Jacqueline O’Donovan honoured with lifetime achievement award from the Worshipful Company of Carmen

Jacqueline O’Donovan, managing director of O’Donovan Waste Disposal, has received the lifetime achievement award from the Worshipful Company of Carmen. This esteemed award was founded in 2011 to recognise and honour the outstanding service, dedication, diligence and leadership given to the transport industry in the UK by exceptional individuals over an extended period of two decades or more.

The Worshipful Company of Carmen is one of the 110 livery companies in the City of London and it dates back to 1517. Steeped in tradition, the Company represents a wide range of aspects within the transport and logistics encouraging achievement and the advancement of knowledge in the transport and logistics profession through awards, lectures and social activities. It’s benevolence and historic fellowship are renowned and respected and it continues to adapt and evolve to meet the challenges of today’s transport and logistics industry which contributes £127 billion to UK economy.

Jacqueline was chosen to be recognised for her tireless dedication to fundamentally improving transport policy in London and across the country. Her illustrious career has spanned over three decades and has seen her lead the way in terms of her commitment to sustainability and the environment, working to promote greener, cleaner transport operations as well as being hugely instrumental in improving road safety standards for the construction and haulage sectors across the UK. Jacqueline has been exemplar in her dedication to encouraging and enabling education and staff development, as well as her company becoming the first in the UK to achieve a number of ground-breaking and pioneering accomplishments for safety, compliance and innovation.

She is a highly respected and successful Fellow of the Carmen company having been bestowed the Freedom of the City of London in 2016 and has received fellowships from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), the Institute of Couriers (IoC), as well as the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport (CIHT). She is the only female MD in the world to earn a Master’s Degree in Demolition Management and her numerous awards include PwC Private Businesswoman of the Year, IoD Director of the Year and she is a recipient of the Growing Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year as well as the Women’s Economic Forum naming her as their Woman of the Decade in Enterprise and Leadership.

Receiving the award, Jacqueline commented, ““I was blown away to hear I had been bestowed this honour as it is usually given to recipients on their retirement and so to receive this at the height of my career is fabulous! It is a tremendous honour and privilege to be recognised in this way. I’m delighted and my hope is that it encourages other women to make their careers in this amazing sector that I am truly passionate about. “

Mr Leon Daniels, Chairman, Awards Committee said, “The Carmen Company is delighted to recognise one of the industry’s leading women in the transport business at a high point in her career. The whole transport industry serves a diverse audience and it is only right that

we seek an equally diverse workforce and senior management. Jaqueline is a perfect role model and serves as an inspiration for others”