SISTech Executive Director becomes ICE President

SISTech Executive Director, Professor Paul Jowitt, celebrated ‘the proudest moment’ of his career on November 2nd, becoming the 145th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

President Jowitt was joined by 500 friends, colleagues, ICE members and former presidents at the ICE building in Westminster to mark the beginning of his 12 months in office with the traditional presidential address.

In a rousing speech President Jowitt called for an ‘engineering renaissance’ and insisted that ‘now is the time’ for civil engineers to lead the world through the challenges of climate change, natural and man-made disasters, and economic crises.

President Jowitt joins the ranks of Robert Stephenson, Joseph Bazalgette and William Halcrow in taking up the prestigious post and succeeds President Jean Venebles, the first woman to head the ICE.

The new president has already put his new vision for change into practice by broadening the President’s Apprentice initiative to reflect an international approach. This years’ scheme focuses on providing the young engineers´ invaluable experience in the role civil engineers play in international development and unlike other years, when most apprentices have been UK-based, four of the apprentices live in ICE international regions and eight of them are not UK nationals.

President Jowitt's ascension to the top ICE post was featured in New Civil Engineer magazine and he was described as the country's 'top civil engineer' by Water UK.

For more information on the ICE and the institution's new president, visit www.ice.org.uk.