BEYOND100 AWARD WINNERS
On 7th December 2023, we held our annual Beyond100 awards to celebrate our colleagues' extraordinary contributions to Bentley. A huge well done to everyone who was nominated, named as a finalist, and of course, our worthy award winners!
Inspiring Manager
Edward Day (R&D)
Edd was nominated by 5 different people for this award, and has been at the forefront of EM's BEV programs from the start. He has been passionately fighting for DLUV and DSUV projects to be the best they can be and his leadership has been instrumental to the Systems Engineering team and across R&D.
Dave Fullylove (Manufacturing)
Dave was also nominated by multiple people for this award, having joined Bentley in April 2019 as a Paintshop Production Manager, he was quickly highlighted as an exceptional talent, progressing to Functional Manager for Bentayga Assembly, then to Operations Manager for Engine and is a Head of Department level within Production. Dave is a big advocate for continuous learning and has an exemplary, engaging and inclusive leadership style.
Future Rising Star
Bini Zhong (CEO Function)
Bini works in the Supplier Management team within Purchasing and has received recognition from multiple colleagues and teams for her calm, professional approach to solving a variety of potential crisis situations regarding critical supplier issues, such as dealing with a parts issue within her first two weeks of joining Bentley which, if not solved, would have left the company with a potential gap of 800 cars at a wholesale value of around £160 million. Bini has also been praised for her relentless curiosity and the way she manages situations with a variety of stakeholders inside and outside of the business.
Exemplary Collaborator
Adam Brook (Manufacturing)
Adam was nominated by several people for this award for his work on a wide range of critical topics such as the night vision camera semiconductor shortage - a two-month issue that involved collaborating with just about every function throughout the business and required extreme attention to detail. Thanks to everyone involved, and especially Adam for his extraordinary collaboration skills, the final result was zero disruption no cars being delayed to customers, when it initially looked like around 1200 cars may have to be held back. Adam also stepped in to co-ordinate and manage white primer paint shortage between purchasing and paint shop, and even though the issue was not his responsibility he took extreme ownership, managed the situation with zero disruption with excellent stakeholder communications throughout. These are just a couple of examples of Adam's amazing collaborative skill set, and how he is always willing to help, support and engage with others on complex issues.
Sustainability Pioneer
Pictured: Logistics Sustainability Team (Manufacturing)
The Logistics Sustainability Team is a voluntary group made up of individuals in the Logistics department, with the aim of raising awareness and taking actions to leave positive impacts on our environment. The team identified several examples of where plastic protection is used on material and then disposed of upon fitment in Crewe such as the plastic protection caps on exhausts - which will save three tonnes of plastic each year. They also reached out to the Quality department and suppliers to ensure the protection is returned to the supplier so it could be re-used. These are just some of the many examples where the team is being proactive in regard to sustainability initiatives.
Innovation Champion
Paint Team | Dave Walton and Steve Brookes (Manufacturing)
In early 2023, Dave and Steve had a vision of what true bespoke paint options should look like, and throughout the year they have brought their vision to life. Their enthusiasm for the project has never wavered despite challenges, and their designs and ideas have been shared cross-functionally at Director and Board level. The enthusiasm and drive demonstrated by Dave and Steve has put the Paintshop at the fore front in offering the business options to drive revenue opportunities. They were also key in bringing the Belonging Bentayga project to life.
Unsung Hero
Susie Bond (Finance and IT)
Susie is an unsung hero when it comes to the support she gives other areas of the business with regards to data support. She is always quick to support, whether it is a large request for data or system errors which needs fixing. Her knowledge and understanding of data support is unmatched and she always goes above and beyond to help colleagues out as much as she can. Susie knows the workings of the business inside out, is aware of the critical nature of data impacts and fully understands the processes required to carry out her job to the highest standards.
Phil Gregory (Manufacturing)
Phil continuously engages in projects and continuous improvement activities without prompting or being asked. He has a naturally curious mentality and drives innovation and learning into his day to day work. He is always gets involved with planning and understanding the future strategy for Logistics, and where possible, helps to gather data that can be used to influence the strategy, such as the Body Stock strategy support, developing a solution to schedule double runners in paint operations to improve operational efficiency and has also implemented Just in Time (JIT) component supply system to generate live updates. Phil also undertakes extensive self learning on Tableau, which has enabled him to deliver multiple process improvements and reporting tools to increase efficiency. Phil has not been tasked to deliver any of these changes, and are all examples of him working under his own initiative, showing himself as a real unsung hero in Manufacturing.
