For the Gala Awards Ceremony, please wear smart/business attire, though flair and sparkle are most welcome too
Speakers, Performers and Presenters
Image copyright @ Helen Sharman 1991
Our Special Guest
HELEN SHARMAN CMG OBE
The First British Astronaut
We are delighted that Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, has accepted our invitation to attend The Hazels Awards on 24 June 2026 at Cheltenham Town Hall.
Helen didn’t think she would be selected from the 13,000 applicants but she was exactly the right choice - calm, practical, friendly, professional, a team player. She flew into space in May 1991, aged 27, when she spent 8 days orbiting the Earth, living and working on board the Mir Space Station.
Her tasks included medical, agricultural and chemical experiments, materials testing, and Earth observation work.
Helen is now a leading inspirational speaker and science communicator, sharing her insights with audiences of all ages, bringing her material up to date for today and looking forward to the future of space exploration.
Written exclusively for The Hazels by Diana Boulter, Helen Sharman’s manager.
Performance by
Motionhouse
The Hazels- the UK Space Skills Awards are delighted and excited to announce the World Class Dance-Circus Company, Motionhouse, will be performing on the night. Can’t wait to see what they have planned for us.
Founded in 1988 by Louise Richards MBE and Kevin Finnan MBE, Motionhouse creates world class dance-circus productions that tour extensively to rave reviews across the globe. From full-length productions for theatre touring to flexible work for the outdoors and large-scale performance events, its sell-out productions integrate athletic physicality, powerful narrative, incredible digital imagery and emotive sound scores.
Our Speakers
Mark Garnier OBE MP
Mark Garnier MP will give the inaugural ‘Hazels - the UK Space Skills Awards’ Launch speech.
Mark is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest and Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Shadow Parliamentary undersecretary (Work and Pensions) and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Space Committee
Tom Bewick
Professor Tom Bewick has more than 25 years of experience working at the forefront of post-compulsory education and training policy and practice, initially as a post-16 adviser to the UK government, between 1997 and 2002; and latterly in both the UK domestic and international arena.
As CEO to five boards since 2004, Tom Bewick has been responsible for several high-profile initiatives. He was the architect of the UK-wide sector skills councils (2001-2010); and he represented the UK awarding bodies for over 5 years (2018-2023), securing changes to apprenticeship assessment and qualifications reform.
Stella Mbubaegbu CBE
Stella Ngozi Mbubaegbu CBE is Co-Founder of the Black Leadership Group (BLG) UK, where she convenes senior leaders across education, public service and policy sectors to examine leadership responsibility, organisational design and equity within complex institutional systems.
Her work explores how governance, leadership culture and organisational structures shape opportunity, dignity and human capability, particularly in environments experiencing rapid technological and social change.
Stella is the Founder of the Ethical AI & Leadership Studio, where she has developed Structural Intelligence for Human Flourishing: Diagnosing constraint. Designing conditions. Enforcing thresholds - a leadership lens supporting organisations to recognise where systems unintentionally create constraint, silence or diminish opportunity, and how leaders can redesign those systems responsibly within AI-enabled and high-stakes environments.
She speaks internationally on ethical leadership, governance, anti-racist upstander leadership and the human consequences of emerging technologies. Stella’s work bridges leadership psychology, organisational ethics and responsible technology development, with a particular focus on how institutions can remain morally present and human-centred in the age of intelligent systems.
Dr Sam Adlen
Dr Sam Adlen is co-CEO of Space Solar, delivering an era defining new solar energy source from space. Following a PhD working on a NASA Mars mission, Sam held senior space sector strategy roles in Leonardo, was Lead Technologist for Space at the UK’s Innovation Agency and was Chief Strategy Officer at the Satellite Applications Catapult. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Satellite Finance Network, Co-founder of the UK Space In Orbit Servicing and Manufacturing working group and Spatial Finance Initiative and co-chair of the Space Energy Initiative.
Our Host for the evening is
Ms Donna Marie Herdsman
Donna Herdsman is a highly decorated executive and DEI leader who has received several prestigious accolades for her work in business transformation and mentoring. Donna’s career includes senior leadership roles at major firms like IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and most recently Korn Ferry , supporting clients in the public and private sectors. She has a long-standing history of judging major industry awards, including serving over 13 years as a judge for The Black British Business Awards and 5 years at #Tech100womenawards. Donna has received many awards herself including:
The Top 10 Inspirational Leader (2024)
The Lifetime Achievement Award (2024)
Honoured at The Baton Awards for her nearly 40 years of dedication to excellence and community impact.
Recognised by the Ethnicity Awards for her leadership and support of others. Top 50 Trailblazer for Gender and Race Equality (2021)
Named by WeAreTheCity for her work with the TechUP Women program (retraining over 100 women for roles in technology)
The First Woman Mentor of the Year (2017): A CBI-sponsored award recognising her significant contributions to professional mentoring.
Empower/FT/Yahoo Senior BAME 100: Included twice (2016 and 2019) on this list of leading ethnic minority executives in the UK, US, and Ireland.
We are delighted that Donna has agreed to host the Hazels - the UK Space Skills Awards Gala Ceremony.
Gala Awards Ceremony Programme
For the Gala Awards Ceremony, please wear smart/business attire, though flair and sparkle are most welcome
The full Gala evening details will be published after Easter
Special Guest
We are delighted to welcome the first British Astronaut, Helen Sharman CMG OBE as our special guest and Performance by - the world class dance circus company, Motionhouse
MC
We are delighted to announce Ms Donna Marie Herdsman is our amazing MC for our gala awards ceremony.
Speakers
Mark Garnier MP - opening speech
Professor Tom Bewick -Skills and workforce development
Stella Mbubaegbu CBE - Diversity and Leadership
Dr Sam Adlen - Space and Skills
Strategic Partners
Tess Butler DSETAwards
Hugo Nunes - Orbiteer
Pauline Donachy - Fistral Training
Jeni Trice - Get with the Program
Representatives from the devolved Governments
and of course our wonderful nominees and winners