Diversity in aerospace, discovering novel tech and running marathons
Meet Charlotte Herbert, Investment Associate at Aerospace Xelerated.
From October 11th to October 15th, we are highlighting women in STEM in our week-long celebration of Ada Lovelace Day.
Charlotte’s the latest addition to Boeing’s Global Accelerator and Innovation Programs (GAIP) team, working as Strategy Analyst alongside Nichola and Jacqueline on innovation activity around the world. As Investment Associate, Charlotte’s joined the Aerospace Xelerated team as applications for Cohort Three end and everyone prepares for the next accelerator cycle.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Charlotte to learn more about her background in economics, her route into Boeing on a graduate placement scheme, what she’s excited about for the next programme and more.
Hey Charlotte! Who are you and what’s your role at Boeing?
My name is Charlotte Herbert and I joined Boeing in October 2020, on their project management graduate programme. I’m currently on my third rotation, so I’ve been at Boeing a year, and I’ve just joined the Global Accelerators and Innovation Programs team.
Prior to joining Boeing, I studied economics at the University of the West of England. I did my dissertation on whether ethical investing is actually ethical — I’ve always liked the kind of financial side of economics, as well as analysis side of it. I did my placement year at a financial firm in Bristol, and I’ve recently moved to Bath.
How are you finding Bath?
I love it. It’s so small compared to Bristol, so you can walk from one end to the other in half an hour!
Did you end up at Boeing because that’s where you ended up, or was there logic to your process?
When I did my year in industry, I really liked the company and my team, but I didn’t really like the job. I always thought finance was for me, but then I found it really, really boring! So I wanted to have a graduate scheme which would be a lot broader. I applied for quite general graduate programmes that had rotational opportunities, because I still don’t know what I want to do.
I really liked how Boeing were pitching themselves to me, just as much as I was pitching myself to Boeing. It was very much like “this is why you should pick us over anything else”. I got offers from three different graduate programmes, but decided to go for Boeing. Because 1) Boeing’s reputation is just amazing – it’s a global company, and 2) having the opportunity to do four six months rotations kind of suits me down to the ground. Having the opportunity to do one out function rotation as well (which is my current rotation within the GAIP team) just really appealed to me.
What’s your role within GAIP, and Aerospace Xelerated, more specifically?
I’m the Investment Associate at Aerospace Xelerated and am a Strategy Analyst on the GAIP team. My understanding of my Aerospace Xelerated role is kind of acting as the UK accelerator support.
That’s networking with and supporting Cohort One and Two startups, making sure that they’ve got everything they need and developing the Boeing relationship with them. That support ranges from helping them go through Proof of Concept projects, helping them raise additional funding, and more generally just keeping in touch as they’re portfolio members!
And then, in terms of Cohort Three, which will be starting in January, I’ll be providing my support, although I’m not coming in from a technical background — I’m more approachign things from a high level business background. Using my background, my degree and being very analytical, I’ll be working with applicants to review if they would be a good fit within the Boeing portfolio and the Boeing brand, exploring what business units they would be most applicable to etc.
I’ll also be planning and working with our industry sponsors to make sure that the programme — when we start onboarding — goes smoothly. I’ll be looking at the feedback from previous programmes and continuously building on it. I’ll be working with you and the rest of the delivery team, ensuring that everything is coherent, everything runs smoothly, kind of being that go-between our stakeholders.
We’re looking at AI and autonomy for Cohort Three’s themes. Are there any areas within the themes that you think are really kind of interesting from a Boeing point of view at the moment?
That’s a very good question! Just kind of reading through the applications, it is amazing how much technology and new technology is out there. I’ve been blown away by some of these ideas! We’re still developing the capability so I’m excited to find innovation that fits with what we’re working on and bringing that into Boeing.
It’s still very early days for me, I’ve not come from a technology background. Everything’s just amazing at the moment, because it’s all ideas I would never would have thought of before! And each startup and each founder has their own kind of route to how they got there. I was at the Boeing Innovation Forum in Glasgow last week and got chatting to an entrepreneur, they used to be in a punk rock band and now, all of a sudden, they’ve got a startup that uses behavioural economics to increase pilot efficiency. It’s just crazy! It’s so exciting to meet all these different people from a variety of different backgrounds, and see their journeys and how they got to where they are. I’m a bit like an excitable puppy at the moment. Everything’s really new and exciting!
