ICE Strategy Session: the engineer’s impact on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Prof. Anusha Shah

Anusha Shah is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and its president for the 2023-24 session. She’s the third woman and first person of colour to be elected as president in over 200 years of ICE history.

She’s a senior director for resilient cities and UK climate change adaptation lead at Arcadis, a global sustainability, design, engineering and management consulting firm.

She’s also a non-executive director at the Met Office, a trustee at the Green Alliance and a visiting professor at Edinburgh University. She was awarded honorary professorship by the University of Wolverhampton for knowledge transfer and an honorary doctorate of engineering by the University of East London for her services to address climate change.

Anusha specialises in water and environmental engineering and has over 22 years of experience in designing, managing and leading projects and programmes in the UK and internationally.

Anusha sits on various industry climate change groups. She represents Arcadis at the London Climate Change Partnership and the 50L Home Initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She’s a past chair of the Thames Estuary Partnership Board.

Anusha is the recipient of several awards, including the 2020 Top 50 UK Women Engineers Sustainability Award and the CECA Inspiring Change Award. She was recognised by Climate Reframe as one of the UK’s leading Black, Asian and minority ethnic voices on climate change.

Prof Priti Parikh

Priti Parikh is a professor in Engineering Infrastructure and International Development at director of UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.

She is the founder director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre. This centre focuses on engineering solutions for human development and wellbeing; and researches locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions in low-middle income countries.

She has over 15 years of engineering industry experience in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the UK with consultancies to include hands-on experience of designing infrastructure for slums in partnership with local communities. She was awarded the prestigious BBOXX/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair fellowship that focuses on energy access in sub-Sahara Africa through smart solar solutions.

Priti was the editor-in-chief of ICE’s Engineering Sustainability journal for three years. She then went on to get elected to ICE Council and is a member of the Learned Society Committee. She also sits on the board of Happold Foundation and Engineers Against Poverty to influence strategy on engineering and development.

Priti was named as one of the 100 most influential academics in the UK Government for her work in climate and sustainability by Apolitical and as the top 50 women in engineering in 2022. Priti’s research has influenced policy and practice especially the work around evidencing links between infrastructure and Sustainable Development Goals with governments and charities.

Keith Howells

Keith Howells is the 158th President of the ICE.

Having graduated in civil engineering in 1974, Keith joined one of the founder members of the Mott MacDonald Group and spent the first 10 years of his career in infrastructure design and project management, mostly in the water and transport sectors. On completing an MBA in 1986, he became involved with the planning, feasibility, and financial and economic analysis of projects, principally in the water and environmental sectors. Over the next decade he worked on numerous projects funded by the international finance institutions as well as by UK government bodies.

Keith has built career long experience in the planning, study and design of hydraulic structures, hydropower, urban drainage, sewerage, water supply and river engineering schemes. He has worked in numerous countries as well as in the UK. He ran the firm’s Water and Environment business from 1997 to 2002, before becoming the Group Managing Director in 2004, directing the firm’s expansion in North America and Australasia. Keith became Chair of the Group’s Executive Board in 2011, responsible to shareholders for the performance of the company and its strategic direction – a role he continued until mid-2019.

Keith was on the board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering from 2011 to 2015, and its Chair in 2013; he was a member of the CBI’s Construction Council from 2013 to 2019; and a member of the Cranfield School of Management Advisory Board from 2012 to 2020.  He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Blake Scott

Blake Scott, GMICE, is a consultant civil engineer at WSP and works in the water industry. Since graduating from Newcastle University in 2020 with an MEng in Civil and Structural Engineering, Blake has worked on projects around the UK including spending 12 months on the North London Heat and Power Project working as a NEC 4 supervisor.

He spent the last half of 2022 completing the detailed design of major upgrades to the Howdon Sewage Treatment Works, Northumbrian Waters second largest asset.

He is currently working on design and build completing detail design for a Yorkshire Water project.

Blake is one of Keith Howell’s ICE Presidents Future Leaders for 2022/2023.

Lucy Davison

Lucy is one of ICE President Keith Howells’ Future Leaders (2022-23) and a design do-ordinator at SYSTRA, with nine-years’ experience working in the rail sector.

Lucy is a Level 7 Degree Apprentice studying the MSc (Eng) Railway Systems Engineering and Integration at the University of Birmingham and is working towards Chartership.

Since commencing her career in 2014, Lucy has worked across a variety of high-profile projects in the UK and successfully acted as lead engineer on five projects.

Lucy has recently redefined the way SYSTRA deliver projects through developing a new digital tool and process.

Lucy’s qualities have been rewarded through several national and company awards.

Rohinee Pattani

Rohinee Pattani is an assistant engineer at AtkinsRéalis and one of Keith Howells’ ICE President’s Future Leaders for 2022/23.

She has over four years of experience on projects involving structural dynamics including seismic analysis and structural integrity assessments. Rohinee is also involved in initiatives leading change within the business, such as upskilling in automation and Python, and a Net Zero Taskforce embedding Net Zero thinking and PAS 2080 principles onto projects.

She is a previous chair of the cross-industry Strategic Design Partnership Early Careers Network, with over 2000 members.

Rohinee graduated with an MEng in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London in 2019 and is based in London, having previously worked in The Netherlands and Australia.

Svetlana Joao

Svetlana Joao is a structural engineer at TYPSA, working on the HS2 Project, an ICE President Future Leader 2022-2023, and TOP 50 Women in Engineering 2023.

She is working in the site support of the HS2 C2/C3 by managing the tasks and activities of various teams, and also undertaking the complexity of the construction queries. In her role, Svetlana acts as the bridge between the contractor (EKFB), adeptly handling communication and collaboration on behalf of her team.

Kyle McLean

Kyle McLean is a civil engineer at Mott MacDonald who has experience in delivering large scale dams and river engineering projects both in the UK and overseas.

He is currently working on a major Asian Development Bank funded flood and riverbank erosion project in Bangladesh and has previously worked on several UK flood defence and water supply schemes, including Ouse Washes - the UK's largest flood storage reservoir.

Kyle graduated with an MEng in civil engineering from the University of Sheffield in 2020, is the previous chair of the British Dam Society Young Professional Group and was one of Keith Howell’s ICE Presidents Future Leaders for 2022/2023.

Rachel Hayden

Rachel is a Chartered Civil Engineer, currently working as a senior engineer at WSP.

She is the ICE SW STEM Ambassador of the Year 2024, chair of the ICE Truro City Club and was one of the 2022/23 ICE President’s Future Leaders. 

Rachel graduated with a first-class MEng civil engineering degree from the University of Bath in 2021.

Prior to working at WSP, Rachel worked at both Bechtel and Laing O’Rourke on projects including The Grange University Hospital, Hinkley Point C, CityFibre and Devonport Dockyards.

After winning the UK Construction & Engineering Undergraduate of the Year in 2018, Rachel also completed a summer working across Australia.

Benjamin Delmond

Benjamin Delmond is a civil engineer working for Jacobs, with a diverse career in the water industry. Initially focusing on drainage design, he worked on prominent projects such as the MetroLink and BusConnects.

Since then, he has been working on Europe's largest coastal erosion initiative and devising strategic plans for Irish Water.

Actively involved with the ICE, he previously held the position of President Future Leader and now chairs the ECNet in Ireland, organising events and educational sessions for early careers engineers.

Benjamin's research in sustainable pollution removal recently earned him the Pollution Mitigation of the Year Award.