Honorary graduates 2022
Dr Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan; FCIB, FCA,
Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank Group
Adesola has international and domestic experience in commercial and investment banking, development finance, audit, and consulting. He is a philanthropic leader with a keen interest in providing platforms for the development of young leaders.
As Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank Group, the international commercial banking arm of FirstBank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, Adesola is leading a digital-led strategy that has established FirstBank as the dominant player in digital banking.
Under Adesola’s leadership, FirstBank Group’s transformation programme has enabled the Bank to:
- grow customer accounts from about 10 million in 2015 to over 36 million (including digital wallets),
- become the second largest issuer of cards in Africa with over 11.8 million issued cards,
- onboard over 18.6 million active customers on FirstBank’s digital banking platforms
- and initiate and grow the most expansive bank-led Agent Banking Network in Africa with over 167,000 agents.
Adesola holds a Master of Business Administration from Cranfield University, which he attended as a Chevening Scholar and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) awarded by the University of Ibadan. He is a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
Adesola is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the Sigma Educational Foundation, the Steering Committee of the Private Sector Coalition Against Covid-19 (CACOVID), and the Governing Council of CIBN. He holds the traditional title of Apesinola of Ibadanland.
Adesola is happily married with children and loves music, especially African folk music.
"I am extremely humbled and most grateful to the University for this recognition. My time at Cranfield served as a catalyst for my professional and personal development, propelling me to the leadership position I occupy today.
I am a firm believer in talent management being vital to further accelerate Africa's growth to enable it to benefit from its demographic dividend and the opportunities therein. I look forward to sharing my experiences with the students on the universal applicability of the skills the Cranfield MBA provides to positively impact the world."
“I am really delighted to find myself in the position of being awarded an Honorary Degree from Cranfield University. I have always been impressed by the scope and depth of the science and technology at Cranfield, so also feel this to be a true honour.
Rothamsted Research and Cranfield University have been successfully exploiting our complementarity in many fruitful collaborations, including the SHAKE Climate Change Entrepreneur programme and Sustainable Agriculture for Africa (SAFA) programme with UM6P in Morocco. I look forward to forging even more ways of working together in the future.”
Professor Angela Karp
Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research
Angela was appointed Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research in July 2020; the first female Director since the Institute was founded in 1843. In her previous role of Director for Science Innovation, Engagement and Partnerships, she developed new initiatives for collaborative innovation. These included FarmInn, which has involved co-developing farmer-led innovations and AgRIA, a regionally-funded programme supporting collaborations between small and medium-sized enterprises and researchers for co-developing innovative solutions to challenges in agri-food.
Working closely with Cranfield University as well as University College London and the University of Hertfordshire, Angela is also the Programme Director of SHAKE Climate Change, which currently has eight ventures in the portfolio. She has always focused on ensuring science delivers impact, whether this is to farmers, policymakers, industry or society and is a member of numerous panels and committees, including the DEFRA Innovation R&D Panel and BBC Rural Affairs Committee.
Angela has a First class degree in Genetics and completed her PhD in Cytogenetics at Aberystwyth. She has an impressive research background with more than 40 years’ experience in crop genetics improvement for sustainable agriculture and bio-renewables. She has over 130 refereed publications, co-authored a genetics text book and is co-editor of books on genetic diversity and bioenergy. In 2007 she received the Royal Agricultural Society of England Research Medal and, in 2008, the Alfred-Toepfer Prize for her research achievements.
Grazia Vittadini
Chief Technology and Strategy Officer of Rolls-Royce
Prior to joining Rolls-Royce in November 2021, Grazia worked for Airbus for nearly 20 years where she covered a broad range of operations from Commercial Aircraft, Defence and Space to Technology and Innovation across the company. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Airbus Executive Committee as Chief Technology Officer.
Grazia has always led transnational and diverse teams. Beyond her expertise in future mobility and sustainable aerospace, she has maintained a forward-thinking interdisciplinary approach, promoting innovation through fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.
Grazia is a member of the Siemens Supervisory Board and the Senate of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. She also serves as advisor at the German Centre for Mobility of the Future (DZM), as well as at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of Politecnico di Milano (DAER).
