Helen Stone

Helen Stone OBE is an English civil engineer and has held the post of managing director of WS Atkins Structural Engineering, which she joined in 1972.

She attended the North London Collegiate School and after becoming inspired to become a civil engineer through, in her own words, "a trip up the newly-opened M1 motorway when I was 10." She studied civil engineering at the University of Birmingham, obtained chartered status, and has worked on engineering projects including the Channel Tunnel, motorways, a theme park, aircraft hangar and oil refinery.

In 1991 she became only the third woman to become a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and in 2002 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is known for representing British engineering overseas, and has a particular interest in representing the interests of women in engineering. According to the Daily Telegraph, she found that in a wide range of countries, women were not being promoted to senior positions in engineering to the same extent as men, and now chairs the Diversity Panel of the Construction Industry Council. However, despite saying that "I am conscious that I have a responsibility to break down inappropriate barriers which prevent women engineers from making progress," she is not in favour of positive discrimination, believing that it could lead to a lowering of standards.

She is the Chair of the Ethics and Standards Board of the APM Group, an accreditation group.