Launch of ICE’s State of the Nation 2025

Prof Jim Hall

The ICE’s 160th President, Jim Hall is professor of climate and environmental risks at the University of Oxford. He is internationally recognised for his research on risk analysis in water resource systems, flooding and coastal engineering, infrastructure systems and climate change adaptation.  

Hall is a member of the prime minister’s Council for Science and Technology and a commissioner on the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). He also served on the adaptation committee of the independent Climate Change Committee from 2009 to 2019.  

Hall led the development of the national infrastructure systems model the NIC used in producing its first National Infrastructure Assessment. He invented the Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure in 2017 and remains chair of its strategy board.  

Among his many accolades, Hall was awarded the ICE’s George Stephenson Medal in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018. He also contributed to the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. 

David Porter

David Porter is the director of engineering at the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), which makes him the chief highways engineer for Northern Ireland.

He is also the head of the civil engineering profession within the Northern Ireland civil service. He’s responsible for the development of the department’s professional and technical staff, engineering policies and standards, and health and safety.

Previously, David was the chief executive of the Rivers Agency, the flood defence and drainage authority for Northern Ireland.

David is a past chair of the Northern Ireland region of the ICE. He’s been on the ICE Council three times: two terms as the Northern Ireland representative, and one as a general member.

Dr Hazel McDonald

Hazel McDonald has been immersed in the management of highway structures for more than three decades, mostly with Transport Scotland.  

After completing her PhD thesis on temperature effects in concrete box-girder bridges at the University of Strathclyde, she worked for Cumbria County Council, Capita Symonds and Mott MacDonald, specialising in bridge design, inspection and maintenance.  

McDonald then moved to Transport Scotland, where she has been for 20 years. In her current role, she leads a 17-strong team that manages the upkeep and upgrading of trunk road structures.  

A Fellow of the ICE, McDonald also chairs the UK Bridges Board.

Martin Land

Martin Land joined Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in 2020 to lead the development of its Mersey Tidal Power project and promote the organisation’s wider agenda on clean energy and industrial decarbonisation. He also champions the region’s involvement in the Offshore Energy Alliance.

Land, who started his career at chemicals giant ICI in 1981, has held senior development and delivery roles on major energy and railway projects with AECOM, Alstom, Bechtel, Black & Veatch, E.ON and Westinghouse.

In the rail sector, he was system-wide rail and power manager for the works between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet on HS1 and an alliance delivery director during the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line.

Land has worked on energy technologies including nuclear and conventional thermal power plants, onshore and offshore wind, underground gas storage and carbon capture. He was a member of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) expert panel for carbon-capture funding and was responsible for the original baselining scope of ETI work that led to the development of Teesside’s current carbon-capture opportunities.

Samuel Underwood

A former journalist, Sam Underwood has worked for Southern Water for the past 15 years in various communications and stakeholder management roles.

In 2024, he filled the newly created post of strategic water resources engagement lead. In this role, he develops and delivers engagement programmes explaining the firm’s plans to create new sources of water and reduce what it takes from the environment.

These projects, including a proposed wastewater recycling scheme, are designed to keep both taps and rivers flowing across a large swathe of south-east England for generations to come.

Bob Taylor

With more than four decades’ experience in the global water industry, Bob Taylor has been CEO of Portsmouth Water since 2018. Owned by private equity house Ancala Partners, the company has been providing water services on England’s south coast for more than 160 years. Today it serves about 800,000 consumers.

He was previously operations director of drinking water services at South West Water, part of the FTSE 250-listed Pennon Group. He joined the company after Pennon’s acquisition of Bournemouth Water, where he’d been operations director and then MD.

Prior to that, Taylor was a business development director with Sembcorp Industries, Singapore’s state-owned energy and urban development company. In that role he was responsible for the international growth of the group’s municipal water and wastewater business, particularly in India, the Middle East and South America.

An ICE Fellow, Taylor holds a degree in civil engineering, an MSc in public health engineering and an MBA. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management and a past national president of the Institute of Water.