broad range of water projects, Noqobo has also been very involved in mentoring young professionals, particularly women. She in an active participant in Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), which supported her goal of elevating young professionals from her part of the world in South Africa. Through the CESA platform, she served for over 10 years on the CESA Young Professionals Forum (YPF) and her local CESA Branch Committee, where she was ultimately Chairperson of the local CESA Branch. In 2015, she was part of 12 distinguished women who were honored by the YPF for uplifting the role of women in the construction industry and consulting engineering profession.

She was recently honored as one of three finalists for the Engineering Professional of the Year from the South African Professional Services Awards and one of six finalists for the Woman Professional of the Year.

Diana Sepulveda, mechanical engineer, project manager, and mentor

 

Diana is a senior project manager based in our Medellin, Colombia office. She has extensive experience on mechanical and piping design projects, gained over the past 25 years. She has worked in our Colombia office since 1995 (first as Indisa, which Hatch integrated with in 2016) when her career started as a junior project engineer, just after obtaining her bachelor`s degree in mechanical engineering from Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

 

In 2016, after Hatch strengthened its presence in Colombia with the partnership with Indisa, one of the first projects undertaken by the team was the detail engineering for MUGA, a potash plant in Navarra, Spain. Diana was the engineering manager for this highly successful project, which went on to win the Roy Curtis Project Excellence Award.

Diana is recognized for her experience in engineering design and the capabilities to work with multicultural teams. As project manager, she demonstrates a true commitment to the career development of our young professional, acting a as mentor for many. She is also recognized as a leader, not only for her technical capabilities, but also because she is interested in her colleagues’ well-being, and spearheads efforts within the office to improve work-life balance.

Beyond work, Diana is involved in several different organizations, including as a director for Estrellas de Antioquia, a synchronized swimming club in Medellin, where she works to improve conditions for the sportswomen, and for Fedinsa, an employee cooperative, where she provides social event coordination for members and their families.

Alice Shepherd-Ashby, chemical engineer, closure specialist, and diversity and inclusion advocate

 

Alice is a chemical engineer based in our Brisbane office. She has many years’ experience as a study manager and engineering manager but what really excites her is her work as a closure specialist.

 

She’s been involved in closure projects since 2012, from studies to execution and scope including decontamination and demolition, tailings, water and salt management, remediation, revegetation, and post-closure monitoring.

Alice is also passionate about inclusion and diversity. She’s currently Hatch’s Australia-Asia Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair. Alice drives initiatives to improve inclusion and in 2019 was instrumental in Hatch being awarded Most Outstanding Company in Gender Diversity.

Alice’s commitment to diversity and inclusion extends beyond work. She was the recipient of the 2019 Australia Post One Netball Award in recognition of her work as President of the Riverlife Baptist Netball Club (RBNC), where she assists young people with refugee backgrounds to play club sport and has worked closely with the organisation Pushing Barriers, which supports refugee youth.

Alice also continues to support the next generation of women within our industry and help promote engineering to young women by acting as a mentor in the Queensland Resource Council (QRC)/Women in Mining and Resources Queensland (WIMARQ) Girls Mentoring Program for the past two years.