Mr C M Earnshaw FREng BSc

Chris Earnshaw is managing director of Oakleigh Ventures advising private equity and other clients in the IT and communications sectors.  He has held a number of senior roles in the private and public sector.  He was a member of the executive management board of British Telecommunications plc from 1991 to 2002 and served as managing director networks and systems and group engineering director.  

From 2004 – 2007 he was chairman of the UK Police IT Organisation.  He is currently a director of a number of private and industry professional boards and is chairman of Cranfield Ventures Ltd.  He is an adviser to the UK government’s Convergence Think Tank.  Throughout his career he has been active in promoting the importance of engineering and science and professional standards across industry and the wider public.  

He was awarded the 2001 IEEE Ernst Weber award for global industry leadership and is an Honorary Fellow of University College, London.  He is a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering.  

A member of the IET (and IEE) for over 35 years he has been a trustee since 2001 and has served the IET in a number of roles, including chairman of a Local Younger members Section, a member of Divisional and Professional Group boards and as a Chairman of the Qualifications, Technical and Professional Services as well as the Finance and Investment boards of the IET.

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

 

Professor C M Snowden FRS FREng 

Christopher Snowden is vice-chancellor and chief executive of the university of surrey, UK. He is a non-executive director of Intense Ltd, which designs and manufactures photonic products and is the chairman of HERO Ltd. Professor Snowden is a member of the UK’s National Advisory Committee on Electronic Materials and Devices, and is a member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. 

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. Chris has acted as a consultant for major international microwave electronics companies in Europe and the USA. 

He held the personal Chair of Microwave Engineering at the University of Leeds from 1992 to 2005 and 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. He was awarded the 1999 Microwave Prize of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He is a member of the IET Communications Sector Panel.

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. 

Cdre B P S Brooks BSc(Eng) FCGI

Barry Brooks joined the Royal Navy in 1968 and read Electrical Engineering at Imperial College. He served in nuclear submarines (as nuclear propulsion engineer and as weapons engineer), R&D and weapon system projects, and in MOD Whitehall and Cabinet Office posts. He helped to design and deliver the Smart Acquisition change programme, and to merge Navy, Army and RAF logistics into the Defence Logistics Organisation. 

For his second career, he is a management consultant, helping organisations to benefit from complex change programmes. Barry is a Fellow of the IET, City & Guilds of London Institute and Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers. As President of City & Guilds College Association, he built closer links between alumni and engineering students of Imperial College. 

He has been active on the IEE (now IET) Benevolent Fund Court and Case Committee for several years. As Chairman of IEE Somerset & West Wiltshire Branch, he doubled the event programme and took it to the towns where members are concentrated. On Council since 2003, he argued strongly for the IEE to do better at meeting members’ needs – with some success. 

As a Trustee and Vice-President of the IEE (now the IET) since 2005, and Chairman of the IET Membership and Regions Board, he has encouraged the consultative approach that has resulted in more interactive engagement of members in the UK and abroad. 

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.

Dr M J Short BA

Dr Mike Short’s career spans 33 years in electronics and telecommunications, with the last 20 years in mobile communications.  He was appointed contracts director of Cellnet in 1989 dealing with major infra-structure investments and UK interconnect agreements.  In 1993 the focus moved to launching Cellnet’s GSM service and establishing roaming agreements.  

He was elected Chairman of the GSM Association for 1995/96 and served on its executive board for 5 years.  He has also served as a member of the UK Home Office Internet Task Force and UK OSAB (Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board) until 2006 and 2007 respectively. Mike has chaired the UK Mobile Data Association since 1998, leading the Association as chairman and spokesperson and on public policy. 

He was appointed VP Technology for O2 Group in 2000, visiting professor at Surrey University in 2003 and to the Coventry University Board in 2006.  He is a Fellow of BCS, CIPS, IET and RGS, and a member of the Royal Television Society.  Mike’s focus today is on third generation cellular, mobile TV and steering Telefonica O2 Europe’s Group Research and Development in mobile.

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.

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 would endeavour, wherever practical, to support these views if elected.”

Mrs K Deacon BEng MSc

Katy joined British Airways as an Aircraft Maintenance Apprentice in 1998. After completing basic training Katy was selected to attend City University in London.  After a four year apprenticeship, Katy left British Airways with an HND Aeronautical Engineering and a 1^st Class BEng (Hons) degree in Air Transport Engineering.  After a short time in Electronics, Katy joined Kirklees Council in the building services electrical design section.  

In 2004 Katy won the IIE Young Woman Engineer of the Year, Mary George Memorial Prize.  After further work within the electrical and renewable energy sectors Katy graduated from Loughborough University with an MSc in Advanced Engineering and won the Electrical Industry Awards Energy Efficiency Product of the Year 2006 for her dissertation project.  Katy changed roles to become an Energy Engineer in 2007.  

That year brought further success as the IET presented Katy with the Young Woman Engineer of the Year award.  Katy has spent many enjoyable hours engaging, mentoring and presenting to young people across the country, encouraging them to explore further the opportunities presented by the diverse engineering industry.  Katy sits on the Energy and Utility Skills Sector Diversity Group and is a trustee of the West Yorkshire County Scout Council.  

“Working as an IET Board of Trustees member presents fantastic opportunities to help raise the profile of engineering to the wider community.  I have been fortunate enough to have had five years working with young people, listening to their concerns and understanding more about their perceptions of engineering.  

I would relish the chance to bring those experiences into the Board and help our Institution break down the barriers faced by young people and succeed in helping to overcome the skills shortages we are starting to see develop in areas of our industry.”

Miss M 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.

Professor M Petrou FREng

Maria Petrou is the Professor of Signal Processing and the Head of the Communications and Signal Processing Group of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College. She studied Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Applied Mathematics in Cambridge and she did her PhD in the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. She became a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of IEE in 1998. 

She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IAPR and a Distinguished Fellow of the British Machine Vision Association. She has published more than 300 scientific papers, on Remote Sensing, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Colour Analysis, Industrial Inspection, Astronomy, and Medical Signal and Image Processing. 

She has co-authored two books "Image Processing: the fundamentals" and "Image Processing: Dealing with texture" both published by John Wiley in 1999 and 2006 respectively. She has served as an honorary editor of IEE Electronics Letters (2002-2005). She has been a member of the Publications Board and Council of the IET.

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.

 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.