The WIA-E Toulouse group event held on November 30 was a resounding success!  Thales Alenia Space (TAS) generously hosted more than 60 WIA-E members and friends. Our key sponsor, Agnès Paillard, President of Aerospace Valley opened the event, and Jean-Pierre Vialaneix, site Director TAS Toulouse closed and hosted the cocktail reception.  Very many thanks for their support and encouragement.

The Toulouse committee provided a quick summary of the year’s events – coaching, mentoring, promoting STEM in schools, our conference with Claudie Haigneré, and our networking “aperitifs”!

Highlights of the evening included the two awards presented to outstanding women in the Toulouse area who have inspired and boosted us through their Exceptional Career Path or Engagement for Diversity.

This year’s winners are Jocelyne Jaumes from Airbus Defence & Space whose Engagement for Diversity started many years ago at the creation of the Network of Women (NOW) in Astrium (now Airbus Defence & Space).  Jocelyne’s enthusiasm and professionalism have been fundamental in building the NOW network and sharing its success with other networks in France and within the Airbus Group diversity network Balance for Business.
Cécile Ha Minh Tu, our Co-President from Airbus, presented the Exceptional Career Path award to Yvette Mediamole.  Yvette’s career included high level jobs in procurement in Airbus, and after retirement, the creation of Aero XV a company that supports people with disabilities and aerospace subcontractors (http://aeroxv.fr/).
Bruno Wiart, last year’s winner from TAS, presented the awards.

WIA-E Toulouse also signed a partnership agreement with the CGénial Foundation supported by the private sector and the Research Ministry which aims to promote science and technology in schools. CGenial encourages stronger links between companies and education, with a special focus on inspiring girls to pursue higher education in science and technology.  WIA-E Toulouse will support the foundation through active participation in schools and also the CGenial engineering competition as a member of the jury.  The foundation is part of WIA-E Toulouse’s “Outreach” working group.

Our guest Expert this year, Isabelle Buret, presented her career in Thales and how she became a Senior Expert and Design Authority for the Iridium Programme.  Her very inspiring talk started off with the story initial experience as a young engineer in Japan and how she was able to publish her research and present it in Japanese!

To close the event, our guest speaker, Aurélie Salvaire made an outstanding presentation on why we need more women in tech.  Aurélie created the A Factor and Shift Balance and tours the world to provoke change through social innovation, gender equality and diversity.  A talented speaker and co-organiser of TedXBarcelona, Aurélie offers training, coaching and special events organisation. “I am passionate about bringing change to the world through social innovation. Strong advocate of gender equity, I shine light on solutions against prevailing stereotypes. I believe in hidden gems, and a new-world order where emerging countries are perceived as a nest of innovation!”
www.theafactor.org
www.shiftbalance.org

We look forward to next year and an exciting programme of events and networking opportunities here in Toulouse.
For any additional information, contact us wia.toulouse@gmail.com and our linkedin group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8413148

See below some photos from the event: