Women in Defence was founded for a community of people who wish to promote the value of women in defence. The organisation aims to encourage women to succeed authentically, share experience, build networks and encourage talent at all levels to join the defence sector.

Sharing these values, Thales in the UK is delighted to once again sponsor the Inspirational Award at this years’ Women in Defence Awards. The Inspirational Award was created to recognise the women who have inspired or positively influenced the choices of other colleagues.

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Victor Chavez, Chief Executive of Thales in the UK, expresses his view on the importance of the Women in Defence Awards: “At Thales we pride ourselves on being a world leader in technology and innovation across all our market sectors; defence, aerospace, security, transportation and space. Delivering cutting edge innovation requires a huge diversity of thought, skills and experiences and this is reflected in our need for a truly diverse workforce, which we are working towards as a strategic objective.

“I hope the outstanding accomplishments of women in defence will inspire others to follow in their footsteps, and as such we are delighted to take part in celebrating the success of great female talent within the defence enterprise.”

Last year the Inspirational Award went to Lt Col Lucy Giles. She says: "To be nominated for the most inspirational woman in Defence award was an honour and privilege. To win the award and then receive the accolade of Defence Woman of the Year 2016 was really quite overwhelming as can be seen in my shocked face! There are many fantastic women (and men) working selflessly across the four Defence services that should get credit for their contribution to our vocation. I received the award last year on behalf of those personnel and hope that many more are formally recognised in 2017."
 

© ©Thales UK 2017

Visit the Women in Defence website for details on the other award categories and guidance for nominating.