James Rennie Medal Final 2024

Julie Wood

Julie is Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).  She is a Director of Mott MacDonald, joining in 2024, where she leads complex programmes and projects. Prior to this she was a Director at Arup and Major Projects Specialist leading large multi-disciplinary teams across organisations for over 20 years - with 10 years in an executive position with profit and loss responsibility for a c£40m business in Arup. Major Projects include Transpennine Upgrade, HS2 Euston Station and The Francis Crick Institute.
 
Julie started her career as a civil engineering apprentice. She is Chartered Fellow of the ICE, an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Project Management. In 2020 she was made A Freeman of the City of London and in 2021 she was recognised as one of the top 50 Women in industry (WES).
 
Additionally with over 18 years of Non-Executive Board experience across a number of sectors she is passionate about knowledge sharing, a systems thinking approach, stakeholder engagement and navigating complexity with success.

Séan Harris

After a distinguished career in the Royal Engineers which included a spell as the UK Defence Advisor and Commander of British Gurkhas in Nepal, Séan Harris joined ICE as Director of Membership in 2015.

Séan is guided by a core principle of growing a diverse, broad and professionally qualified membership. By helping individuals to realise their potential and supporting employers in attaining the highest professional standards, he believes that ICE can play a powerful and positive role in meeting the great challenges that society faces. Crucial to this is ensuring high member satisfaction and the desire to remain an ICE member for life.

Under his direction, ICE was the only Professional Engineering Institution (PEI) to have grown professionally qualified membership every year from 2017-2021, one of only two PEIs to have seen a year-on-year increase in university applications, and has led the engineering profession in terms of annual growth in female and BME membership.

Séan is responsible for overseeing the creation and delivery the membership proposition. This includes programmes to inspire students to study and practice civil engineering, the accreditation of civil engineering degrees, the Initial Professional Development of graduates, Professional Reviews for the technician, incorporated and chartered qualification, and Continuing Professional Development and delivery of lifelong learning.

Darren James

Darren James was appointed chief executive of the Keltbray Group in April 2020. Prior to this, he spent 30 Years at Costain Group PLC starting on their graduate development programme and rising through the ranks to the chief operating officer. An honours graduate in Civil Engineering from the University of Surrey, Darren has undertaken further postgraduate executive programmes at Harvard, Wharton and London Business Schools.

Darren is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and was the inaugural winner of the James Rennie Medal in 1996.

Sam Reed

Sam is a Chartered Civil Engineer and won the James Rennie Medal in 2014. He joined Skanska upon graduation from the University of Plymouth in 2009. He has since worked on major infrastructure projects for various clients including Crossrail, London Underground, and National Grid. He is currently a Senior Project Manager working on the HS2 project. Sam has been a member of the James Rennie Medal Award Panel since 2017.

Stephen Dellow

Stephen is currently a director working independently as a freelance consultant. He was previously a director working with WSP and PBA (Stantec), heading up their development infrastructure businesses in the South of England. He is now managing the design of a number of infrastructure schemes working for private sector clients. He also has extensive experience overseas predominantly within the Middle East. His career spans over 35 years’ experience working mainly in the field of highways, transportation, drainage and infrastructure services working across a wide range of projects both in terms of cost and scale.

He was responsible for training graduates and is currently still a registered mentor, an ICE reviewer and auditor. He was previously vice chair of informing opinion for the ICE South East of England committee and more recently London Region, promoting the public perception of the civil engineer. He is encouraging and reviewing many apprentices on achieving their end point assessments. He is also a judge and member of the James Rennie Medal Panel as well as being a judge for many years of the various categories of regional awards.

Olivia Perkins

After graduating from Loughborough University, Olivia joined Kier Group, working on major infrastructure projects including Crossrail, High Speed 2 and the Luton DART.

Olivia joined Morgan Sindall Infrastructure in 2021. She was appointed managing director for the rail business in July 2022 with oversight of projects being delivered across the UK, primarily with Network Rail and Transport for London.

Olivia was awarded the James Rennie Medal in 2016. She is passionate about supporting others in their professional development.

Eamonn Slevin

Eamonn is currently the assembly director working on behalf of National Highways on the Smart Motorways Programme Alliance. Eamonn is responsible for the safe, timely and efficient delivery of the Alliance’s portfolio of on – site works. Eamonn leads the programme teams, working closely with National Highways, Alliance partners and the supply network in this national programme.

His career spans over 20 years’ experience working in the field of highways, water and process, drainage and infrastructure working across a wide range of projects. He is responsible for training Costain graduates and mid-career leaders as well as being an SCE. 

He is also a Judge and member of the James Rennie Medal Panel and was a previous James Rennie Medal Award winner in 2012.

Niall McGill

A graduate of Queens University Belfast and a fellow of the ICE, Niall has 25 years post graduate experience both in the UK and overseas having worked on various infrastructure and marine civil engineering projects in complex locations around the world.  Niall joined Charles Brand as a graduate engineer in 2001 and after various roles within the Lagan Specialist Contracting Group, he currently leads Charles Brand, encouraging collaboration with an emphasis on values, behaviours, and teamwork. 

Joe Roper

Joe began his career as a graduate site engineer with Balfour Beatty on the M6 Smart Motorway scheme in 2018. In 2020, he moved onto the HS2 Area North project where he’s progressed through the roles of consents engineer, section engineer and sub agent.

Joe's career highlights to date include the delivery of several contract incentive milestones related to deep foundations and the successful delivery of a 72-day rail blockade across the South Staffordshire Railway Line near Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Kit Wolverson

Kit has been working at Mott MacDonald for over six years, based in the North West Bridges Team.

Outside of work, she has held several ICE North West roles. She puts people at the heart of projects and considers the bigger picture through roles on major projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, HS2 and East West Rail.

Post chartership she is working in the Health Sector alongside leading Mott MacDonald’s Early Career Professionals in the UK and Europe. 

Victor Pavanelli Lira

Victor Lira has got 14 years of professional experience, mainly in Hydropower, Dams and Drainage projects, focused on hydrological studies, hydraulic modelling and design, but also in construction management and in Academia, as a Lecturer. Victor moved from Brazil to the UK in 2020 to join Stantec, where he currently leads hydraulic studies for dams and hydro projects, as well as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) projects for the wider water industry.