Edmond Harty to take the helm of Engineers Ireland as president

2 Jun 2023

Edmond Harty. Image: Fintan Clarke/Coalesce

As well as the Harty appointment, Engineers Ireland named John Jordan as a new VP to work alongside current VP Laura Burke.

Dr Edmond Harty was yesterday (1 June) appointed the new president of Engineers Ireland, the professional body for engineers in this country.

Harty’s selection was announced at an AGM held by the organisation, which advocates on behalf of around 25,000 Irish-based engineers. Once in the role he will be the body’s 131st president.

Accepting the role, Harty said he has been a member of Engineers Ireland since his college days. He added that it would be an “absolute honour and privilege” to lead the organisation alongside its director general Damien Owens. Harty paid tribute to outgoing president, John Power, who was appointed president at the 2022 Engineers Ireland AGM.

Looking to ahead to his own tenure as president, Harty said he hoped “to be a role model for others” making the work engineers do more visible and inspiring others to choose a career in engineering.

“I want to highlight the importance of engineering in our daily lives to the general public and to broaden the reach of our professional membership to cover both urban and rural communities.”

On the subject of the opportunities his career in the sector has given him, he said “My engineering background has enabled me to build a fantastic career, travel the world, develop new products and achieve things I could have never imagined. Being an engineer means that you have a logical disposition, you always want to do things better and these characteristics also happen to be important in business. Engineers are natural problem-solvers, leaders and innovators.”

Harty’s CV features achievements in business as well as engineering. He started out by completing a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Limerick before doing a PhD in Biosystems Engineering from University College Dublin. He has also studied at Stanford University and in IMD in Switzerland.

In terms of entrepreneurial experience, he is a former CEO of agritech company Dairymaster and he is a founder of investment and engineering consultancy firm Innovalogix.

Harty’s was not the only inauguration yesterday. John Jordan was named as VP of Engineers Ireland. Jordan is MD of Wirtgen Ireland, a subsidiary of the German equipment manufacturer that specialises in road construction equipment and plant for mining and processing minerals.

Jordan joins Laura Burke, director general of the Environmental Protection Agency, as VP of Engineers Ireland.

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Blathnaid O’Dea is Careers reporter at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com