Professor Doug Hargreaves has taken-up the leadership of Australia’s almost 90,000 strong
peak professional engineering body as National President of Engineers Australia. He is the head
of the School of Engineering Systems at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

During his presidency, Doug Hargreaves said he will be focused on the importance of expanding
the leadership opportunities and obligations, of both the organisation and individual engineers,
to further drive and deliver practical and sustainable solutions across Australia’s economic,
social and community challenges.

“Our engineering profession has a proud tradition of providing leadership and solutions for very
complex issues and challenges that are often considered to be too hard or near impossible to
resolve.

“For example, while the great debate surrounding the extent or even the validity of humaninduced
climate change goes on, Engineers Australia’s position remains that human activities
are influencing the global climate and we need face that reality.

“Therefore, right now, is an even more critical time for the engineering profession to step-up our
leadership efforts by concurrently looking well ahead and showing what can be done across a
mix of options to address climate change.

“We’ll also be reinforcing the engineering leadership theme across many other issues through a
national Engineering Leadership and Management Conference to be held in Brisbane next May,
that will feature successful leaders from the engineering and the wider corporate sectors.”

His presidency will also involve the launch of a major campaign by Engineers Australia to raise
the profile of engineering in the community and promoting the profession as a career choice.
The ‘Make It So’ campaign will be launched in February 2010 and will invite members of the
public to suggest challenges to engineers to solve through clever engineering design.

Born in 1952 and raised in central Queensland, Doug came to engineering through a
scholarship offer by the Gladstone alumina plant which led to a degree in mechanical
engineering. After graduating he worked at the alumina plant, then undertook postgraduate
studies in England, and then worked in the sugar and oil industries in Queensland.

Doug joined QUT as an academic in 1987 to pursue mechanical engineering-related research,
and later to develop programs to improve engineering education which he said “gives me
enormous satisfaction from seeing ‘light bulbs’ going on in students when they grasp a new
concept.”

His twelve-month role as National President follows that of Melbourne-based Peter Godfrey.

Media Contact: John Bright – 0407 234 490
jbright@engineersaustralia.org.au / www.engineersaustralia.org.au