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From there, he studied mechanical sciences at Cambridge before a distinguished career at some of the biggest companies in engineering: BAE Systems, Leyland Trucks and ABB. Latterly, he was also involved in setting up engineering research organisations – MTC, the Catapult network and the Aerospace Technology Institute. Like many engineers, he’s taken on wider leadership responsibilities as his career has developed. He holds an MBA from Strathclyde Business School, attended the International Senior Management Program at Harvard Business School, and has been a member of the IMechE for more than 50 years.
Now, as the new IMechE president, he faces the challenge of inspiring a new generation of young people into careers in engineering at a time when the field has never been more vital, whether that’s in energy, automotive or aerospace. We spoke to him about his plans and ambitions for the year ahead.
What do you see as the Institution’s biggest challenges as you come into the role of president?
“I think in the long term it’s the challenge of what role membership organisations should play in the future. They had a very strong role in the more traditional days of engineering – all the top engineers were members of institutions. I think what constitutes engineering now is a bit more blurred. Within the UK we do suffer from the fact that we have a multiplicity of organisations – somewhere around the 40 mark – each covering their own specialisation. From one point of view that’s good in the sense that it means engineers can join an association that matches their particular interests. But I think when it comes to influencing government or society, it does dilute the message.”
What about the field as a whole? What challenges does engineering need to tackle?
“I think it’s a very interesting situation. If you look at the challenges facing society they’re fairly obvious. Every day, you hear about climate change and resource depletion and pollution. The solutions to these problems, particularly climate change, do lie in the hands of engineers. Politicians and activists can make as much noise as they like and they can influence behaviour, but the actual solutions: for example cars that don’t produce CO2 – they require engineering, and there’s no way around that. There’s a very big opportunity for engineers to contribute to the development of society over the next 25, 50 or 100 years.”
What are your priorities going to be in your time as president?
“First of all, I draw a distinction between the world around us, versus what we need to do in the Institution as an organisation. We’ve got a new CEO coming in shortly, for example [Dr Alice Bunn]. One of my priorities for the year is to make sure she quickly becomes effective. And then we’ve made a lot of changes to the governance and management arrangements for the Institution. We need to make sure that those changes bring about positive results. And we need to continue building the financial resilience of the organisation.”
What about the relationship with the members and the public?
“We do need to have a clearer strategy for the Institution, something that can be expressed in relatively straightforward terms that all the members can understand. What are our priorities? What do we do? Traditionally our membership focuses on the design and manufacturing aspects of industry, but there’s a tremendous amount of professional work going on in operations and maintenance using data analysis and so on. It would be good if we can understand how we are going to move into fields like that.”
How has the pandemic changed things?
“One of the big things is the digital delivery of our services. The last 12 months have accelerated our progress – we’ve been forced to move much more quickly into digital services to members and to adapt our management processes. We need to build on that momentum and get it to work really well. One major benefit has been that our ability to reach out internationally has changed radically.”
What would success look like for you in a year’s time?
“I think that the Institution should have a stronger voice externally, that the many groups in it should be working together actively, that we have got realistic plans to develop internationally, and that our digital offerings are much stronger. And I guess the final thing is that we need to agree the way forward for our Birdcage Walk building.”
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.