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A business consultant who learned the value of protecting the environment by feeding wild animals in her native Lithuania has been crowned the Greater Birmingham Young Professional of the Year. Ingrida Vengalyte, 32, won the top prize at last night's Future Faces Awards after taking home the sustainability category.

Ms Vengalyte is a business consultant in the Birmingham office of American firm Jacobs which offers consultancy and services in fields such as engineering and construction. And it was a triple win for the company as engineering rail technician Daisy Carter was named apprentice of the year while senior strategic consultant Yung Yu Lau took home the technology and innovation category, adding to his award for industry at last year's ceremony.

The Future Faces Awards is an annual celebration recognising achievement among professionals aged 35 and under from across Greater Birmingham. The event is run by Future Faces, the young professionals' arm of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, and this year's awards marked ten years since its establishment.

The 2022 event featured a new category for health and wellbeing alongside a new president's award and the ambassador prize which is given to a member of Future Faces.

Ms Vengalyte, whose award includes a fully funded MBA from Aston University, studied environmental engineering in Lithuania and in 2015 graduated from Coventry University with a masters in environmental management.

For the past six and a half years, she has been working on nationally significant infrastructure projects in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ in a variety of business sectors such as nuclear, aviation and transportation.

She said her father had been her inspiration, taking her into forests to feed animals in the depths of winter.