INNOVATION January-February 2013

p rof i l e

New Leadership for APEGBC

Meet New CEO and Registrar Ann English, P.Eng.

Melinda Lau

was involved in pressure vessel design, project and construction management, and later, business development for proj- ects across Canada, the US and overseas. A Natural Inclination Ann is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science (major in physiology, minor in English litera- ture) and the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. She comes across as friendly but serious in her demeanor and her speech. It’s evident, though, with further conversation that good humour belies measured tones. It might be suggested that arriving at engineering as a career may have been a natural choice for Ann, whose father was an engineer from the shipbuilding yards on the River Clyde in Scotland. When the family immigrated to Toronto, he worked in manufacturing, and on an occasional Saturday would take a young Ann in to work with him. “[He] would show me how these fascinating machines would take a piece of raw metal and turn it into

American writer Dorothy Parker once noted: “There is no cure for curiosity.” And, it is a natural curiosity that has led Ann English, P.Eng., to unexpected places over the course of her career, the most recent being APEGBC, where she has assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer and Registrar of one of BC’s larg- est professional regulatory bodies. As a young mechanical engineer working at General Motors, Ann had hoped that her career might one day lead to designing cars, but after a long year spent designing a tool bit no larger than a pea, she was starting to feel that actual car design might be a long way off. Taking a lunch hour walk one day, she noticed that a nearby heavy industry fab- ricator was looking for engineers. Further inquiry determined that the company designed and built large-scale energy equipment for projects all over the world, with a focus on improving environmental sensitivity and efficiency. This coincidental encounter was the beginning of a 21-year career with Foster Wheeler where, during her time there, she

something amazing,” she recalls. “That was it, I was hooked!” Ann credits her parents’ influence on her career, having imparted to her their wonder of the world of science and people around them: “Together, they have had a natural and rich impact on my choice of a leadership career in the engineering field.” Ann comes to APEGBC from BC Hydro after over nine years in a variety of senior leadership roles with the provin- cial energy utility. Most recently, she was the Director of Interconnections at BC Hydro, responsible for the connection of load and generator customers (indepen- dent power producers) to transmission and distribution systems. In the run up to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Ann was BC Hydro’s Director of 2010 Olympic Initiatives. BC Hydro had set itself the target of designing and run- ning the cleanest, reliable, most afford- able power supply to an Olympic Winter Games. Over seven years, she led the team that planned and implemented a

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