The association Ellas Vuelan Alto (EVA), born to promote equality in the aerospace industry, has awarded its Annual EVA Awards in its eighth edition to Boeing and Amparo Moraleda, the first woman and the first Spaniard to head the board of directors of Airbus.
These recognitions, which are presented coinciding with the eighth anniversary of the organization, highlight both the professional career and the involvement in promoting female talent in the air and aerospace field, according to the entity in a statement.
In the individual category, the award has gone to Moraleda, who last October 1 took office as chair of the board of directors of Airbus, becoming the first woman and the first person of Spanish nationality to hold this responsibility.
In the corporate section, Boeing has been awarded for its support for the "Reto Amelia", the educational initiative of EVA that brings aerospace engineering closer to secondary school students through drone challenges and that, in its first call, brought together 15 educational centers in the Community of Madrid.
The association has also granted an honorable mention to the head of EVA's delegation in Andalusia, Silvia de los Santos, in recognition of her dedication and commitment to the project.
Eight years of promoting female talent
The ceremony, opened by the vice president of EVA, Gema Martín del Burgo, included the intervention of the president, Isabel Maestre, who gave an account of a year of "strong growth", marked by the launch of the delegations of Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha, the launch of Reto Amelia and her appointment as ambassador of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Likewise, she made known the strategic plan of the association.
"Eight years ago, six executives decided to stop dreaming and start doing. Today we are a network present in a large part of the country and with a voice in international forums, and what we are celebrating this afternoon is precisely that, that female talent goes as far as we let it go", Maestre emphasized.
Within that plan is integrated the new figure of Young Ambassador of EVA, a responsibility assumed by Alba Badía, aerospace engineer, sales engineer at Pangea Propulsion and member of the management team of EVACAT.
Badía has highlighted the "professionalism, fellowship and opportunities" that she has found in the association and has expressed her intention to bring EVA closer to the younger generations.
"I would love for some young girl to be able to see one of our videos or meet us at a university and think that she too could dedicate herself to this. Many times, before you can imagine yourself in a place, you need to see someone who is already there," she noted.
The day ended with a Drone Soccer activity organized by Flybble, in which the participants handled drones in a circuit with real-time ranking.
Ellas Vuelan Alto was established in 2018 with the aim of promoting equality in the aerospace sector by making visible the work carried out in Spain, encompassing the institutional, university, business and public administration spheres, and taking as a reference the equality declaration of the Magna Carta of the United Nations.