Network access provider Openreach (BT) has named Luke Picken as the winner of its ‘Engineer of the Year 2022’ award. Luke is said to have worked around the clock across South West Scotland to keep people connected to their broadband ISP and phone connections in the wake of Storm Arwen during late November 2021.
The engineer from Maybole, who joined Openreach as a trainee in 2014 after working in electronics manufacturing and was nominated for the accolade by his colleagues, has been presented with the unique prize of a personalised number plate (OR22 ENG) for his van – shame he can’t have that on his personal car too.
Luke was apparently one of 160 UK finalists in the Openreach Shining Stars Awards 2022, shortlisted from 2,600 nominees put forward by their colleagues, which saw 20 recognised in categories for Exceptional Engineers; Safety, Inclusion and Environment Champions; Unsung Heroes; and Best Boss. But Openreach hasn’t supplied a list of the winners for those.
“I’ve always struggled with reading and writing, especially when I was younger, and I worried it would close doors to me. I hope my story shows other people with dyslexia that it doesn’t have to hold you back – you can get on despite it and achieve great things,” said Luke.
Alastair Gilroy, Luke’s Patch Manager, said:
“Luke is an absolute superstar so it’s brilliant to see him singled out from a UK workforce of 37,000 for the ultimate recognition.
He worked tirelessly to sort out dozens of broadband faults after Storm Arwen battered the west of Scotland. The damage to our fibre network was unprecedented.
Luke tracked down every fault location then co-ordinated our response to reconnect customers, often working into the night to find and fix an issue lurking somewhere in the network. His hard work and determination inspired his colleagues to pull out all the stops.
That’s just one of the ways he’s an exceptional engineer.”
End.
UPDATE 19th May 2022
We’ve now got the list of the other winners – well done to them all.
Good to see dedication recognised, storm Arwen was horrendous for a lot of people and it’s really important we remember there are examples of engineers working hard behind the scenes in less than glamourous circumstances to keep services going. Doubly positive describing his journey with dyslexia.
Lol A Scotish man driving around with ENG on his work van, well done openreach
lol i noticed that
Given the typical BT ads I was expecting a more Diverse & Inclusive winner…
Sounds like you’re disappointed….
Think he’s ginger so perhaps that’ll give you some fuel for performative outrage over ‘wokeness’.
I’m also sure what you meant to write was ‘Congratulations, Luke, for going above and beyond to ensure your customers saw essential communications services restored in a timely fashion.’. Right?
Good luck to him
Brilliant! The engineers rock. Nice to see one of them getting some recognition. Well done Luke.
Well done Luke, and to all others who went the extra mile, which I know there is a hell of a lot you out there.
Shame only one out of 37,000, but from my dealings with Openreach, I’m not surprised.
And you’re 1 of 24 million customers
Well done
Definately wont get promoted being that good.