Meet our members
Tanya de Hoog, Chief Engineer, Eminence and Innovation Officer at Aurecon spoke with us for International Women in Engineering Day 2025 about her career designing iconic stadiums like Benfica and Wimbledon, becoming President of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and championing creativity, inclusion, and resilience in engineering.
Dervilla Mitchell CBE, Deputy Chair of Arup, joined us for International Women in Engineering Day 2023 to share insights from her career, including leading the design of Heathrow Terminal 5 and championing engineering for societal change.
Our Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) plays a crucial role in informing the Department’s strategic direction. Reporting directly to the Head of Department, the IAB provides strategic guidance and advice in all aspects of the Department’s activities. It provides valuable insights to key departmental bodies, including the Management Committee, Research Committee, Teaching Committees, Staff Assembly, and Student-led Committees.
Purpose and remit
The IAB helps to ensure that our department is achieving the global impact to which it aspires, and explores how we can do even better. The board helps us assess and enhance our contributions to addressing critical global challenges, ensuring that our teaching, research and enterprise development are world-leading. It seeks positive outcomes for students, staff and all external stakeholders, to achieve a sustainable and resilient department that delivers to its full potential as a centre of engineering excellence.
The IAB provides independent, high-level advice on a range of strategic issues, including:
- Strengthening our teaching and learning experience for both MEng and MSc students
- Enhancing the value of our graduates to industry and society to build successful and fulfilling careers.
- Informing our research strategy to ensure it delivers highly valued, real-world impact and, in turn, translating our work into high value, high impact enterprise-addressing global needs
Membership
Chaired by Professor Mike Cook, the IAB brings together senior leaders from across the civil and environmental engineering sector, including representatives from consulting firms, contractors, developers, NGOs, and regulatory bodies. This diverse membership ensures a well-rounded perspective on the department’s interface with industry.
IAB members contribute their expertise and networks to support the department’s activities and provide critical insights. It advises on longer-term opportunities and explores new approaches to achieve valued outcomes. Their advice helps us identify and drive forward strategic changes that enhance the department’s global relevance and impact.
Advisory Board Members
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Keith F Clarke Chair at Constructionarium Ltd. |
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Mike Cook Mike is a distinguished practising structural engineer. He was the Chairman of Buro Happold 2011 to 2017. He is a Fellow, past Vice-President, and Gold Medallist of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has been a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London since 2007 and is Chairman of Seratech, a spin out company from the Department of Civil Engineering focussed on zero carbon cement. |
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Emma Crichton Emma is a Chartered Civil Engineer with executive and non-executive leadership experience in the non-profit and social enterprise sectors. After six years in the Scottish water industry, designing improvements to treatment works, she joined Engineers Without Borders UK, where she helped lead efforts to embed globally responsible engineering across education and practice. As Innovation Director, she supported a mission to upskill 250,000 people by 2030, reaching over 100,000 undergraduates and significantly expanding participation in the organisation’s flagship university programme. She co-authored sector resources including the Reimagined Degree Map (a guide for engineering education), the Compass (a professional development tool), and founded the Systems Change Lab to support experimentation in practice. Emma now serves as Chair of the Useful Simple Trust, a family of integrated design practices with nearly 100 staff and a turnover of over £10 million. She also holds board roles with Azuko and the Engineering Council, and works freelance, supporting a range of organisations and initiatives. |
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Tanya de Hoog A structural engineer with nearly 30 years of design experience, Tanya has led award winning and landmark projects across the Europe, US and Australia. She is renowned for her commitment to innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and driving sustainability across the industry. Tanya also celebrates projects and collaborations that deliver positive impact to communities by applying engineering expertise, innovative approaches and technology to create new solutions. In addition to her role at Aurecon, Tanya was the 2024 President of the Institution of Structural Engineers where she focused on amplifying structural engineers’ vital role in driving climate action, upholding public safety and positively impacting people. Tanya was the fourth female president in IStructE’s 116-year history. You can read more about Tanya and her role on our board in her interview for International Women in Engineering Day 2025. |
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Mireille El Hajj Dr Elhajj is the founder of London-based boutique consultancy Astra-Terra, a company specialised in PNT and smart solutions. She is also Visiting Associate Professor at Imperial's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Previously, she was a Lecturer and an “Infrastructure and Space Science Fellow” at the Institute of Security Science and Resilience. She has published various papers in Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), Interference mitigation and novel integrity monitoring methods for multiple applications in telematics and smart cities. She completed her PhD at imperial on the use of new GPS signals to improve accuracy for surface transport. |
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Fergus Harradence Fergus leads for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) on sponsorship of the infrastructure, construction, logistics, airports and water sectors. Since joining the UK Civil Service in 2000, he has worked in a number of Departments in a range of economic policy roles, including trade policy, export promotion, innovation and corporate tax. His current responsibilities include DBT's policies to help improve the productivity and environmental performance of the construction, airports and water sectors, including through decarbonising buildings and construction operations, strengthening the logistics sector and supply chains in the UK, and managing the relationship with the construction sector through the Construction Leadership Council. |
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Lorraine Milne Lorraine began her career in Vancouver, working for an architectural firm that designed schools and universities for First Nations communities. This work highlighted the role of buildings in reflecting identity and values, and gave her early insight into the collaboration between architects and engineers in the design process. She moved to London in 1998, working initially as Executive Assistant to the CEO of Barclays Capital, and later supporting the Head of Audit at Ernst & Young. In 2004, she joined Buro Happold Ltd. as Executive Assistant to the Chairman, a role she held until 2019. She continues to support the Global Leadership Team at Buro Happold. In 2008, Lorraine became Secretary of the Happold Foundation, a charity established by Buro Happold partners to promote engineering and the built environment to students and young people. |
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Dervilla Mitchell DBE Dervilla is a Civil Engineer who has been largely based in UK, but she lived in Ireland and the US earlier in her career and has worked in many locations around the world. Starting as a structural engineer, she has moved from building design into major project leadership as well as undertaking many different roles within Arup and in industry bodies. Most recently Dervilla was Deputy Chair of Arup Group a trust owned organisation of almost 20,000 designers, advisors and experts as well as being the Global Ethics Director. Prior to this position she was Executive Chair of the UK, India, Middle East and Africa Region of Arup responsible for revenues of £700m. Dervilla has been involved with professional institutions since graduation. She has contributed significantly to the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) serving on the Awards Committee, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Queen Elizabeth search group as well as serving as Vice President and member of Trustee Board. She received the Presidents Medal in recognition of her contribution in 2020. Dervilla was a member of the UK Council for Science and Technology between 2014 and 2023 where she had been involved in several working groups developing advice to the Prime Minister latterly focused upon Net Zero. Subsequently she took on the role of Chair of the National Engineering Policy Centre’s decarbonising committee, working with industry and academia to deliver the Net Zero agenda in UK. |
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Joana Vezey Operations Leader at Laing O'Rourke |
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Oliver Broadbent Director at Constructivist Ltd. |