The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) has named Catherine Karakatsanis from Canada as its new president elect and announced the arrival of two new board members - Manish Kothari from the US 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 last week 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, Karakatsanis is responsible for more than 900 professionals in 25 offices across Canada and US and one in India, said the statement from FIDIC.

 

The two new board members, whose term of office lasts for four years, were elected following a vote of FIDIC’s global member associations. 

 

Kothari is the president and CEO of Sheladia Associates, an international architecture and engineering consulting firm based in Rockville, Maryland in the United States, while Ingletti is the co-founder, chairman and technical director of 3TI Progetti, an independent employee-owned engineering company based in Rome.

 

Lauding the appointments, FIDIC Chief Executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: "I am absolutely delighted to welcome Karakatsanis as the new president elect. I’m especially pleased that she is now set to be FIDIC’s first ever woman president of FIDIC in 2023 and I’m confident that her 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, Karakatsanis 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," he added.

 

Welcoming the other two new members, Ogunshakin said: "I’m also pleased to see our board strengthened with the arrival of Kothari and Ingletti and I very much look forward to the duo playing a key role as FIDIC moves forward with the conclusion of its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan  and the development of its 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," he added.

 

He also paid tribute to its two outgoing board members - Liu Luobing from China and Mark Pehlig from Netherlands, who have both completed their terms of office. 

 

"Luobing served its board for five years and was a tremendous asset during the pandemic period. FIDIC is especially grateful to 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 its ambassadors," he added.-TradeArabia News Service