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

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

Dr 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.

She 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.

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.

Paula McMahon

With a civil engineering career spanning more than 30 years, Paula McMahon has held significant roles on high-profile projects including the Thames Barrier, Hinkley Point C atomic power station and Dubal, the UAE’s first aluminium-smelting plant.

An honorary professor at Teesside University, McMahon is a Fellow of both the ICE and the Chartered Management Institute. In recognition of her valued service, the ICE awarded her the Warren Medal in 2023. She also holds the Isabel Hardwich Medal from the Women’s Engineering Society.

Stuart Norman

Appointed this year as a director of Keltbray Group subsidiary Hiperenergy, Stuart Norman is a Chartered Engineer and ICE Fellow with more than 25 years’ experience in the field of piling and foundations. 

His career milestones include establishing Keltbray’s piling service as a leader in its sector, delivering key projects such as the Silvertown Tunnel in east London, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 8 Bishopsgate, a 200m-plus skyscraper in the Square Mile. 

Norman’s sustainability-focused engineering innovations have included introducing the UK’s first ultra-low-carbon concrete within permanent works foundations. More recently, he led the development of the Hiperpile product suite all the way from concept to market. The ICE has named this the winner of its 2025 Brunel Medal, which recognises successful low-carbon solutions in the built environment.

Carol Andrews

An experienced manager of highways and active travel projects, Carol Andrews is an associate director at Arup in Belfast, where she has worked on the A8, the A26 and the Connswater Community Greenway scheme. 

Andrews is currently the programme manager in the client partner leadership team for the €2.5bn (£2.1bn) BusConnects project in Dublin on behalf of Ireland’s National Transport Authority. 
 
A Chartered Civil Engineer, Andrews is a member of the ICE Northern Ireland committee. She also chairs the industry advisory board for the department of civil and structural engineering at Queen’s University Belfast.

James Chambers

James Chambers has spent nearly three decades as a technology specialist in the architecture, engineering, construction and operations sector. His focus throughout that time has been on advancing the industry through digitalisation. As director of global industry development for the build and construct division of Nemetschek Group (Bluebeam’s parent company), Chambers is responsible for ensuring the global alignment of technology solutions with the industry’s needs. 

Martin Lambley

Drawing on more than 25 years’ industry experience, Martin Lambley helps Wavin to create climate resilience solutions for towns and cities in 80-plus countries. 

After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a degree in environmental engineering in 1993, Lambley became a specialist in developing and marketing products designed to aid stormwater management. 

At Wavin, which he joined in 2015, his areas of focus include tackling urban water resourcing and sanitation challenges around the world 

Cerys Wyn Davies

Cerys Wyn Davies heads Pinsent Masons’ strategic intellectual property (IP) team in Birmingham and is also co-leader of its global AI advisory service.  

She has been with the firm for three decades, having joined from Clifford Chance in 1995.

Wyn Davies is a specialist in IP protection and data privacy law, advising clients in industries including construction, energy and pharmaceuticals. She has dealt with matters ranging from high-value licensing agreements to disputes about patents and trademarks.

She was named UK IP Transactions Lawyer of the Year at the 2025 Managing IP Awards.

Prof Priti Parikh

Professor Priti Parikh is the director of UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction and the founding director of its Engineering for International Development Centre. The centre’s key research interests include finding locally acceptable water, sanitation and energy solutions in low- to middle-income countries. 
 
Parikh has more than 20 years’ engineering consultancy experience in the UK, Asia and Africa, which has included working with slum communities to design infrastructure. In 2019, the Royal Academy of Engineering and Bboxx awarded her a five-year fellowship to fund research into how smart solar tech can improve access to energy in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
An ICE trustee since 2023, Parikh also sits on the board of the Happold Foundation, a charity helping engineers to participate in humanitarian projects around the globe. 
 
Apolitical, an online knowledge-sharing platform for public servants worldwide, named Parikh on its 100 Most Influential Academics in Government list in 2021. The following year, she won a Top 50 Women in Engineering Award from the Women’s Engineering Society.