This Critical Conversation, chaired by Academy CEO Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, explored governance structures for complex systems and existing regulation gaps using the offshore wind sector as a case study. Discussions will focus on how governance can support recyclability, regional collaboration, and adaptability.
Critical Conversations
Bringing together the thoughts of leading experts from across the Academy’s networks, our Critical Conversations explore issues of relevance to global professional engineering community and wider society. Fellows, awardees, and engineering partners gather to tackle topical issues of relevance to the global professional engineering community and wider society.
Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE
Hayaatun is CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. She co-chairs with the Science Minister the government’s Business Innovation Forum and co-chaired with Sir Lewis Hamilton his Commission on improving Black representation in motorsport. She is a trustee of various charities, member of the government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council and Digital Skills Council and NXD at construction company Laing O’Rourke. She has been named as one of the ‘Inspiring 50’ women in tech in Europe and one of the most influential women in both UK engineering and UK tech. She has a Masters in Biochemistry (MBiochem) from Oxford and a PhD from Cancer Research UK/UCL. She is a Fellow of the IET, Honorary Professor at UCL and Honorary Fellow at The Queen’s College, Oxford. She has received honorary doctorates from UCL, Imperial College London, Newcastle, Brunel, Huddersfield and Southampton, as well as a Science Suffrage Award and the Engineering Professor’s Council President’s Medal. She was a finalist for the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award and was made a CBE for services to International Engineering in 2019. Prior to her current roles, she was Deputy CEO at the Academy and served as Committee Specialist and later Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee.
Professor Deborah Greaves OBE FREng
Deborah Greaves is a Professor of Ocean Engineering, Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Decarbonisation and ORE, Director of the COAST Laboratory and was Head of the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (2016 -2022) at the University of Plymouth with previous appointments at the University of Oxford, UCL and the University of Bath. In 2020, she was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was appointed as a Member of EPSRC Council in 2022. Her research interests include marine and offshore renewable energy, and physical and numerical modelling of wave-structure interaction. She has led many national and international research projects concerning offshore renewable energy (ORE) in collaboration with industrial and academic partners, is Director of the EPSRC Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub and also leads the EPSRC High End Computing Consortium and Collaborative Computational Project in Wave-Structure Interaction. She has published over 310 peer-reviewed papers, has secured over £36.6 million research income, has supervised 29 PhDs to completion and published with Wiley an edited book on Wave and Tidal Energy (2018). In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2018, she was awarded an OBE for services to Marine Renewable Energy, Equalities, and Higher Education. She was shortlisted for the 2014 WISE Research Award and awarded the WES Top 50 Women in Engineering 2020: Sustainability. In 2024, she was awarded the Society of Underwater Technology Lennard-Senior Prize for outstanding individual achievement in the field of marine renewable energy and shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Leadership. She was also awarded an Honorary Professorship by the University of Tsinghua in China.
Dr Louis Klein
Dr. Louis Klein is an internationally renowned thought and practice leader with extensive experience and profound insights into systems leadership, governance, and transformation. Currently, he serves as dean of the European School of Governance (EUSG) in Berlin and as secretary-general of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) in Vienna. Dr. Louis Klein is affiliated as a senior strategy advisor to The Futuring Alliance and the Systemic Excellence Group in Berlin as well as to Sociisgroup, Brussels, advising clients in the public and private sectors worldwide. Educated as an economist and social scientist with a focus on systems research, Dr. Louis Klein served as a director at the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), as director at the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), and as VP of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). Dr. Louis Klein grew up in a winery in the Mosel Valley in Germany. He is a long-distance hiker and water sports enthusiast. He is the father of two children and lives in Berlin.
Hanh Nguyen
Hanh leads engagement with major ocean industries for the Ocean Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum. She works with business leaders across sectors such as offshore energy, shipping, ports, and tourism to accelerate the transition to a nature-positive economy. She also mobilizes public-private partnerships to strengthen ocean stewardship. Previously, Hanh held positions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In these roles, she managed diverse projects aimed at unlocking the benefits of trade and enhancing agricultural and fisheries value chains. She was frequently deployed to the field, supporting smallholders, fishers, and small- and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries to access international markets.
Conquering complexity through systems approaches
This three-part series will explore systems approaches to complex challenges, focusing on understanding systems, enhancing capacity building, and improving governance structures. Through these sessions, the audience will gain a better understanding of systems approaches and the long-term benefits of investing in them to tackle complex challenges.
- The first event will break down what complex challenges are and start showing how an engineering mindset- systems approaches- can benefit us when tackling them.
- The second event will apply a systems approach to capacity building, drawing on case studies from the Global Engineering Capability Review 2 and Engineers for Africa report.
- The third event will look at governance of complex systems, discussing what effective governance of complex systems looks like, and using the offshore wind sector as an example.