In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives, we bring you an interview with Poggy Murray Whitham, Operations Director at EqualEngineers.
Overview
- EqualEngineers is on a mission to create more diverse, equitable and inclusive workspaces in the industry
- Poggy’s work with the organisation has landed him a place in this year’s Top 100 alumni
- The Masculinity in Engineering Research report highlights that the majority of engineers have some form of mental health concern, but a minority are willing to talk about it.
- The industry is getting better at EDI, and the initiatives don’t always have to cost a lot of money
- 500 people have come through EqualEngineers Pathways Programme; 80% of them are from ethnic minority backgrounds, and just over 40% are women
If you haven’t yet come across EqualEngineers, it’s not just a consultancy, it’s a mission-driven organisation dedicated to reshaping engineering-related sectors, to make them more inclusive, equitable, and psychologically safe.
The work spans manufacturing and engineering plants, construction sites, and tech firms – environments that haven’t always been places that allow underrepresented groups to thrive.
Through data-driven insights, tailored interventions, and cross-industry collaborations, EqualEngineers is working with organisations to achieve truly inclusive engineering workplaces. And most importantly, to demonstrate how much more innovative, resilient, and effective companies can become when every voice has the space to be heard.
At the centre of that mission, is Poggy. He plays a pivotal role in bringing EqualEngineers’ vision to life.
He oversees programme delivery across the organisation, shaping everything from employer partnerships to major national initiatives. Whether he’s working with engineering institutions to build long-term inclusion strategies, designing training programmes that shift culture from the ground up, or coordinating multi-stakeholder projects, Poggy is deeply involved in the EqualEngineers’ masterplan.
Poggy’s mark can be found on flagship training sessions, research reports, and industry collaborations that aim to bring change across sectors that haven’t always prioritised inclusion, but thankfully, are starting to realise the business sense in doing so.
His expertise and perspective are widely recognised, and he’s often seen representing EqualEngineers at conferences and on panels, helping shape the national conversation on diversity. And as he points out in this interview, psychological safety, that isn’t taken seriously in an industry that prides itself on such rigorous physical safety measures. This is a disconnect that he doesn’t understand.
Poggy is also a speaker beyond the industry conference circuit, having delivered TED Talks that spotlight the human stories, the challenges, and the opportunities for transformation within engineering and manufacturing cultures.
He was inducted into The Manufacturer Top 100 alumni for 2025 in recognition of his work.
Here, Poggy talks about his journey, the challenges organisations face in becoming truly inclusive, and the work EqualEngineers is doing to shift the landscape for the next generation of engineers.
We’ll explore what psychological safety really means on the shop floor or in a design office, how engineering employers can move beyond box-ticking, and why cultural change is not just a moral imperative but a business-critical one.
This episode has been created in partnership with Intergage, one of our sponsors for the Top 100 2025. Half-way through this episode, Paul Moss, Customer Success and Partnerships Manager, briefly gives his thoughts.
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