Helen Stone is an English

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and has been managing director of

WS Atkins Atkins was a British Multinational corporation, multinational construction, design, engineering and business services company. It was formerly listed on the London Stock exchange and had a London headquarters. In July 2017 the company was bough ...

Structural Engineering, which she joined in 1972.

Early life and education

Helen Elizabeth Stone was born in February 1950. She attended the

North London Collegiate School North London Collegiate School (NLCS) is a private 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 Island, Dubai, Vietnam ...

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 in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, obtained chartered status, and has worked on engineering projects including the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

, motorways, a theme park, a shopping centre, aircraft hangar and oil refinery.

Career

In 1991 Stone 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 organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

and in 2002 she was elected a fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

. 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 ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'', 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 chaired the Diversity Panel of the

Construction Industry Council Construction Industry Council may refer to: * Construction Industry Council (Hong Kong) * Construction Industry Council (United Kingdom) Construction Industry Council (CIC) is the representative forum for professional bodies, research organisati ...

, where she worked 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 (CLC) is a private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding and day school for girls aged 11 or older in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school was established in 1853 to provide "a sound academic edu ...

, and was later chair of governors at the North London Collegiate School for 10 years. She chaired 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 British women engineers Engineers from London {{UK-engineer-stub