Rachel Susan Skinner (née Bass; born December 1976) is a British civil engineer with Canadian-based consultant

WSP Global WSP Global Inc. is a Canadian consulting firm working mostly in the built environment. It was created in 2012, following Montreal-based Genivar's takeover of British firm WSP Group plc. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After the pu ...

. She was named one of 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 ...

Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering In 2016 the Women's Engineering Society, Women's Engineering Society (WES), in collaboration with the ''Daily Telegraph'', produced an inaugural list of the United Kingdom's Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering, which was published on Internatio ...

in 2016 and both the Best Woman Civil Engineer and the Most Distinguished Winner at the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards in 2017. Skinner became the youngest president 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 ...

in 2020. In 2019, 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 ...

(FREng). She was appointed

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

for services to infrastructure in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

Early life and education

Skinner was born in December 1976. She lived in the US for two years and returned for her GCSE years to attend

Downe House School Downe House School is a private girls' boarding and day school in Cold Ash near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18. Entrance is selective, and the school has an enrollment of 559. The '' Good Schools Guide'' described Downe House ...

and then Wellington School for sixth form. She earned a bachelor's degree with

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in geography at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

. She said that she "fell into engineering completely by chance" when she took a job as a transport planner in 1998. In 2001, she was awarded a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in transportation planning and engineering with a distinction by the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. In 2019 she returned to Durham to deliver the "Hatfield College Lecture."

Career

Skinner has been involved with the

since 2003, when she became a

chartered engineer Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thr ...

(CEng). She is also now a fellow of the institution (FICE), and sits on its Trustee Board, and has chaired the ICE's London region in 2010, stood for Council in 2015 and was confirmed by the ICE council as succeeding vice president in April 2017. Skinner became president in November 2020. She was the youngest person ever to hold the post of president of the ICE, and the second female president. Skinner chaired the advisory board of the ''

New Civil Engineer ''New Civil Engineer'' is the monthly magazine for members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the UK chartered body that oversees the practice of civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the appl ...

'' magazine between 2017 and November 2019. Skinner is a qualified

transport planning professional Chartered Transport Planning Professional is a professional qualification for transport planners which has been developed by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Transport Planning Society. The professional qualification ...

and also a Fellow of the

Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT, formerly the Institution of Highways and Transportation) is a British learned society for the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of land-based transport system ...

(FCIHT), as well as an honorary fellow of the

Society for the Environment The Society for the Environment (SocEnv) is an Umbrella organization, umbrella body for environmental organisations in the UK. Its primary function is the licensing of its member institutions to confer chartered (professional), chartered status o ...

. Skinner has held several senior positions at

, the consultancy and design firm, including as UK director of transportation planning and European director of marketing and communications for Parsons Brinckerhoff, and since 2022, she has been UK Executive Director of Government Relations & ESG. Skinner helped to set up th
Women in Transport
(formerly Women's Transportation Seminar) network in London in June 2005 and is now one of its patrons, having been a founding member of its board and president from 2009 to 2013. Skinner also works to encourage female students into taking up

STEM subjects Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

. She is a regular industry speaker, the lead author of papers on the implementation of driverless vehicles including "Making Better Places" (2016), "New Mobility Now" (2017) and various prior publications on the application of digital technology to the construction industry, collaboration and innovation. Between 2018 and 2020, Skinner was one of ten Commissioners for the newly formed Infrastructure Commission for Scotland. Skinner was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

for services to infrastructure. In the same year she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

followed by a second from the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

. In November 2024, Skinner was appointed to Chair the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

's Capital Review Panel, an advisory panel which provides independent advice to the Secretary of State for Transport on strategic considerations for the department’s capital portfolio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skinner, Rachel British civil engineers Living people British women engineers 1976 births People educated at Downe House School Alumni of the University of Leeds Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham Fellows of the Institution of Civil Engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Commanders of the Order of the British Empire