Georgia Elliott-Smith has taken over from Mathew Riley as chair of Engineers With out Borders UK.
Engineers With out Borders UK is a registered charity that campaigns for “people and organisations to position world duty on the middle of engineering”. It is a part of the Engineers With out Borders community throughout greater than 60 nations, originating in France as Ingénieurs sans Frontières, to replicate the easier identified Médecins Sans Frontières for docs.
Its challenge is to toughen get admission to to scrub water, sanitation, power and infrastructure.
New chair Georgia Elliott-Smith runs her personal environmental consultancy trade and closing yr arrange a marketing campaign crew known as Combating Grimy that sued the federal government over its sewage sludge remedy insurance policies.
She started her occupation spending 5 years within the Nineteen Nineties running for Bovis (later Lendlease) in environmental control. She was once then trade building supervisor for amount surveyor Franklin & Andrews and later spent a yr as head of sustainability for Mace.
However she grew pissed off with company existence: “I knew I used to be handing over initiatives, hitting goals, all of the remainder of it – however none of it was once converting anything else. It felt like PR, no longer growth,” she says
She was concerned about campaigning, she mentioned, as a result of she was once impressed via the Extinction Rebel protests in London in 2019.
“I bear in mind seeing it and considering, ‘Why aren’t I there?’ It compelled me to confront my very own vanity – that assumption that as a result of I used to be certified and skilled, I knew easiest. The folks at the ones protests weren’t naive. They had been grieving. They felt helpless. They usually had been looking to do something positive about it.”
Her predecessor as chair of Engineers With out Borders UK, Mathew Riley, stood down after 18 months as he moved to New York previous this yr to soak up a task with Turner & Townsend. He was once in the past chair working officer of consulting engineer Ramboll.
Riley’s processor was once Jon Pritchard, then leader government of the Mineral Merchandise Affiliation, who held the part-time voluntary position for 6 years.
John Kraus, leader government of Engineers With out Borders UK, mentioned that Elliott-Smith’s appointment represented a brand new bankruptcy for the organisation.
“Georgia’s daring management, deep sector experience, and long-standing dedication to environmental and social justice will enhance our talent to force systemic exchange,” he mentioned. “Georgia understands the realities of each business and activism, and she or he brings the readability and conviction had to unite engineers throughout sectors within the pressing activity of establishing a extra sustainable and equitable long run.”
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