John Wood, former Formula Student Chairman, awarded MBE

John Wood, former Formula Student Chairman and Past President of the Institution, has been awarded an MBE for his services to mechanical engineering.

John has been involved in Formula Student since the very first event at MIRA in 1998, and chaired the event for 10 years. In 2010 he became the 125th President of the Institution and now serves as Chairman of the Engineering Heritage Committee.

John read engineering at Cambridge and spent the early part of his career in the Army in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

After field appointments in BAOR and the UK, he attended Staff College and then held a number of appointments in military vehicle procurement, test and development.

He retired from the Army in 1987 as a Lieutenant Colonel to join RAC Motoring Services as Technical Director and Chief Engineer. From there, John joined MIRA Ltd in 1991 as Managing Director and Chief Executive. MIRA grew out of the Motor Industry Research Association and is an independent company providing design, test and development services to the automotive and other industries worldwide and has offices in the US, China, Korea and India.

John joined the Institution in 1973, becoming a Member in 1978 and a Fellow in 1987. He served as Chairman of our Automobile Division in 1993. In 1996 John was invited to fill a casual vacancy on the Council, prior to being elected a Member of the Council in 1998, a Vice-President in 2001 and Deputy President in 2008.

Institution Fellow Colin Smith was also awarded a CBE for his services to UK engineering. Colin is Director of Engineering and Technology at Rolls Royce.