Biographies
Current members of the IET Board of Trustees.
President
Professor C M Snowden FRS FREng
Professor Christopher Snowden is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Surrey, UK. He is President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, chairing the Academy’s Engineering Policy Group. He is a non-executive Director of Intense Ltd., which designs and manufactures photonic products; a Member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Defence Scientific Advisory Council. Professor Snowden is a member of the governing body of the Technology Strategy Board and a member of the Board of Universities UK (UUK) chairing its Employability, Business and Industry Policy Committee.
His first position after graduating was at Mullard Ltd. as an Applications Engineer. His PhD studies were later conducted in association with Racal‑MESL Ltd. He has worked as the Senior Staff Scientist in Corporate Research and Development at M/A-COM Inc. in the USA. Professor Snowden has acted as a consultant for major international microwave electronics companies in Europe and the USA. He has been a non-executive director of several companies.
He held the personal Chair of Microwave Engineering at the University of Leeds from 1992 to 2005. During the period 1995-98 he was Head of the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. Prior to his current role at Surrey, he was Chief Executive Officer of Filtronic ICS. He joined Filtronic plc in 1998 and was promoted to Joint Chief Executive Officer in 1999.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IET, a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute. He was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Silver Medal in 2004 and was awarded the 1999 Microwave Prize of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He is a member of the IET Communications Panel and the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society CAD Technical Committee. In June 2009 he was awarded the IEEE Distinguished Educator Award of the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.
Deputy Presidents
Dr N J Burton BSc(Eng) PhD
Nigel Burton became chief financial officer and executive board member of Advanced Power AG in May 2008. Prior to joining Advanced Power, Nigel was finance director of Granby Oil and Gas plc, a UK based oil and gas exploration and production company, which he floated on AIM in 2005 and led the sale of in early 2008, following four years as chief financial officer of WILink plc, an international web based financial information and corporate communications business.
Nigel has over 14 years’ experience of Investment Banking at leading City institutions including UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank, principally as the managing director responsible for the energy and utilities industries. Nigel graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University College London, before undertaking a PhD in Acoustic Imaging. He previously worked in manufacturing, and is a Chartered Electrical Engineer (FIET).
Nigel is an active angel investor, focusing on technology, media and energy businesses. Nigel has been actively involved in the IET for over 25 years, including as Chairman of London Younger members, London Centre, the national Younger members Committee, the Audit and Investment Committees, and the Power Trading and Control TPN. He is currently a Deputy President and a member of the IET Board of Trustees
Vice Presidents
Mr H V Bell BSc
Hamish Bell is a consultant with a career that has encompassed senior positions in computer design, software, complex systems, and marketing. For the last 17 years he has provided consultancy in the fields of design, manufacture and quality assurance. Within the IET he has served on Council and associated Boards, and the Consultants’ Network, undertaken CEng interviewing, and provided membership advice.
Self-employed, active, and no longer needing to work full-time, he devotes his energy and time to promoting the IET and profession. He particularly supports greater autonomy for the major world regions to enable the development of the global character of the Institution. At the other end of the scale, he endeavours to encourage more participation by SMEs in Institution activities. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute.
Dr D Byrne OBE BSc MBA PhD
Dolores is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast where she was awarded a BSc Hons and PhD in Physics, specialising in electro-optics. She also holds a MBA from Southampton University. During her career with QinetiQ and its predecessor organisations Dolores has held a number of technical and managerial positions as the organisation progressed from being part of Government to transitioning in 2001 to the private sector.
Following privatisation Dolores was appointed as Managing Director Public Sector with responsibility for leading the development of civil business across the public sector. In 2007 Dolores was appointed MD Innovation. Dolores is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and has served as Vice-President of the Institute of Physics.
Dolores was a member of the national WISE Board (Women in Science & Engineering), a member of the board of the MOD Defence Engineering and Science Group and a school governor for seven years.
Currently Dolores is a member of the board of AIRTO (Association of Independent Research and Technology Organisations), of the board of SEMTA (Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies) and of the Science, Engineering and Technology Advisory Council of SEEDA. “Over the last decade career paths have changed significantly.
Globalisation, the pace of discovery, demographic changes and other factors will continue to impact the professional engineer’s career direction. The IET has an increasingly important role in the twenty-first century and I believe it is important that the IET maintains its commitment to providing services valued by its members.
I am keen that IET promotes the interests of the profession with Government and strengthens its international relationships. I am particularly keen that the IET has a vibrant campaign to encourage young people into the profession and to support their career development.”
Dr N F Chin BSc MSc PhD
N F Chin graduated from Strathclyde University with a 1st Class Honours BSc in electrical and electronic engineering in 1974 and a research MSc in 1976. In 1975 he started his professional career in power system protection, communication and control with GEC Measurements, UK. In 1981 he started his overseas tour of duty in Hong Kong becoming Deputy Vice President for the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions before leaving the company, then part of Alsthom, in 2001.
