Fontaine listed in top 100 Most Influential Women in Engineering

Fontaine listed in top 100 Most Influential Women in Engineering

Dr Astrid Fontaine, member of the board for people, digitalisation and IT at Bentley Motors, has been announced as one of the top 100 Most Influential Women in the Engineering sector.

The list, produced by board appointments firm Inclusive boards in partnership with the Financial Times, features senior leaders who hold a range of roles across the engineering sector. It will be officially released at the Inclusive Boards: Women in Engineering Leadership Conference on October 22nd.

Fontaine became Bentley's first Member for the board for people, digitalisation and IT in January 2018. In this newly created role, she combines leadership of Bentley's human resources function with the delivery of the company's digital transformation and IT services.

Since joining Bentley, Fontaine has driven the development of a new digital strategy that will see the piloting of new digital services. Her team also drives the digital transformation of business processes, enterprise product and customer solutions.

As an ambassador for women in STEM, Fontaine has also introduced the company's first digital technology apprenticeship programme. She is fostering Bentley's company-wide diversity programme, and this year the business welcomes the highest ever intake of female trainees to the business, with 35% of all new apprentices and 63% of the digital technology apprentices being female.

Fontaine said: "With women still underrepresented across the STEM sector, the Inclusive Board report is an important initiative and I'm delighted to have been featured in the list published today.

"Our industry offers a wide range of career options from automotive design, engineering and manufacturing; through to information systems, technology and digitalisation, where I've been fortunate to be supported in the development of my own career."