Customer Enthusiast
Pictured: Service Quality and Customer Services Team (Sales and Marketing)
This team in Aftersales embodies customer service globally through strong collaboration with every region, retailers and internal stakeholders such as Quality, Engineering and Manufacturing. Their sole and resolute purpose is to turn customer service and warranty visits in our global Retailer network into positive "moments of truth", and they do this better and quicker than any other other Group brand or competitors, evidenced through the team's results. The spirit and customer focus that exists in every member is what drives them forward every day, getting customer vehicles back on the road and allowing their owners to enjoy them again within 48 hours, almost 100% of the time across the world.
Living our Values and Behaviours
Senga Upton (Manufacturing)
Throughout her time at Bentley, Senga has consistently displayed actions that align to our values and behaviours. Going and above and beyond, Senga has taken on the role of Manufacturing WINGS Lead for Engagement and Inclusion, is an active member of the Diversity and Inclusion workstream in Manufacturing and has developed a safe environment for colleagues to share their opinions. Within the reward and recognition sphere, she has introduced a digital portal within Manufacturing to link to our company's overall scheme and currently leads the process of managing all of Manufacturing's recognition nominations. Amongst her day to day role and all of the above, Senga is also the main contact in Manufacturing for coordinating the function's Stimmungsbarometer activities.
Living Diversity and Inclusion
Rachael Townsend (HR)
Since Rachael joined the Talent Acquisition team last year, she has consistently been an ally, advocate and outspoken supporter of D&I topics at Bentley. Despite joining only a few weeks before the go live for 2023 vacancies, she led in creating engaging trainee content which reflects our diverse trainee population, with the aim to promote this and our vacancies to a diverse talent pool. Rachael is never afraid to constructively challenge to ensure our language, content and activities are in line with our D&I ambitions, and her feedback is always delivered without any assumed authority, despite her wealth of experience in the field. Rachael has helped all D&I networks since joining, supporting events, influencing activities, shaping strategic plans and delivering ambitious campaigns with her passion for true D&I throughout.
Extraordinary Team of the Year
Pictured: Car Scheme Team (HR)
As the Car Scheme team is based off-site, the extraordinary level of service provided by the Car Scheme team is often taken for granted. 2023 has been a challenging year for the team, with the hangover of semi conductor shortages and Covid-19 factory disruptions leading to ongoing vehicle shortages for our colleagues. Despite ongoing vehicle supply challenges, the team has managed to handover vehicles at a rate which has reduced the average vehicle time on the road from 9 months to 5 months from the start of 2023. The team has also displayed great innovation and collaboration skills in working with VWUK and DHL to introduce a digital booking and vehicle management system in 2023. Despite challenging circumstances, the team has continued to delight colleagues with their can do attitude and has taken steps to significantly improve and digitalise the colleague experience.
Judges Choice Award | Individual
Tom Dawes (CEO Function)
In addition to his full-time role, Tom puts an amazing amount of effort into co-leading the BeProud network, in addition to balancing this with developing himself into his first management position. He is an inspiration and role model to others in the LGBTQ network and community, both within Bentley and outside the company, and has driven some tough topics forward. The BeProud network would not be as successful, impactful or resilient against challenges were it not for Tom.
Judges Choice Award | Team
SSP61 Comfort Concept Team (R&D and CEO Function)
Whilst successfully influencing the SSP61 Platform to deliver Driving Comfort and Command Drive Customer Requirements for DSUV, the team Comfort Concept Team showed exemplary levels of product awareness. Through competitor assessments and technical analysis, the team identified critical requirement gaps to our attribute targets for ride, acoustic comfort and command levels. With relentless determination, the team owned the problem and made it their mission to ensure the customer expectations were delivered for our future BEV product portfolio. Through excellent cross functional engagement, they proactively provided concrete data and evidence to highlight gaps that needed bridging, showcased the business impact of not achieving these attribute targets and developed solutions that ensured we delivered on our customer requirements. This resulted in Group accepting the mounted rear subframe concept amongst other measures on SSP61 for introduction on on our first BEV product.