From budding apprentice to chief operating officer at BAE Systems, Ian Muldowney believes his climb up the corporate ladder can inspire the next generation of innovators across East Lancashire.

Mr Muldowney started off as an engineering apprentice at BAE Systems in 1995.

During his 27-year career at the company, Mr Muldowney has worked in engineering, project management and strategy, and international programmes both in the UK and overseas.

As a Preston boy and self-proclaimed ‘custodian’, Mr Muldowney is passionate about attracting Lancastrian aspiring BAE employees into the industry.

Lancashire Telegraph: Ian Muldowney, Chief Operating Officer at BAE Systems Ian Muldowney, Chief Operating Officer at BAE Systems

In an interview with the Lancashire Telegraph at the Farnborough International Air Show on Wednesday, July 20, he said: “I’m a custodian.

"I want to hand over to the next generation of engineers, manufacturers, mentors, technicians, project managers – it doesn’t matter where they come from.

“Those young people who come from an early careers programme, both apprentices and graduates, they are the people who should be having aspirations to do well and hopefully I have inspired them to do that.”

Mr Muldowney added a lot of the young people present at the Farnborough International Air Show have a familiar Lancashire accent – positively noting it as a mark of progress.

Standing in the same shoes as Ian, talented BAE Systems apprentices were scattered around the exhibition hall at the annual Air Show on Wednesday.

Each one had a breadth of knowledge and passion for the latest product or prototype that they played a role in bringing to life.

Lancashire Telegraph: Jack Redfern is working on Team Tempest to integrate next-generation combat air capabilities in cockpit development for the RAF. Jack Redfern is working on Team Tempest to integrate next-generation combat air capabilities in cockpit development for the RAF.

Jack Redfern, of Lancaster, is one of the BAE Systems engineering apprentices at Warton and is working towards "providing the next level of power for the Royal Air Force" through the Tempest programme.

Sharing his experience as an apprentice working on the development of the cockpits for military training programmes, Jack said: “We’re using modern technology like 3D printing to build many of the parts more rapidly because they’re more in tune with the skill sets of the younger generation coming out of the early careers schemes.

“The (Tempest) programme is affording us the technology that previous platforms may not have done which has resulted in people not being so interested in the early stages of their careers.”

Lancashire Telegraph: BAE Systems Warton apprentices BAE Systems Warton apprentices

Ian Muldowney shared the success of current apprentices and the company’s gender and ethnic diversity - using Khadijah Ismail who is a BAE Systems engineering apprentice and aerospace engineering student at Lancaster University as an example of the company’s gender and ethnic diversity.

Despite this, data shows that of 2021 only 16.5 per cent of women working in engineering are female in the UK.

With the launch of the Tempest programme BAE Systems are continuing to invest in school outreach activities and offer award-winning apprenticeships to provide the next generation with the same opportunities that offered to Ian Muldowney 27 years ago.