International engineering federation FIDIC (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) has named Catherine Karakatsanis from Canada as its new president elect and announced the arrival of two new board members in Manish Kothari from the United States and Alfredo Ingletti from Italy. The announcements were made, following a decision of the FIDIC board and elections by the membership, announced at the 2022 FIDIC general assembly meeting which took place in Geneva on 13 September 2022 following the conclusion of FIDIC’s annual Global Infrastructure Conference.
Karakatsanis is the chief operating officer at Morrison Hershfield Group, a leading North American diversified consulting engineering and management firm. She also serves on the firm’s board of directors. After joining Morrison Hershfield as a structural engineer, she successfully moved through a series of technical and management positions. Based in Toronto, Canada, Karakatsanis is responsible for more than 900 professionals in 25 offices across Canada and the United States and one in India.
The two new board members, whose term of office lasts for four years, were elected following a vote of FIDIC’s global member associations. Manish Kothari is the president and CEO of Sheladia Associates, an international architecture and engineering consulting firm based in Rockville, Maryland in the United States. The second new board member, Alfredo Ingletti, is the co-founder, chairman and technical director of 3TI PROGETTI, an independent employee-owned engineering company based in Rome, Italy.
Commenting on the announcements, FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome Catherine Karakatsanis as FIDIC’s new president elect. I’m especially pleased that Catherine is now set to be FIDIC’s first ever woman president of FIDIC in 2023 and I’m confident that Catherine’s ascension to the presidency will encourage increasing diversity and inclusion within FIDIC and the wider industry. Since her election to the board two years ago, Catherine has played a key role at committee level and she has also been instrumental in helping with the development of FIDIC’s North American regional grouping.
“I’m also pleased to see our board strengthened with the arrival of Manish Kothari from the United States and Alfredo Ingletti from Italy and I very much look forward to Manish and Alfredo playing a key role as FIDIC moves forward with the conclusion of its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan and the development of our new future strategy. I know that both will make a significant and telling contribution to our work, not only in the United States and Italy, but on the global stage too.
“I also want to pay tribute to our two outgoing board members, Liu Luobing from China and also to board member Mark Pehlig from the Netherlands, who have both completed their terms of office. Liu Luobing served the FIDIC board for five years and was a tremendous asset during the pandemic period. FIDIC is especially grateful to Mark Pehlig for his expertise and guidance as part of the Global Infrastructure Conference advisory group. Both will continue to volunteer for FIDIC in their roles as FIDIC Ambassadors.”
FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, is the global representative body for national associations of consulting engineers and represents over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in more than 100 countries worldwide. The buildings and infrastructure sector in which FIDIC members work contributes around US$36trillion to global GDP.
