Former Union of Brunel Students President, John Dangerfield, has been named 2017’s Brunel University London Alumnus of the Year.
John graduated from Brunel in 2002 with a degree in Materials Engineering and Management and has since committed countless hours to supporting and developing the next generation of Brunel students as a mentor.
He currently manages the largest service contracts for Babcock International delivering critical services to Heathrow Airport while also leading on the recruitment and assessment of graduates into his business.
John's career began with the successful completion of the prestigious Siemens S5 graduate scheme and he then worked as a Service Recovery Manager for British Airways and as a Contracts Manager for the NHS, before moving on to Babcock.
He has been a mentor on the Brunel Women in Engineering programme since its inception, volunteering his time, experience and knowledge to help current students.
After competing in the Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student with Brunel’s motorsports team, Brunel Racing, John returned to the competition as a judge and has now judged more than 1,200 teams over 13 years at both UK and US events. He was then promoted to Head Cost Judge leading a team of more than 50 judges.
The person nominating him said: “John acts without hesitation to give back to Brunel. He epitomises how a Brunel graduate should behave and perform both personally and professionally.”
In a recent interview John commented: "Brunel gave me a really solid academic base that I still draw upon today. Not necessarily just from engineering, but the way you need to learn things and the way you need to approach things and the mind-set, really. But also the social side: the clubs and societies and the things you do that are there almost just for fun. You’d be amazed at how we draw down on those skills each day. I’m very grateful to have come to an institution where there was so much available.”
More than two dozen Brunel graduates were nominated for 2017’s Alumnus of the Year.
Joining John on this year’s shortlist were writer, director and performer Bryony Kimmings (Modern Drama Studies, 2002), designer and entrepreneur Courtney Wood (Industrial Design and Technology 2009), and entrepreneur and champion for women in business, Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj (PhD Business and Management, 2003).
Find out more about Brunel’s alumni community
Reported by:
Sarah Cox,
Media Relations
sarah.cox@brunel.ac.uk