Oluwole “Ollie” Folayan has spoken of his honour having been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours.
Mr Folayan, who co-founded the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers UK (AFBE-UK) in 2007, received the gong for services to equality, diversity and inclusion in engineering.
The not-for-profit organisation promotes higher achievements in education and engineering particularly among people from black and minority ethnicity (BME) backgrounds.
Speaking about being awarded his MBE Mr Folayan said: “I feel incredibly honoured to have been given this recognition.”
He paid tribute to his sister and ABFE co-founder Nike Folayan, who is also an MBE.
He said: “When my sister and I set out in 2007 to set up the AFBE-UK, we never imagined that so many people would join us on the journey and that so many would benefit.
“This recognition is for everyone in the AFBE-UK family who works day in day out to make a difference in our community.
“I want to thank our partners, allies and enablers. I especially want to thank my wife Elizabeth who was there from day one.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without her support.”
Aberdeen presence
In 2011 the Scottish arm of AFBE-UK was inaugurated in Aberdeen with the launch of AFBE-UK Scotland.
Since then it has supported thousands of young people with career aspirations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) though a range of mentoring programmes.
In October last year AFBE-UK Scotland signed a five-year partnership with Aberdeen University’s school of engineering to support its diversity and inclusion strategy.
The university joined big names including the RAF, Mercedes Formula 1 motor racing team, energy giant SSE and Subsea 7 in partnering with AFBE-UK.
AFBE-UK Scotland’s work includes its schools programme NextGen, where industry leaders and professionals give advice to pupils; Transition, where industry leaders help aspiring engineering professionals to enter the job market; and Real Projects, where industry professionals share their knowledge and expertise.
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