He is currently a Director with PowerNets Marketing Limited in Hong Kong providing technical consultancy and commercial sales and marketing services. Dr Chin served on the IET Hong Kong Committee since formation in 1988, becoming Chairman in 1992. He is currently IET International Membership Advisor and one of Registration Panel members dealing with professional registration.
He also served a 3-year term with EC(UK) International Advisory Panel. He has also served in IEEE Hong Kong Committee and was its Chairman in 1997 & 1998. Academically Dr Chin has been External Examiner, Advisor and course-revalidation panel member in Hong Kong with Polytechnic University; Honorary Lecturer with City University and reviewer with the University Grants Committee.
In 1995 he received a PhD from Bath University UK for his research work in power system protection.
Professor A Hopper CBE FREng FRS
Andy Hopper is Professor of Computer Technology at the University of Cambridge and Head of the Computer Laboratory. His research interests include networking, pervasive and sentient computing, and using computers for assuring the sustainability of the planet. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College.
Andy Hopper has pursued academic and industrial careers in parallel. In the academic career he has worked in the Computer Laboratory and the Department of Engineering at Cambridge. In the industrial career he has co-founded a dozen companies, two of which floated on stock markets. He is currently chairman of RealVNC and Ubisense. He has been an IET Ordinary Trustee (2003-2006) and a member of the IT Sector Panel (2002-2007).
Professor Hopper received the BSc degree from the University of Wales Swansea (1974) and the PhD degree from the University of Cambridge (1978). He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1996) and of the Royal Society (2006). He was made a CBE for services to the computer industry (2007).
Mr A J Watts BSc
Alan is a successful entrepreneur with strong technical marketing skills who can bring the smaller company perspective to the IET. Graduating with first class honours, he founded a company manufacturing automatic test equipment. After growing the company with venture capital, Alan then spearheaded the aggressive re-branding as Yelo Ltd leading to the successful acquisition by the Canadian Mindready group.
Alan has been VP Marketing+Sales and General Manager of the acquired business unit employing a team of 50. Seeking a new challenge, Alan has joined a venture capital funded university spin-out developing innovative wireless medical devices. Alan has always been active in the profession. For the IEE he has been Northern Ireland Branch Chairman and a Trustee.
He is strongly identified with younger engineers having been IEE National Younger members Chairman for three years and an Engineering Council Senator where he founded their young engineer organisation. In the IET he has chaired the TPN, Horizontal and Ethics working parties. Alan believes the IET still has much to do to improve how it is perceived from outside.
He believes he would bring skills to the Board to assist this including: Representing the views of the growing institution membership working in SMEs, his experience as a successful entrepreneur, expertise which combines engineering experience across a number of industries with marketing and branding skills and in depth experience of institution issues gained at both local and national level including three years on the Board of Trustees.
Professor W T Webb FREng BEng MBA PhD
William graduated from Southampton University with a BEng in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in cellular communications in which he invented the concept of variable level modulation – now used in almost all wireless communications systems. He then worked for a range of consultancy companies including Multiple Access Communications, Detica and PA Consulting providing advice across the wireless sector. This included developing the concept and standard for the variant of GSM adopted by the European railways and some of the seminal work on the value of spectrum and spectrum pricing.
He worked for Motorola in the US as a Director of Corporate Strategy, working closely with the CEO and his senior team on a number of the major strategic issues to confront the telecommunications industry in the period 1999-2001. He is now Head of R&D at Ofcom where he leads on technology and spectrum strategy issues including setting Ofcom’s research agenda and developing policy in areas such as new ways of licensing spectrum, optimising the use of unlicensed spectrum and enabling new technologies such as ultra wideband and cognitive radio.
He is a Visiting Professor at Surrey University and DeMontfort University, has published 10 books and almost 100 papers and is the creator and series editor of “Wireless Essentials”, a book series published by Cambridge University Press. He was one of the youngest ever Fellows elected to the Royal Academy and also to Fellowship at the IEEE. He has worked closely with Institutions having held many roles in the IET and Royal Academy. He has extensive experience of working across industry, Government and academia, having played key roles in each.
Ordinary Members
Professor C S Aitchison BSc ARCS
Colin Aitchison obtained his Physics degree from Imperial College, London, and has spent about half his subsequent engineering career in industry, later joining academia and becoming Department Head at Chelsea (later Kings) College London, then Department Head and Dean of the Faculty of Technology at Brunel University. Thus he has experienced professional life as an Engineer in two quite different environments.
His engineering expertise lies in research into microwave components for communication systems; he has published some 180 research papers. He is Emeritus Professor of both London and Brunel Universities, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Physicist. He is a Fellow of the IET and the IEEE and a Member of the Institute of Physics, with an aggregate membership of more than 100 years. He is thus able to compare their services.
He has served on many IEE and IET Committees and Boards in his 36 year membership and is currently an IET Council member. He is also an active member of the UK Surrey Branch.
He was a representative of the petitioners arguing for the recent SGM and a member of the subsequent Working Party to review the Charter and Byelaws, whose recommendations were overwhelmingly adopted by the membership.
