Fresh, visionary and engaging. Some of the buzz words that can be used to describe the charismatic Director General’s presentation provided to a captivated ICE East Midlands AGM audience.
Nick Baveystock, the new ICE DG since January presented his plans for the future of the ICE under his leadership.
Nick took over his new role from Tom Folkes following a decade’s tenure overseeing change throughout the ICE organisation. Nick brings with him 27 years experience from the Royal Engineers, which he will use to bring further improvements to “our ICE”.
Nick provided a brief resume of his life including early years as a graduate, working on a refurbishment project in London, where once only the decorating was required to complete the project, he moved on and signed up to the Royal Engineers.
From here he spent some years in combat, from tours of Germany, Ireland and on to the Balkans and the Middles East, finally achieving the status of Brigadier.
It was evident from these years of providing power and water in challenging conditions how his philosophy for mentoring young engineers and challenging the norm were fostered.
Nick outlined the importance parts of his philosophy “affording space, freedom and the tools for junior engineers to solve problems”, along with working with a common purpose, clarity of thought and experience. He identified the current engineering ethos of only patching problems with more and more process and striving for short lived perfection.
In terms of the immediate challenges facing the ICE Nick summarised the issues, covering the importance of maintaining a financially sound charity, clearly articulating to members what they get for their membership and maximum influence of administration to deliver public good.
He highlighted the existing strengths of the ICE as its reputation, staff, members knowledge One Great George Street with its library services and overall global presence; all of which he hopes to harness in moving the ICE forward.
Nick's vision focuses on “where the ICE should be in 20years time”, which includes a drive to improve the membership demographic, increasing female members and a drive to encourage school pupils to undertake and achieve good maths and physics qualifications.
He believes it in incumbent upon civil engineers to harness political interest and show willing to deliver what society needs before they think about it.
So to encapsulate the speech, Nick boasts Fellow membership of several institutions and will bring his years of experience to deliver an improved and streamlined ICE for a wider more receptive membership.
Edward Bingham BEng (Hons) CEng MICE MCIHT
Senior Vice Chairman
ICE East Midlands Region