Born in Italy, Grazia grew up between Milan and the USA. She holds a pilot’s license and graduated in Aeronautical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, where she specialised in Aerodynamics.
“ I’m so grateful to have received this incredible honour from one of the world’s foremost aeronautics research institutions.
Cranfield and Rolls-Royce have grown together in aerospace propulsion since the 1940s, formalising long-term partnerships with our University Technology Centre in the 1990s, and more recently the Aerospace Integration Research Centre. We’re collaborating so the world can fly with the lightest possible environmental footprint, to connect, power and protect families, economies and cultures.
My deepest thanks to the Cranfield community, Chancellor Dame Deirdre Hutton and Cranfield University for this privilege.”
“It is such a privilege to receive this honorary degree. As an alumnus, I know how powerful the Cranfield experience is, blending research excellence with the development of world-class leadership. There is no doubt that the learning, network and friendships I gained from Cranfield have profoundly shaped my life.
As we face unprecedented and challenging times, there has never been a greater need for compassionate and visionary leadership. As those future leaders, I wish this years’ graduates best wishes for the future - it’s yours to make.”
Dr Charmaine Griffiths
Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation (BHF)
Since her PhD in Neuroscience and early career as a scientist, Charmaine has been passionate about the power of research and innovation to save and improve lives.
Prior to becoming Chief Executive of the BHF in 2020, Charmaine held leadership roles for research organisations and programmes including the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the London Cancer Hub and Brain Research UK. She was also part of the BHF from 2003 to 2015, ultimately as Executive Director, Strategy and Performance. Charmaine led the development of BHF’s previous organisational strategy, winning the Best Strategic Transformation category at the Chief Strategy Officer Awards 2014.
She is currently Chair of the Global Cardiovascular Research Funders Forum and the Cranfield Trust, interim President of the European Heart Network, and a Non-Executive at the Human Tissue Authority.
Charmaine Griffiths completed her EMBA in 2012 with Cranfield University and was awarded the Excellence in Achievement Awards for Recent Graduates 2021 at the School of Management Alumni Awards.
Winnie Byanyima
Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
Winnie Byanyima is the Executive Director of UNAIDS and an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. A passionate and longstanding champion of social justice and gender equality, Ms Byanyima leads the United Nations’ efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Ms Byanyima believes that healthcare is a human right and was an early champion of a People’s Vaccine against the coronavirus that should be available and free of charge to everyone, everywhere.
Before joining UNAIDS, Ms Byanyima served as the Executive Director of Oxfam International. Previously, Ms Byanyima was elected for three terms and served 11 years in the parliament of her country, Uganda. She led Uganda’s first parliamentary women’s caucus, championing ground-breaking gender equality provisions in the county’s 1995 post-conflict constitution.
She founded the Forum for Women in Democracy, an influential Ugandan non-governmental organisation and has been deeply involved in building global and African coalitions on social justice issues. A global leader on inequality, Ms Byanyima has co-chaired the World Economic Forum and served on Prime Minister Trudeau’s Gender Advisory Council during Canada’s G7 Presidency. She has also served on the Global Commission on Climate Adaptation, the International Labour Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work and the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development.
She holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cranfield University and an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Manchester.
“Receiving an Honorary Degree from my alma mater Cranfield University in recognition of my contribution to science and technology is such a huge honour!
I have not been a practicing engineer for a long time - but what I learnt at Cranfield on applying science and technology in the service of humanity has stayed with me in my life-long fight for gender equality, economic and social justice and now on the right to health for all people.”
“I am delighted to receive this honorary degree from Cranfield University, and I do so on behalf of my brilliant colleagues who work tirelessly behind the scenes.
The increasingly central role that technology plays in our daily lives underlines the importance of boosting our cyber resilience, and I am proud of the work the NCSC is doing in collaboration with our partners to keep the UK safe online.”
Lindy Cameron CB OBE
Chief Executive Officer, National Cyber Security Centre
Lindy became Chief Executive Officer of the National Cyber Security Centre in October 2020 following more than two decades of national security policy and crisis management.
She was previously a Director-General in Northern Ireland Office and at the Department for International Development (DFID). After starting her career in the private sector, Lindy served across government both at home and abroad, including postings in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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