In what is being seen as a big boost for training and development in the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector, the FIDIC Academy, the delivery vehicle for international engineering federation FIDIC’s training activities, has announced a significant upgrading of its output, the rebranding of courses, the appointment of a team of global professional advisors and the launch of a new FIDIC Academy standalone website to enable even better promotion of its courses and training to the wider industry.
The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) set up the Geneva-based FIDIC Academy in 2021, with WSP Group chairman Chris Cole as chancellor, to provide training and capacity building to drive excellence in quality and best practice for the consulting engineering and wider infrastructure industry, as well as stimulating talent and developing future leaders to provide professional engineers and consultants with the skills required to compete in a global marketplace.
This latest development sees the rebranding, repositioning and upgrading of the FIDIC Academy’s course programme output and the launch of a new website at www.fidic.academy to offer a centralised, one-stop shop for the whole training and education portfolio of FIDIC. The move will mean the creation of a more comprehensive overview of course offerings, enabling clients to more efficiently and effectively match their training and education needs with the academy’s wide range of events.
FIDIC chief executive and academy vice chancellor Dr Nelson Ogunshakin, said: “The repositioning of our capacity building initiative is one of our strategic priorities for 2020-2024 to secure tomorrow’s talent to ensure a sustainable industry. We are expanding the training areas that we cover to offer a wider service to the industry and in addition to our existing popular contracts training courses, for the first time the FIDIC Academy is also venturing into the areas of business practice and FIDIC values issues to ensure that we are able to provide the best possible training and education content tailored towards consulting engineering, construction, infrastructure and other industry professionals, no matter what their level of proficiency.
“We have also assembled a fantastic group of practising technical and management experts across the global infrastructure sector to help shape the academy’s training offerings. FIDIC Academy deans of faculties and discipline heads have been appointed to deliver the best quality content and learning outcomes for the industry and I am delighted that we have been able to attract such experienced industry leaders to head up the various academy faculties and disciplines. (See list in notes below).
“The combination of industry talent we have assembled as faculty and discipline heads will ensure that we are able to extend our capacity building services to cover all industry stakeholders, including government, engineers, legal professionals, consultants, investors, contractors, suppliers, operators, investors, equipment providers, multilateral development banks, asset owners, based on an extensive track record of delivery of value-for-money learning services.”
FIDIC Academy general manager Michael Broadley commented: “These are exciting times for FIDIC’s training. The developments and upgrades we are making, together with our new standalone website, mean that the FIDIC Academy now has a much more attractive marketing tool to showcase its training and education portfolio to our prospective clients. This will benefit all our partners – clients, associates, including member associations and interested companies and individual professionals across the consulting engineering profession and the wider construction sector.”
The new FIDIC Academy website is integrated with the academy’s training platform where clients will be able to choose, register and enrol directly onto relevant training courses after being offered more user-friendly guidance about which training event to choose. “This all about making it easier for our clients across engineering, construction and infrastructure sector to choose the right training they need more efficiently and effectively than ever before and we can’t wait to start providing that better service to existing and new customers across the industry,” Broadley said.
FIDIC Academy Heads of Faculties
Dean of FIDIC Body of Knowledge Forum: Stephane Giraud, Founder and CEO, Plan J Consulting.
Dean of Faculty of Contracts: Chris Seppälä, Partner, White & Case.
Dean of Faculty of Business Practice: José Ortiz García, Board Member, Joyco.
Dean of Faculty of FIDIC Values: Anne Kerr, Managing Director Greater China, Mott MacDonald
FIDIC Academy Discipline Heads
Vice-Dean of FIDIC Body of Knowledge Forum: Michele Kruger, Function General Manager (Water Infrastructure), SMEC.
Vice-Dean of FIDIC Body of Knowledge Forum: Andrew Reed, Managing Director, Pederson Read Consulting Electrical Engineers.
Head of Contract Principles: Nino Tsaturova, Head of Legal, Intelligent Solution LLC.
Head of Use of FIDIC Contracts: Abdel Moniem, General Manager, Alliance Engineering.
Head of Dispute Avoidance and Resolution: Javier Sánchez Llopes, Operations Director, Driver Trett.
Head of Consulting Business: Prashant Kapila, Managing Director, Intercontinental Consultants & Technocrats.
Head of HR and Welfare Management: Liam Hayes, Chief People Officer, Aurecon.
Head of Business Finance: Adam Bialachowski, CEO, B-Act Quantum Vintage.
Head of Project Management: Michael Walker, Municipal Infrastructure Manager, Associated Engineering.
Head of Leadership: Joanne Carmichael, Director, Cities, Planning and Design, Arup.
Head of Marketing and Communications: Harriett Hindmarsh, Chief Marketing Officer, AECOM.
Head of Project Procurement and Project Finance: Dilek Macit, Assistant Director-General, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Head of Design Management: Tom Smith, Global Director, Property & Buildings, WSP.
Head of Integrity Management: Julianna Fox, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, WSP.
Head of Sustainability Management: Jeshika Moonsamy, Principal Engineer Infrastructure Development/Climate & Sustainability, Mott MacDonald.
Head of Quality Management: Nita Rabadia, Influential Leader Empowering Women and Championing Diversity, Leadership Coach and Mentor.
Head of Risk Management: Clare B Marshall, Parter, 2MPy.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): Thea Weeks, Committee Member, Coalition of Women in Africa for Peace and Sustainable Development.
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.