Yesterday, we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day. What are your thoughts on diversity in engineering or aerospace, and then on the startup side as well? What’s good from what you’ve seen so far with your time in the industry, and what do we need to work on to improve?
I think it’s really important that we have days like Ada Lovelace Day — or weeks like this Ada Lovelace Week – to really drive those open and honest conversations.
I think having conversations from the get go and promoting that conversation is the best way to get out there and challenge these gender norms and increase diversity. As everyone knows, especially in engineering and STEM, it’s very often male dominated, I think that can be seen as a barrier to entry sometimes. Having these conversations and really challenging to push down those gender barriers and gender stereotypes is the best way that we can promote these careers and aspirations to get into these kinds of jobs.
I think the industry is really good at kind of offering a lot now in terms of education, not only to women, but also to men as well, around what they can do to encourage female participation and diversity. Challenging the status quo is not always just up to women to break those gender barriers down, it’s also up to men to challenge that stereotype and the unconscious gender bias in the workplace.
I think industry is doing really well, but I think there’s more that could be done, especially in a lot of startups, they are frequently all male teams. I think it’s incredibly important to instil a strong diversity and inclusion policy right from the get go. That’s not saying that you should hire someone just because they’re a women, it’s saying that we should be giving everyone an equal opportunity. We should work on our unconscious biases within interview processes to ultimately pick the right person for the job.
What advice would you give to the incoming cohort in terms of making the most of having the opportunity in contact time with a company like Boeing?
Speaking to Cohort One and Two, and just reading through the applications for Cohort Three, I think it’s incredibly important for these startups to know why they’re applying for this accelerator, and what they want to get out of it. I think a lot of the applications are just applying because there’s an investment opportunity; they’re not telling us what we can do for them. And I think that’s incredibly important.
When you go into something like this, you need to know the goals and what you want out of this programme in order to succeed. Once you know the direction and the future ambition, you can get the most out of a programme, because you bring the kind of the passion, the drive and focus. That would be my primary advice: know what you want to get out of the accelerator. How can Boeing benefit you and also, you’ve got to remember Boeing is such a large platform, that if you come in very muddled, you might get pulled in every which direction. Because there are so many different avenues to explore!
I’d also recommend being open to new use-cases and directions. Just because you come in with one goal doesn’t mean that will be what you end up working on during the programme. We’re here to help the startups, and to harness them and develop them.
What do you like to do outside of work? What are your passions and hobbies?
I always find it really interesting when people answer this because you find out things that you wouldn’t normally know about them! I’m a really, really keen runner, which surprises everyone because I’m five foot one with tiny little legs and I run half marathons! I ran the London Marathon in 2018 and I’ve got the Bath half marathon coming up in a few months time. I’m a keen gymer, I go to the gym a lot and also I’m a keen traveller, but obviously with COVID-19 that’s been put on hold.
I like to keep active — I can’t sit still so if I’m not at the gym or running, then I’m probably visiting someone and doing something awesome!
How did you get into running half marathons and marathons?
When I turned 17, my dad got me to run the town’s local half marathon (which you have to be 17 to enter). My dad’s always been into running — so he was said, “right, now that you’re 17, you have to come and do it with me”. Then it was just a family tradition. I’m the eldest of three, so once I did it, my brother and sister had to do it when they were 17 too! And then I ran the London Marathon, I got in through a charity ballot. At the time, my granddad had dementia, so I ran for Dementia UK.
It just kind of spiralled from there! I find that exercise and running really helps me deal with the stress and escape from it all. I run by myself and it always makes people laugh, because I’m quite like a calm person, but when I run, I listen to really hardcore rap music! I like having the time to myself to just not think about anything. I don’t know what it is, I just run with rap blaring in my brain. I find it quite therapeutic…
Thanks to Charlotte for sitting down to share her story!
We hope you can join us for Ada Lovelace Week — use #AdaLovelace and #WomenInTech on socials to shout your support and celebrate the women you respect. You can follow the content we’re publishing this week via the #AdaLovelace tag here on Medium.
Aerospace Xelerated is a 3-month funded programme for exceptional autonomy and AI startups to accelerate the growth of the aerospace industry. Learn more about our work in our FAQ or book an Office Hours call to chat with the programme team.
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