Sir Anthony Cleaver Chairman of the Engineering and Technology Board
By Dan Powell, Will Brearley and Shaun Hellmuth.
Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, Wilmington. Kent

Extract:

He told us a poem that he once read and remembers because he strongly believes the sentiment in it.:
Success as very well you know,
Lies not in being rich and swell
But doing what you want to do
And doing it really really well.
This poem reflects the true idea of “success”, through ability in your field. It says that money is not a marker of success, but freedom to do what you want and having the ability to follow it through.

Meeting Sir Anthony Cleaver
As part of the secondary engineer leadership award, we were invited to take part in an interview with Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and of the Engineering Technology Board.
Sir Anthony joined growing computer giant IBM in 1962, where his career spanned marketing, product management and scheduling, and after years of service became the managing director. He later became a member of the Ministry of Defence. His position there involved evaluating whether new technologies were worth investing in, and their potential benefits. Because of this position, he claims to have been instrumental in IBM’s link in providing several large computers to the ministry. In recent years, he organised the “Big Bang” engineering and careers fair through the ETB. This is an opportunity for children to learn about careers in engineering from industry leaders, with “hands-on” demonstrations of new technologies. As well as giving schools the opportunity to show case the work their students do within the STEM agenda.
The original plan for the interview was fairly formal, with the tables arranged a rectangle around the edge of the room for the 18 students present to sit at. We eventually decided that it would be more comfortable to move the tables to one side and put our chairs into a semicircle, with Sir Anthony in front of us. A member of the group suggested that we all stand as Sir Anthony entered the room, and ask how he wished to be addressed. He said that he would prefer to be called “Tony”, which set a more relaxed atmosphere in the room and put the students more at ease. Sir Anthony was asked about the secret of his success, and said that there had never really been any major inspirational people in his life, but that he had worked with a lot of individuals who had helped him develop the knowledge and skills that had helped him succeed. His inspiration was success. He told us a poem that he once read and remembers because he strongly believes the sentiment in it. Success as very well you know,But doing what you want to do This poem reflects the true idea of “success”, through ability in your field. It says that money is not a marker of success, but freedom to do what you want and having the ability to follow it through. He later told us the story of his knighthood in 1992. He was at a corporate party with IBM, and asked why he had been invited. He was surprised to discover that he was being knighted for the lead he has taken in getting industry to take greater responsibility for their impact on the environment. Sir Anthony does not have a lot of spare time, however when he does he manages to support the Royal College of Music as this is an area he loves. Whatever else he is doing he enjoys swimming everyday in Hyde Park to try and keep up his fitness.
He told us that if he was given the chance to be as successful in music or swimming as he is in his current job, that he would not take it. He believed that he does not have the right physique to be an elite swimmer, and he thought that he was not talented enough to have a career as a musician as it is highly competitive world and he would have had to have started at a very young age. In conclusion, it was a great day out. The interview was intense but also refreshing and we learnt a lot about Sir Anthony Cleaver. He was a very unusual individual and the most striking feature about him would have to be his red socks. Although this did distract me from the interview briefly we still managed to get some good information and so we believe that it was a day well spent. We also felt that participating in this STEM activity was a great help towards understanding Science and Engineering. We believe that we will contribute in the next activity relating to STEM and put the same amount of effort if not more into the activity.