Dr Jean Venables OBE FREng

DSc MSc BSc(Eng) CEng CEnv FICE MCIWEM MCIArb FCGI

Jean Venables has extensive experience as a facilitator and chairman, and in undertaking major training consultancy assignments, as well as running professional development courses for civil engineers and other construction professionals. She has also lectured in water and wastewater engineering, and contract law and administration for many years.

She was Chairman of the Regional Flood Defence Committee of the Environment Agency Thames Region for 9 years until 2003 and now chairs the Thames Estuary Partnership as well as the Expert Panel for the Thames Estuary 2100 Project. Until March 2006, she was also Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee of CAPM - the Centre for Aquatic Plant Management.

Jean is regularly invited to chair conferences and meetings, as well as delivering papers, especially on flood risk management and sustainable development. She is due to become President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in November 2008, and is a member of the ICE's Environment and Sustainability Board, as well as of the ICE Council, in her current role as Vice President. In addition, she chairs the ICE Membership Committee and is a member of the Professional Conduct Committee.

Having been a Vice President of ADA, the Association of Drainage Authorities, since 2003, Jean took over as its Chief Executive at the beginning of 2006 (undertaken on a consultancy basis through Venables Consultancy). ADA is the membership organisation for those involved in water level management, including Internal Drainage Boards, the Northern Ireland Rivers Agency, Environment Agency Flood Defence Committees, Local Authorities, Consultants, Contractors and Suppliers.

Jean Venables' long involvement in the professional development of civil engineers has included active participation in the Institution of Civil Engineers and its Benevolent Fund, resulting in her being awarded the Institution's Garth Watson Medal in 2001. She is author of Preparing for the Professional Reviews of the Institution of Civil Engineers, published by Whittles Publishing in 1995 and currently being revised.

She was awarded an MBE in the 1997 New Year Honours for services to civil engineering, and an OBE in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to flood defence.

E-mail: jean@venablesconsultancy.co.uk.

Professor Roger K Venables

BSc(Eng) DipM CEng CEnv FICE MCIM ACGI

Roger Venables has 30 years' wide-ranging experience of civil, marine and offshore engineering, and research and development in those fields. He has the distinctive combination of qualifications and experience in both civil engineering and marketing. In parallel with running Venables Consultancy and its sister company Crane Environmental, he is also Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development at Queens University, Belfast.

Work with George Wimpey and CIRIA (the Construction Industry Research & Information Association) preceded his joining Jean Venables in Venables Consultancy. He has since undertaken a wide range of assignments on technical development, R&D and its dissemination, marketing, business development and environmental issues affecting construction. He has also delivered numerous professional development training courses.

Roger is Editor of Innovation & Research Focus, the quarterly ICE-newsletter that promotes the application of innovation and research in construction and the built environment, and was Project Manager for the Technology Support for Civil Engineering Exports Project led by the Institution of Civil Engineers. He led the team that developed CEEQUAL, the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme, and is now Chief Executive of CEEQUAL Ltd, the company set up to manage and promote the scheme.

In 2001 Roger was invited to give the ICE's Brunel International Lecture on Delivering Sustainable Development.

E-mail: roger@venablesconsultancy.co.uk