Patrick Kniveton has been confirmed as the 128th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Patrick Kniveton is currently head of engineering Improvement at Rolls-Royce Marine Power – a role he will continue to hold during his tenure as IMechE president.
On taking up his appointment, Mr Kniveton said he was proud to be joining the ranks of past presidents such as George Stephenson, Joseph Whitworth and Sir Harry Ricardo.
He made it clear that his leadership would not dwell on the past however. “I want my theme for my Presidency to be about celebrating not just the engineers of the past, but to celebrate the engineers that are making a real difference to people’s lives today and in the future,” he said.
Kniveton promised to work hard with government to improve skills pipelines into engineering and committed to focussing on the development of engineering SMEs in the UK and “to ensure the Institution works with industry to lead the development of new engineering business ventures.”
Kniveton boasts a varied engineering career. He has worked in industries such as observatory telescopes, air conditioning plant, nuclear power, instrumentation, electronic traffic signs, infrastructure planning and design, engineering improvements, business management and engineering sales. Since 1989 he has worked for Rolls-Royce.
Kniveton succeeds Prof Isobel Pollock as president of IMechE, which was established in 1847 and today has around 100,000 members.
