An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

Chapter 7 – 1999 to 2001 : The Hawley YearsThe Break-up of the EngCPeopleThe New ChairmanThe nomination of Dr Robert Hawley, CBE, BSc, DSc, FRSE, FREng, CEng, FIMechE,FInstP, FIEE, HonDEng, HonDSc, was the only one considered by the EngC’s Senate at itsmeeting of 10 December 1998, held at the IEE. Accordingly, Dr Hawley was adopted as theEngC’s sixth and, in effect, final Chairman, a post he held from February 1999 until the endof 2001. He was Chairman of Taylor Woodrow plc, a non-executive Director of ColtTelecom Group plc and of Rutland Trust plc, and Advisory Director to HSBC Bank plc. Anengineer and physicist, he had been a power engineer with Parsons NEI and Rolls Royce andhad worked with Monty Finniston at IRD in 1961-1964. When the Finniston Report wasissued in 1980, he was Managing Director of Parsons. He had served on the IEE Councilfrom 1978, had been Chairman of its Engineering Policy Board, a Junior Vice President in1984 when the Finniston Report was being debated, and President from October 1996 toSeptember 1997.As one of his first formal events, Robert Hawley hosted a breakfast meeting in March 1999with William Hague, Conservative Party Leader, at the EngC offices in Maltravers Street. Asthe summer approached, Dr Hawley decided that all members of the EngC Senate, most ofwhom had previously been referred to as Senators, should from 21 May be addressed solelyas Senate members and “the use of the word Senator should cease”. Whilst this may seem atrivial matter, not a few feathers were ruffled at the time, but more profound changes were tocome.PolicyAs we mentioned in Chapter 6, ‘The Way Forward’ the report of the Activity Review Group,was presented to Senate at Dr Rudge’s final meeting on 11 February 1999. ‘The WayForward’ broadly recommended that the EngC should reduce costs, generate additionalincome and increase flexibility to take on new tasks. Naturally this meant re-focussingpriorities and introducing changes. The need for this was appreciated and Senate accepted thereport and recommended the implementation of 23 changes to the EngC’s policies andpractices.At the same time the Strategy document ‘Engineering 2005’ that had been endorsed bySenate in May 1998 for further consultation and refinement was put on temporary hold.Immediately, a Strategy Implementation Team, containing members of the major EngineeringInstitutions and chaired by Professor Tony Ridley, the Chairman of the BEP, was set up toexamine the 23 recommendations and propose a way forward. The Team met on eightoccasions from March 1999, supported by several working groups. By September the Teamhad identified and published seven key strategy tasks for urgent attention – implementation ofthe Activity Review itself, promotion of the Register, task sharing between the EngC and theInstitutions, improving partnership with the Institutions, changing the means of election androles of Senate members (including Senate members acting as representatives, not merely143