Dr Hilary Leevers will take up the position of chief executive of EngineeringUK in January, the organisation has announced.
Dr Leevers 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, she was assistant director at the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), advocating for policy change to improve STEM education, policies and investment in the UK. She previously worked in academia following her studies in natural sciences at Cambridge University and DPhil in experimental psychology from Oxford University.
Her appointment follows the departure of Mark Titterington, who is leaving EngineeringUK to take up two Brussels-based roles in the new year.
EngineeringUK chairman Malcolm Brinded said Dr Leevers arrived as the organisation sought to build on its 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.”
Dr Leevers said: “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.”