FIDIC has named Tony Barry as its new president elect and announced the arrival of two new board members in James Mwangi from Kenya and Catherine Karakatsanis from Canada. The announcements were made, following elections of the FIDIC membership, at the 2020 FIDIC general assembly meeting which took place virtually this week for the first time in FIDIC’s history.
Tony Barry is a senior consultant at Aurecon in Australia and a former president of Consult Australia, the business association representing small, medium, and large firms in design, advisory and engineering. He will take over the presidency from incumbent Bill Howard at the 2021 FIDIC general assembly meeting due to take place in September next year. Civil engineer Barry is vastly experienced in the industry having worked for Aurecon for 39 years and he has been a member of the FIDIC board since 2015.
The two new board members (pictured above), whose term of office lasts for four years, were elected following a vote of FIDIC’s 100+ global member associations. Catherine Karakatsanis is the chief operating officer at the leading North American engineering firm, Morrison Hershfield Group. Based in Toronto, Canada, Karakatsanis is responsible for the firm’s domestic and international operations overseeing over 900 professionals at the company which has 22 offices across North America.
New board member James Mwangi from Kenya is the chief executive officer at Nairobi-headquartered energy solutions consultancy, Kurrent Technologies Ltd, and a consulting engineer with 35 years’ experience predominantly in the oil, gas, power generation and renewable energy sectors. Mwangi is also a former chairman of FIDIC’s African group of member associations.
Commenting on the announcements, FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: “I’m delighted to welcome Tony Barry as FIDIC’s new president elect. Tony has played a crucial role in the leadership of FIDIC during his time on the board and I am sure that he will make an excellent president when he assumes the role in September 2021. I’m also very pleased to see our board strengthened with the arrival of James Mwangi and Catherine Karakatsanis and I look forward to James and Catherine playing a key role as FIDIC moves forward with the implementation of its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan. I know that both will make a significant contribution to our work, not only in Africa and North America, but on the global stage too.
“I also want to pay tribute to our two outgoing board members, Aisha Nadar from Sweden and Reyes Juárez from Mexico, for their dedicated service and significant contribution to FIDIC’s global leadership as board members over the past four years.”
