Helen Stone is an English civil engineer and has been managing director of

WS Atkins Atkins is a British multinational engineering, design, planning, architectural design, project management and consulting services company. It is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin and is headquartered in London. The company was founded as WS Atkins & ...

Structural Engineering, which she joined in 1972.

Early life

Helen Elizabeth Stone was born in February 1950.

Education

She attended the

North London Collegiate School North London Collegiate School (NLCS) is an independent school with a day school for girls in England. Founded in Camden Town, it is now located in Edgware, in the London Borough of Harrow. Associate schools are located in South Korea, Jeju I ...

and was inspired to become a civil engineer through, in her own words, "a trip up the newly-opened M1 motorway when I was 10." She studied civil engineering at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

, obtained chartered status, and has worked on engineering projects including the Channel Tunnel, motorways, a theme park, a shopping centre, aircraft hangar and oil refinery.

Career

In 1991 she became only the third woman to become a fellow of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

and in 2002 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is known for representing British engineering overseas, and has a particular interest in representing the interests of women in engineering. In an interview conducted by the '' Daily Telegraph'', she shared her experience and asserted that in a wide range of countries, women were not being promoted to senior positions in engineering to the same extent as men. She chairs the Diversity Panel of the

Construction Industry Council The Construction Industry Council (CIC) is the representative forum for professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the United Kingdom construction industry. History The first proposals for a Building Indu ...

, where she works with professional bodies, research organisations, and specialist business associations in the UK construction industry. However, despite saying that "I am conscious that I have a responsibility to break down inappropriate barriers which prevent women engineers from making progress," she is not in favour of positive discrimination, believing that it could lead to a lowering of standards. She served for nine years as a governor at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...

, and was later chair of governors at the North London Collegiate School for 10 years. She chairs the Ethics and Standards Board of the APM Group, an accreditation group. She has been a director of several organisations including the London Hostels Association and the North London Collegiate School.

References

English civil engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire British women engineers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century women engineers Engineers from London {{UK-engineer-stub