Inspiring Engineering Excellence 2025

Julie Bregulla

Julie is chief technical officer at the British Board of Agrément (BBA), which she joined in 2023. She oversees the quality and assurance teams, supporting the BBA in driving industry safety and quality through providing services that help clients by enabling innovation, identifying risk and demonstrating fitness-for-purpose. Julie has previously worked at TEDI-London (the Engineering and Design Institute London) and BRE (the Building Research Establishment). She is also a former ICE Trustee. 

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. 

Katherine Bennett

In leading the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), Katherine Bennett serves as an ambassador for UK design, engineering and manufacturing. She works with industry, academia and government to commercialise cutting-edge R&D and advance national strategic priorities including clean energy, healthtech and sustainable production.

As part of her role at the HMVC, Bennett chaired the previous government’s Task and Finish Group on Industry Resilience for Critical Minerals and served on another independent expert panel, the Levelling Up Advisory Council.

As a current member of the Tata Steel/Port Talbot Transition Board, she helps national partners to implement support programmes for people affected by the move to lower-carbon steel-making.

Before joining the HVMC in 2021, Bennett spent 16 years with Airbus, where she led the firm’s corporate affairs activities and developed its UK strategy. While there, she also chaired Western Gateway, an intergovernmental project to boost economic growth in an area of England and Wales stretching from Wiltshire to Pembrokeshire.

Bennett, who holds honorary doctorates from Cranfield University and UWE Bristol, was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to the aerospace industry.

Paul Sheffield

Before his presidential term at the ICE in 2019-20, Paul Sheffield spent his career chiefly as a contractor working across the built environment sector, both in the UK and abroad.

He served 32 years at Kier Group, where he delivered construction projects ranging from dams and desalination plants to power stations and underground railways.

Sheffield spent a decade on Kier’s board, including five years as CEO, before moving to Laing O’Rourke to head its businesses in Europe and the Middle East. There he worked on major undertakings such as Crossrail, Hinkley Point C nuclear plant and the Thames Tideway tunnel.

Having served as a non-executive director at Southern Water for nine years, he is currently a non-exec at Royal BAM Groep, an international contracting organisation based in the Netherlands.

Sheffield has also worked as a special adviser to Manchester Airports Group, guiding its board on large capital expansion programmes.

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.

Adrian Arnold

After graduating from Imperial College London in 1977, Adrian Arnold started his career in bridge engineering. On qualifying as a CEng MICE four years later, he moved to TF Burns & Partners, a consultancy specialising in dry docks. Since then, he has worked on all kinds of shipyard facilities around the world for what is now Royal HaskoningDHV UK.

As well as overseeing business development at the company, Arnold leads large multidisciplinary projects with a focus on maximising the efficiency of shipyard facilities at the optimal whole-life cost, including to the environment.

In 2013, he was responsible for the update to BS 6349-3: Maritime works – code of practice for the design of shipyards and sea locks.

Arnold is particularly interested in advancing engineering knowledge and ensuring that this is handed on the next generation. As part of this, he is investigating how AI and digital twin technology can best be used to enhance the human “engineering brain”.

Dr Kathy Ziwei Wen

A specialist in using applied statistics to solve geotechnical challenges, Kathy Ziwei Wen holds a DPhil in geoenvironmental engineering from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research concerned the mechanical behaviour of cohesionless soils, with applications to offshore foundation design methods.

In her role at GeoIntel, Wen uses advanced statistical methods to optimise offshore geotechnical design, site investigation sequencing and risk assessment for renewable energy projects. She focuses on using data to achieve efficiencies – for instance, analysing soil parameter variability to reduce unnecessary testing.

Wen serves as a lead tutor at Oxford too, teaching applied geotechnics and soil mechanics. She also provides outreach courses in sustainable engineering, Bayesian statistics and data analytics, working with students from diverse backgrounds to inspire the next generation of engineers.

Kamlesh Kumar Maurya

An ICE Fellow and member of Institution of Engineering and Technology, Kamlesh Kumar Maurya is a specialist in digitally transforming infrastructure delivery.

With a background in computer-aided design, he has gained particular expertise in building information modelling (BIM), a collaborative process that entails creating and managing digital representations of real structures.

In his current role at WSP, Maurya spearheads the development of BIM models for significant projects, including High Speed Two – which he considers a key career milestone. He works closely with clients, architects and engineers to establish the design requirements, ensuring conformance with the relevant industry standards and safety protocols.

As a team leader, Maurya focuses on nurturing a culture of innovation and continuous learning. Also serving as a mentor, he hopes to inspire the next generation of leaders and further raise standards in the profession.

Leon Black

Professor Leon Black is an analytical chemist by training, but has spent more than 25 years researching the durability of construction materials. 

His studies have focused on the durability of low-carbon concrete in particular. He is interested in how the careful selection of constituents can improve the concrete in aspects such as its structural performance, longevity and sustainability. His presentation will cover work analysing the impact of mix design parameters on concrete’s thermal conductivity.

Clotilde Robin

A chartered civil engineer with 20 years’ experience, Clotilde Robin is a specialist in bridge design. She has participated in projects ranging from footbridges all the way up to major infrastructure construction programmes. 

A member of the Institution of Structural Engineers’ Net Zero Bridge Group, Robin is working to ensure that environmental sustainability and social value are more embedded into the design and construction processes.

Dr Chao Wu

Chao Wu leads the composites for energy infrastructure group at Imperial College London’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Wu’s expertise lies in high-performance materials and technologies with applications in wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, nuclear and hydrogen energy. He and his team are working to enable a new generation of energy infrastructure to achieve a green transition to net zero.

He also teaches undergraduate and MSc modules in fields including polymer composites, structural design and the mechanics of materials.

Sarah Calder

A chartered civil engineer, Sarah Calder has been working at Skanska Group to deliver large infrastructure projects for the past 10 years.

In her current role, she ensures that the company uses AI to enhance the efficiency, sustainability and overall performance of projects across the business.

Mark Coates

A former quantity surveyor, Mark Coates started out in the construction industry more than 35 years ago. He has worked for organisations including Crossrail, Highways England, ICI, the Olympic Delivery Authority, Thames Water and United Utilities.

At Bentley Systems, Coates advises government and business decision-makers around the world on the benefits of digital transformation. He has worked on a range of infrastructure projects over the past 15 years, advising asset owners on the best technologies to use to optimise what these deliver under the given budgetary and scheduling constraints.

Coates chairs the international forum of industry body British Water and is a member of the Digital Twin Hub’s strategic board. He sits on the Institute of Government and Public Policy’s advisory board and the ICE’s Inspiring Engineering Excellence community advisory board.

Coates is also a trustee of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors and a member of its council of management.

Graham Robinson

On top of his role at Pinsent Masons, a law firm advising most of the world’s biggest building contractors, Graham Robinson is also global infrastructure and construction lead at the Oxford Economics consultancy.

Recognised by Engineering News-Record as a leading construction economist, Robinson has written numerous reports about the industry, including Global Construction Futures. He is a seasoned conference speaker too, having delivered 100-plus keynote addresses in more than 20 countries.

Before joining Pinsent Masons in 2010, Robinson worked as an independent consultant, advising several blue-chip companies on major change programmes. That followed a five-year stint as a partner at Gleeds, where he was head of management consulting.

Prior to that, he spent a decade as commercial director of the University of Reading’s Centre for Strategic Studies in Construction.

Robinson sits on the Department of Business and Trade advisory board for Ukraine’s reconstruction. He’s also a member of the Building Safety Regulator’s innovation and trends working group.