EngineeringUK announces new Chief Executive

Oct 18, 2018

EngineeringUK today announced the appointment of Dr Hilary Leevers as its new Chief Executive. Hilary, who will join the organisation in January, is currently Head of Education and Learning at Wellcome, where she has led a programme to improve science education and position it as an organisational priority for the charitable foundation.

Before joining Wellcome, Hilary was Assistant Director at Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) advocating for policy change to improve STEM education, policies and investment across the UK. She previously worked in academia following her studies in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and DPhil in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University. Hilary is a governor of a comprehensive school in Lewisham. Her appointment follows the departure of Mark Titterington, who is leaving EngineeringUK to take up two Brussels-based roles in the new year. 

Commenting on the appointment, EngineeringUK Chairman Malcolm Brinded said “I’m delighted to welcome Hilary to EngineeringUK at a very exciting time for the organisation. Building on the strategy developed over the last year, which puts inspiring tomorrow’s engineers and increasing the talent pipeline into engineering at the heart of everything we do, Hilary’s deep understanding of STEM education, together with her experience in building consensus in policy areas affecting science and engineering, mean that she is ideally suited to work with partners throughout the engineering community to make that strategy a reality. The EngineeringUK Board and I very much look forward to working with her.”

Hilary said “Engineering is essential to all our lives. Engineers help us address societal and global challenges and enable the UK economy to thrive, from designing wind farms, to harnessing the potential of nanotechnologies. That’s why I’m greatly looking forward to joining the team at EngineeringUK and working with partners across the sector. Together we can ensure that we have the skilled and diverse engineering workforce needed for the future and that everyone can be inspired by the extraordinary engineering feats all around us.”