Denis Healy

Business Development Manager

North Eastern and Yorkshire

Denis Healy has been a Business Development Manager for the Institution since 2008. He enjoys hearing from engineers in Yorkshire and the North East, and provides friendly, straightforward advice on becoming professionally registered. He is the Institution’s primary link with industry and academia in his region, and develops and supports the engineering community whilst maintaining strong links with a network of key contacts. He also provides strategic guidance via the regional committees.

Denis is a well-respected business professional and counsellor within his regions. He had a 25 year career in industry before joining the Institution. He has a marketing background, and spent his early career as a Marketing Manager in the FMCG sector, running household brands with Cadbury Schweppes and other leading companies, before becoming an Executive Manager on the leadership team of Business Link in Yorkshire.

His father was a power engineer in the nationalised electricity supply industry, so he had an introduction to engineering from an early age, and he worked with many innovative engineering companies through Business Link.

Outside work, Denis is an elected Liberal Democrat member of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. When he’s not working or involved in politics, he enjoys relaxing on his boat on the River Ouse, running (he ran the London Marathon in 2014), and learning the piano

Denis' top three

Favourite engineering innovation: The internal combustion engine. It has stood the test of time, despite its days now being numbered. I am sure that the innovative technologies which replace it, that IMechE members are now developing, will play a massive part in helping us move to a carbon free economy by the middle of this century.
Person I most admire: Most engineers are incredibly modest, and keep themselves out of the limelight. So we probably don’t even know the identities of the people who are really changing the world. So I just pay tribute to all of them, quietly going about their business in a modest and unassuming way. 
Greatest challenge facing engineering: Closing the gender gap, and having as many female engineers as there are female doctors in the NHS.