Ella Barrington

Award-winning business owner and reformed engineer who carved her career in the ambitious world of motorsport

Ella Barrington (she/her) is an award-winning business, project and operations director, who carved her career in the ambitious world of motorsport. An unstoppable advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM, she is also an active volunteer and engaging speaker for hire.

Ella gained a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Leeds, and then returned to Oxfordshire to study for a Masters of Science in Racing Engine Design at Oxford Brookes University. She is also a qualified PRINCE2® Project Management Practitioner and a Fellow of The RSA - the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce.

Since graduating, she has worked in the relentless world of professional motorsport and engineering in a variety of technical and commercial roles. She began consulting in 2016 to bring the fundamental things she learnt in motorsport to businesses across all sectors.

Ella want to dispel the myth that technical things can only be understood by people who are good at maths. And that engineers don’t “do feelings”.

She has since joined the School of Technology at her local alma mater as an Associate Lecturer in Engineering Business Management. If Ella can keep the attention of hungover students on a Friday morning, she can probably keep yours too!

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International Women's Day 2023 - #EmbraceEquity

In response to the IWD global campaign for 2023, Ella has reflected and written her unique take on the theme -

#EmbraceEquity - An engineer’s guide to equity

We don’t all start life on pole position.

Going from the privileged pitlanes of professional motorsport to becoming a champion for diversity and inclusion wasn’t a race I expected to take part in.

During this IWD 2023 talk, I’ll accelerate your knowledge of equity and equality, as we explore how we can all engineer our way to a more inclusive world.

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Previous talk topics:

- Why you should put diversity and inclusion in pole position
- We don’t have safety shoes in that size… why inclusion is more impactful than diversity alone
- What on earth is a STEMinst? My STEM career story
- From the starting grid to start up life; what racing cars can teach you about running a business
- #ChooseToChallenge -  How to engineer our way to inclusive choices
- #BreakTheBias -  Slowing down to win the race for gender equity

Away from professional topics, Ella also speaks on bereavement and grieving. Her signature talk - “An engineer’s guide to grief” - combines her professional perspective, with my deeply personal story.

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What do you get out of working with Ella?

Her talks are always a mixture of anecdotes, explainers and takeaways. Not the yummy kind. The kind of that leaves your attendees with things to think about, and put into action afterwards.

She doesn’t rinse and repeat her talks. So if you ask her to come and speak at your event, she’ll tailor her message to make sure it hits your marks.

You’ll get a fresh face and a sense of humour. Ella is not your typical motorsport engineer; less than 9% of UK engineers of any description are women. Ella is not your stereotypical business owner; only one in three entrepreneurs are female. She was bereaved at the age of 24. She only discovered she was a feminist at 28. Ella really loves wearing leopard print and jazzy trainers to important meetings. She think all of this makes her more of an interesting storyteller, rather than less of one.

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