In one meeting she attended recently, she had a bit of a shock, as she explained: “After years of being the only woman in the room, I was in a meeting that consisted entirely of women in management positions. This was amazing and shows that we're being better represented at the company.” 

This is one of the many positive changes Shelley has seen at Rotork, which has increasingly embraced greater cross-functional collaboration and diversity. 

She said: “Our team’s role is to technically support and train Rotork staff globally on all Rotork products that are in service around the world, so our service teams can, in turn, support our customers. We also support new product development, working closely with the design engineers right at the start of a new product’s design journey. This cross-functional teamwork brings together a lot of knowledge with fresh ideas – a powerful mix that supports innovation.” 

That’s why Shelley believes the theme for this year’s International Women in Engineering Day – #TogetherWeEngineer – is very appropriate to Rotork’s culture. She said: “Diversity is very important to engineering and is certainly represented in my  
21-strong team where only six colleagues and myself are based in the UK, with the rest spread across Australia, Mexico, United States, Italy, Spain, India and Singapore. This diversity, in terms of gender, experience and cultural background, brings tremendous value to engineering.  

“We all think differently and it’s really powerful when you have people with different levels of experience – and who are open to listening – bounce ideas off each other. You don’t get great ideas by only talking to like-minded people.”