MBE appointment for vehicle pioneer's airport plan

An entrepreneur who has been called a "driving force" in the development of autonomous, electric vehicles, has been appointed an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours.

David Keene, 61, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire , received the award for his efforts to decarbonise airports, after he worked for a decade to launch the Auto-DollyTug, which moves luggage and cargo around six airports across the world.

The founder of the Coventry-based transport firm Aurrigo said, until a letter landed on his doorstep, he would "never have believed it".

"You never aspire to receive awards like these, but when they come along they spur you on to do more."

Mr Keene graduated from Coventry University in 1986 and said he was now a visiting professor.

He added that Aurrigo had taken part in knowledge transfer programmes, where PhD students came to work at the site's headquarters in the city.

"It's really good way for us to find new talent coming into the industry and quite often we take them on as full-time employees," he said.

The 61-year-old, who has worked in the automotive sector for more than 40 years, said the next step had to be "producing hundreds of the vehicles" to be "adopted in airports worldwide" and "making them homegrown".

"Wouldn't it be fantastic if we've got manufacturing in Coventry and we're also recruiting local talent to support it?" Mr Keene said.

Other honours recipients from Coventry and Warwickshire include:

• Prof Jagtar Singh - the former chair of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, is appointed a CBE for his services to the NHS

• Fleur Sexton - the West Midlands Deputy Lieutenant is made an MBE for services to the community in Coventry

• Mary Mumvuri - the chief nursing officer and deputy chief executive officer at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, is made an MBE for services to Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism

• Prof Muhammad Javed - the consultant psychologist at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust is appointed OBE for services to mental health

• Aruna Bipin Mistry from Warwickshire is awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to higher education

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