On the evening of Monday, March 12, in London, at the offices of ICE (the Institution of Civil Engineers), Engineers Ireland president Dr Kieran Feighan delivered his presidential address to members of the Engineers Ireland GB Region, including to its chair, Hugh McCarthy, and also to members of ICE. The president was welcomed to the podium by president of ICE, Sir Lord Robert Mair, (who delivered his presidential address at the office of Engineers Ireland in Dublin on February 14).
Dr Feighan spoke about 'Fusing Transport, Energy and Technology – Engineering an Irish Revolution'. The original address was given in Dublin in September 2017. Also as part of the evening, there was a conferring of professional titles on members of Engineers Ireland based in the UK.
In particular, the honour of presidential invitation to fellow was awarded to Bernard Looney who holds a degree in electrical engineering from University College Dublin and a master's in management from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
[caption id="attachment_41502" align="alignleft" width="663"] Enda Murphy, Micheal O’Broin, David Roche, Dr Kieran Feighan, Serena Gildea and Bernard Looney at the conferring of registered titles at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London[/caption]
He joined BP in 1991 as a drilling engineer, working in the North Sea, Vietnam and the Gulf of Mexico. In 2001, he moved into the Exploration and Technology Group of BP and worked as group vice-president.
From 2005, he served as senior vice-president at BP Alaska and then head of group chief executive officer’s executive office. He served as managing director of North Sea business at BP from 2009.
He subsequently served as chief operating officer of production and executive vice-president of development. Looney has been the chief executive of Upstream at BP p.l.c. since February 2016.
He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a council member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and an industry advisory council fellow of the Energy Institute.
The title ‘fellow’ is the highest level of membership awarded by Engineers Ireland. This title is reserved for engineers who have demonstrated a significant level of experience and professionalism.
Dr Feighan has the privilege of issuing a presidential invitation to become a fellow of Engineers Ireland to engineers who have distinguished themselves in their profession and in society.