The Royal Academy of Engineering has appointed Dame Tamara Finkelstein DCB as its next CEO to lead the charity in the implementation of its ambitious new strategy 2030. She will succeed Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, who is stepping down after eight years as CEO, and 21 years of dedicated service to the Academy as a whole.
Tamara will take up the role substantively in February 2026, following a long and successful career as a senior leader in the civil service, most recently as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In this role, she led the department through Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she oversaw the government’s response to food supply issues.
As Director General, Building Safety, at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Tamara created the government’s building safety programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. As Leader of the Policy Profession in government she also worked closely with the science and engineering profession to raise science and engineering capability in policy professionals, raising the percentage of STEM graduates in the policy fast stream from 9% to 31% over the last five years.
Tamara is a trained engineer and economist, and has supported the work of the Academy in government as a champion of the Policy Fellowships programme, and participant in the pilot Senior Policy Fellowships programme.
She has also fulfilled a number of charity leadership and advisory roles, including as Vice-chair of Norwood, a charity for vulnerable children and people with learning disabilities.
She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the 2025 New Year Honours for public service.
Commenting on the appointment, President of the Academy Sir John Lazar CBE FREng said:
“We are delighted to appoint Tamara Finkelstein as our next Chief Executive. She has a wealth of experience that the Academy will benefit from in its next chapter, from driving complex policy change at scale, to embedding engineering expertise and mobilising experts to respond to national and global events. She is a proud advocate for the role of engineering in society, and is deeply committed to the Academy’s values: her commitment to inclusion in particular is well known in the policy profession.
“I am looking forward to working with her as we begin our 50th anniversary celebrations and to deliver on our strategy commitment to engineer better lives.
“On behalf of the Trustee Board and wider Fellowship, I would also like to thank Hayaatun for her leadership as CEO over the last eight years and her incredible service to the charity over more than two decades. She has transformed the Academy’s culture, spearheaded significant advances in our international, policy and enterprise activities, and grown our ambition, visibility and impact. We wish her the very best for the future and hope she will remain part of the Academy community for many years to come.”
Dame Tamara Finkelstein DCB commented:
“I am delighted and honoured to become the next Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Having started my career in engineering it is an immense pleasure to return.
“In my career in public service I have seen how engineering and technology can provide the solutions to the big public policy challenges of our day, from tackling climate change and improving health outcomes, to unlocking economic growth. So I am looking forward to working with the Fellows of the Academy, the most accomplished engineers and technologists in the UK and beyond, on delivering the mission to engineer better lives.
“In government I had the opportunity to work closely with the Academy and saw that its excellent reputation for shaping policy, supporting entrepreneurs, and championing the profession is built on a strong community of Fellows, amazing staff and superb leadership. I hope I can build on this to lead the organisation to continued success in its 50th anniversary year and beyond.”
Tamara will start working with the Academy’s senior leadership team in late November, and will start in post full time on 9 February 2026.
Notes for editors
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The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.
Our work is enabled by funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, corporate and university partners, charitable trusts and foundations, and individual donors.