“Conversations with many members in recent years have shown that they regard the Institution as essentially a fellowship of professional engineers; its prime function should be to provide a learned society service in accordance with the membership’s expressed wishes.
They also suggest that, although the Institution must be financially viable, its primary function is not that of a business. They feel that if membership is to be increased, this should be achieved by enhancement of the Institution’s reputation amongst professional engineers so that they aspire to become members. I shall endeavour, wherever practical, to support these views.”
Miss M G Fitzgerald BA/BE
Marguerite Fitzgerald is a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that she worked in the Power Industry as a project engineer. In 1999, Marguerite joined the IEE as a student and was instrumental in establishing the first Younger Members’ Section in Australia.
From then on her involvement in the Institution’s activities grew considerably; she led the re-launch of the Australian Technical Presentation Prize in 2002 and became Chair of both IET Victoria in 2003 and the IET Australia Forum in 2004. Under her leadership, Australia saw a growth in members and active volunteers together with the building of stronger relationships with other institutions that operate locally.
In March 2007, Marguerite resigned from her Australian chairmanships to undertake MBA studies at INSEAD, in France, sponsored by her employer.
Mr C H Porter BSc(Eng)
Colin Porter is the engineering director of Lloyd’s Register Rail Ltd. He has an engineering degree from Queen Mary College, London, and trained as a signal and telecommunications engineer with British Rail with a variety of engineering and management roles becoming the Group S&T Engineer of British Rail Infrastructure Services.
At the time of railway privatisation he joined the American signalling company Harmon Industries becoming managing director of its UK subsidiary, by then GE Transportation Systems (UK). In 2001 he joined Lloyds’s Register Rail leading the business development and engineering activities of the company. He is a past president of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers and currently a Board member of the Engineering Council (UK).
Colin has been a professional review interviewer for many years and was elected as a Trustee in October 2006, with a “manifesto” to ensure that the IET continued to provide a focus for electrical engineers and to support its member’s needs, whilst continuing its development into a broader multifunctional organisation.
Mr J G P Scott BSc(Eng)
John has a career background in electrical power engineering and brings a passionate concern to see the sector evolve to meet the challenges ahead. He sees these challenges as global issues that include sustainability and renewable energy, the replacement of time-expired infrastructure, and the critical need for skills and supply chain capabilities.
Following his roles with National Grid as National Control Centre manager and Director of Engineering, John spent six years as the Technical Director of Ofgem the GB regulator. From this he brings a pragmatic mix of technical, managerial and regulatory experience.
John currently works for KEMA Consulting Ltd, a company based in The Netherlands and with offices around the world, including the UK. Through his contacts he maintains an international interest in power system developments including smart grids, regulatory structures, and asset management.
He believes that the challenges ahead will affect individuals and whole sectors and it’s John’s conviction that the IET has an essential role to play. John’s view is that the Institution must rise to the challenges; it must adapt to its new context yet maintain core values and standards. It will need to sharpen its strategic vision, listen to the opinions of members and others, broaden its base of interests, and operate in an open style that brings out the best from all parties.
John chairs the IET’s Prestige Lectures Committee, is a member of the IET Energy Sector Panel, is a member of the UK Energy Research Centre Advisory Board, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Bath.
Eur Ing A D Stringer BEng
Andrew Stringer joined British Rail in 1993 as a sponsored student and read Electronic Engineering at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He has worked as a railway signal engineer in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. He has also worked to recruit and train engineering graduates and students. He is currently the Project Engineering Manager for Westinghouse Rail Systems on the Leamington Corridor Re-signalling project.
Andrew has been an active member of both the IET and the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers. He has been a member of Council of the IET since 2005. He is also a Science and Engineering Ambassador, working with local schools to promote technology-based careers.
Professor S Williamson FREng BSc(Eng) PhD DSc(Eng)
A graduate of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College, Steve has spent most of his career in universities, punctuated by a spell as Technical Director of Brook Crompton from 1997-2000. In his academic career he has held posts at Aberdeen, Imperial College, Cambridge, and Manchester; moving to his current post at Surrey in February 2009. He is a member of the Executive of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council, and is chair of Rolls-Royce’s Electrical and Controls Advisory Board. He was chair of the RAE2008 Sub-Panel for Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which was tasked with assessing the quality of the research carried out in this discipline in all of the UK’s universities.
Steve has been active in the Institution for most of his career, having joined the long defunct London Graduates and Students Section Committee in 1971, and been Chair of the Power Division Board in 1996. More recently he has been Chairman of the Awards and Prizes Working Group and a member of the Energy Sector Panel. Currently he is a member of the Prestige lecture Working Group and is Editor-in-Chief of IET Electric Power Applications. He was awarded an IEE Achievement Medal in 2000.
Steve has always maintained strong links with industry, and believes that one of the important roles of the IET is to catalyse and promote interactions between industry and academe. In the current economic climate the flow of ideas, knowledge, and skilled people from universities into industry is more important than at any time in recent history, and the role to be played by the Institution in this respect assumes even greater importance.