“Engineering a Better World” Lessons from events like Grenfell on delivering outcomes that benefit society

Dame Judith Hackitt

Dame Judith Hackitt is a chemical engineer by training and spent her early career working in the chemicals industry – both in manufacturing and also as an advocate for the industry at national and international level. She is a former President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow and Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Throughout her career she has championed the importance of Engineering in delivering solutions which provide benefit to society and has been a role model particularly for young women wanting to enter the profession. Her current non-Exec roles are based around her continued passion for Manufacturing and Engineering. She is Chair of Enginuity, Senior Independent Non-Exec at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and a Board member of HS2.

She cares deeply about safety in the workplace and more broadly. From 2007 to 2016 she was Chair of the Health and Safety Executive and in 2017 conducted an Independent Review for UK Government into Building Regulations and Fire Safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. Since publishing her final report in 2018 she has continued to press for regulatory change and for industry culture change and her recommendations for radical reform of the regulatory system recently received Royal Assent in the Building Safety Act 2022.