Infrastructure in 2023: what are the big challenges for engineers?

Keith Howells

Keith Howells served as the 158th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Having graduated in civil engineering in 1974, Keith joined one of the founding members of the Mott MacDonald Group and spent the first 10 years of his career in infrastructure design and project management, primarily in the water and transport sectors. After completing an MBA in 1986, he expanded his focus to planning, feasibility, and financial and economic analysis of projects, mainly in the water and environmental sectors. Over the following decade, he contributed to numerous projects funded by international finance institutions as well as UK government bodies.

Keith has extensive experience in the planning, study, and design of hydraulic structures, hydropower, urban drainage, sewerage, water supply, and river engineering schemes. He has worked both in the UK and internationally. He led the firm’s Water and Environment business from 1997 to 2002, before becoming Group Managing Director in 2004, guiding the company’s expansion in North America and Australasia. Keith chaired the Group’s Executive Board from 2011 until mid-2019, overseeing company performance and strategic direction.

Keith’s leadership roles also include serving on the board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering from 2011 to 2015, including a term as Chair in 2013, membership of the CBI’s Construction Council from 2013 to 2019, and participation on the Cranfield School of Management Advisory Board from 2012 to 2020. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

David Porter

David Porter is director of engineering with the Department for Infrastructure, which is Northern Ireland’s highways authority. In this role, he is also the chief highways engineer and head of the civil engineering profession in the Northern Ireland civil service.

Porter is responsible for the development of the department’s professional and technical staff, engineering policies and standards, and health and safety. He also leads on procurement and the internal consultancy.

Previously, he was chief executive of the Rivers Agency, Northern Ireland’s flood defence and drainage authority.

Porter has served on the ICE Council three times, twice as the Northern Ireland representative and once as a general member. He is a trustee who, until recently, held the learning society portfolio. He has also served on several institution committees and panels.

A fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering, Porter was awarded the Poskitt Medal by ICE Northern Ireland in 2017 and the President’s Award by Engineers Ireland in 2018.

Ian Parke

Ian is currently the co-chair of the ICE’s Low Carbon Energy Community Advisory Board (CAB). He is also a reviewer of candidates for CPR & IPR and a Policy Fellow at the ICE.

Ian is the current UK president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers.

His recent experience has been in renewable energy, working for EDF Renewables on a variety of projects including Battery Storage, solar, and on and offshore wind turbines. Ian worked at EDF for twelve years where in addition to working on renewables, he was the Fleet Civil Engineer for EDF thermal generation. Prior to EDF Ian was working on several energy related projects including underground gas storage and transmission.

Ian is an accredited storage tank inspector working within Nuclear and petrochemicals.

Ian is a former director of the Engineering Equipment and Materials Association and a former chair of the Civil Engineering Advisory Board for GENSIP (Coal Generators Safety & Integrity Programme).

Fiona Barbour

Fiona Barbour has been working for more than two decades to reduce the impact of climate change through flood risk management, mostly at Mott MacDonald, which she joined in 2011. She is currently supporting the development of Anglian Water’s new reservoir programme.

An ICE Fellow, Barbour has been active in the institution – including chairing its Edinburgh Area Branch – since graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 2002. She became chair of its Flooding Community Advisory Board in 2020 and now co-leads the Resilience Community Forum, representing the ICE at conferences and in interviews with the media, including BBC Radio 4’s PM programme. She is a member of the ICE’s Learning Society Committee and has recently been appointed Scottish regional representative for the ICE Council.

Lewis Barlow

Lewis Barlow is the ICE’s Trustee for Carbon and Climate and a leading expert in whole life infrastructure decarbonisation. With over 25 years of experience, he advises local authorities, developers and governments on achieving net zero.

Lewis has managed environmental risks and minimised carbon emissions on projects around the world, earning international recognition for his contributions to the climate crisis. 

As a regular guest lecturer and ICE Tutor, Lewis promotes professional development and actively shares best practice on carbon reduction. He authored and continues to present the ICE’s Carbon Management in Infrastructure and Carbon in Infrastructure Procurement courses. 

Instrumental in developing new carbon management technical guidance and policy, Lewis has significantly impacted major projects and programmes, including through his secondment to the Scottish Government, where he worked on the £5 billion City and Regional Growth Deals capital investment programme. 

Lewis plays a pivotal role in shaping the ICE’s approach to infrastructure decarbonisation, steering the ICE’s Carbon Management Plan and contributing to PAS 2080: Carbon Management in Buildings and Infrastructure.

He advocates for the uptake of PAS 2080 and emphasises the vital role of civil and infrastructure engineers in connecting national net zero targets with project delivery.