Welcome

As we close out 2025, I want to take a moment to pause and to thank you.

This year has been full of transition. Not the flashy kind of transformation we often chase, but the quieter kind that prepares the ground for something new. Like winter in nature, it’s been a season for letting roots settle deeper. And that’s been true for me personally, and for The SAFE Leader community we’re building.

Whether you’ve been with me since the beginning or just discovered The SAFE Leader podcast or framework recently, thank you. You’re part of a growing movement to lead with honesty, humanity and inclusion in a world that often demands the opposite.

So before the rush of 2026 begins, here’s a gentle reflection on some bright spots from this year.

Highlights of 2025

🎙️ The SAFE Leader Podcast

Early in 2025, I launched The SAFE Leader Podcast to explore what it really means to lead safely and inclusively in engineering and beyond. In under a year, we’ve hit 50 episodes and over 1,000 downloads, with guests ranging from industry CEOs and safety specialists to leadership coaches, mental health advocates, and inclusion champions.

🏗️ Delivery Of The SAFE Leader Training

At EqualEngineers we worked closely with companies like Rolls-Royce SMR and Taylor Woodrow (Vinci) to deliver The SAFE Leader programme to their teams. These sessions have sparked leadership shifts on the shop floor, in senior teams, and across project lifecycles. More delivery partners coming soon!

🛫 Expanded Our Reach to North America

2025 was the year I brought EqualEngineers and The SAFE Leader to the U.S., delivering workshops with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and many other institutions. The first seeds of a North American community have been planted.

🧑‍🎓 Continued as Visiting Professor at UCL

As Visiting Professor in Inclusive Engineering Leadership at University College London, I’ve continued integrating DEI into engineering education. This year included student workshops, curriculum support, and mentoring through EqualEngineers’ Pathways Programme.

🎤 Spoke at Key Conferences Across Sectors

I gave talks at events including Hazards 35, TEDxViikki, Safety on the Edge, and Imperial College London, exploring how psychological safety and equity can prevent major accidents, improve culture, and attract the next generation into engineering.

🏆 Engineering Talent Awards 2025

This year’s Engineering Talent Awards returned in full force. We honoured brilliant individuals and organisations creating change across the sector, while also deepening our partnerships with sponsors and growing the event's national profile. From apprentices to executive leaders, the awards spotlighted the powerful impact of diverse talent in engineering.

🏅 Supported the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards

EqualEngineers was proud to support this year’s IET YWE Awards. It was a privilege to attend and see outstanding women engineers celebrated, including Jennifer Barry, Rachel Donaghey, Amy Louise Dillon, and Vince Pizzoni.

🏳️‍🌈 Earned Certified LGBTBE™ Status

EqualEngineers became a Certified LGBT Business Enterprise™ via OutBritain, marking a big step forward in our commitment to inclusive supply chains and supplier diversity.

🌍 EqualEngineers Networks

We’ve continued growing our community through EqualEngineers Networks and monthly touchpoints, supporting engineers who identify as LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, disabled, and more. Each month, the conversations deepen, and the community grows stronger.

This Week on The SAFE Leader Podcast

This week’s podcast is something different. No guest, no script, just a heartfelt solo reflection. In it, I talk about what 2025 has meant for me:

• Why I’ve come to see this year not as a sprint, but as a season of maintenance over momentum

• How Wintering by Katherine May shaped how I think about transition, identity and leadership

• The SAFE Leader framework as a cyclical model, not a checklist where "Share" might mean voicing uncertainty, and "Empower" might mean letting go

• And why psychological safety is less about comfort and more about capacity, the ability to be honest, to pause, to say “I don’t know” and still be safe

Now, ask yourself:

• What are you holding tightly that may be asking to change?

• What kind of leader do you want to be when growth returns?

Let’s Connect!

Please reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn if we are not already connected.

I love helping organisations where the angle I take with the work I do might help in someway have you make traction in your culture.

Feel free to get in touch here.

Stay SAFE!