The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), the leading business association representing the interests of professional consultancies and engineering companies operating in the social and economic infrastructure sector, has announced that Mike Haigh has been appointed as ACE Board Chair.

Mike was appointed in 2016 as the managing director of Mott MacDonald group after serving as regional managing director for the UK, Europe and Africa. Through his experiences in leading a global multi-disciplinary business providing consultancy services to a wide variety of stakeholders, Mike brings strategic business insight to ACE during a time of uncertainty for the industry at large.

Mike succeeds Gavin English from IMC Worldwide who is standing down after serving one year as Chair. Gavin will continue as an ACE Board member and the immediate Past Chair. The First Vice Chair is Nick Taylor chief executive at Waterman and the Second Vice Chair is Mathew Riley, managing director UK at Ramboll.

Speaking on this appointment, Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, chief executive of ACE said: "I am delighted to welcome Mike Haigh as Chair of the ACE Board. With his extensive UK and international professional consulting experience, strong leadership insights, and years of contributions to ACE, Mike's strategic direction for 2017 will be incredibly valuable to the organisation, membership as well as employees as we launch our new three year corporate plans."

"It is a real pleasure to be elected the Chair of ACE", said Mike Haigh. "This is a really important time for the infrastructure industry with both uncertainty but also great opportunity ahead of us. I see the ACE as having a strong influence on how our industry responds to these challenges of managing the uncertainty and opening the opportunities. Critical to this will be ACE’s engagement across the industry to give our members knowledge of and access to policymakers and public bodies locally, regionally and at a national level. I am excited by the year ahead and looking forward to supporting ACE and its members.”

Dr Ogunshakin continued: "The ACE Board is also welcoming five new board members. With a wide range of experiences and expertise, these appointments will deepen the discussions and greatly strengthen the strategic contribution of the board to ACE future progress."

The new Board members in 2017 are:

• Chair of ACE Membership group – Rajiv Sudan, strategy director, AMEC Foster Wheeler
• Chair of ACE Progress Network – Athena Livesey, principal engineering geologist, WSP| Parsons Brinkerhoff
• Chair of Public Affairs group – Joanna Streeten, director, head of London project management, AECOM
• Chair of HR Taskforce - Tania Heap, group people director, Mott MacDonald
• Chair of ACE Cymru | Wales – Neil Sadler, consultant, Cass Hayward

As we move into 2017, ACE would like to thank the individuals who served as ACE Board members during 2016 and have stepped down. These individuals are:

• Doug Pow, team director, Ramboll – former ACE Membership group Chair
• Tryfon Ampartzis, engineer, AECOM – former ACE Progress Network Chair
• Alex Tosetti, operations director, AECOM – former ACE Public Affairs group Chair
• Geoff Ogden, director, Atkins – former ACE Cymru | Wales Chair

ENDS