ECI Training & Development Awards 2024

Mark Fotheringham

Technical Director, Infinity Engineering

Mark is an Engineering and Project Management professional with significant experience in the Energy Sector.

He is an expert in business, leadership and technical skills delivered with authentic passion for safety, people, results, and progressive improvement in the value created by technology and project delivery.

Mark has several decades of engineering and construction experience in the UK and overseas. He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Project Professional, holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Engineering and is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management.

Mark is currently Technical Director in an engineering consultancy focused towards energy security and transition and is also a trustee and board member of the North East of Scotland College (850 staff, 21,000 students). Mark lives and works in Aberdeen.

Tracey Shelley

Chief Executive and Company Secretary, BCECA

Tracey Shelley is BCECA’s CEO, marking eleven years in the role this year. She was the first woman to hold the post and has been instrumental in leading the transformation at BCECA, the trade association founded in 1966 to represent the leading UK-based engineering contractors. BCECA’s membership now includes some of the biggest names in global energy infrastructure delivery, as well as their suppliers. BCECA is one of the employer associations that is closely linked with the ECITB and Tracey has been a judge of the ECI T&D Awards since her appointment as CEO.

Tracey is a professional engineer and business leader with over 25 years’ experience at a senior level within not-for-profit membership organisations and associations. She began her working life as a mechanical engineering apprentice in the avionics industry and has spent much of her career focussed on engineering education, training and professional development of both individuals and organisations. A powerful commitment to diversity, inclusion, and strong ethical practice shapes Tracey’s leadership and practice. Her achievements were recently recognised by her inclusion on the 2023 and 2024 Women in Trade Associations’ Power Lists.

Outside of BCECA, Tracey is a Board member of JTL Training, she is Chair of the local RAF air cadets’ committee and is the Welfare and Safeguarding Lead and an umpire for her local hockey club. She is also a wife and mother of two.

John Webster

Operations Director, Applus UK (HEX, NDT, Rope Access & Training)

John Webster is the Operations Director for Applus within the UK (HEX, NDT, Rope Access & Training), looking at the ongoing and evolving challenges for the industry in terms of the appropriate skills and competency for Testing, Inspection and Certification.  This oversight includes the planning for future skills development in a challenging market, coupled with the technical innovations within the sector, managing how best to align the skills developed by Applus in Oil & Gas, Nuclear and Aerospace, to bring best practice to the challenges encountered in the delivery of the service provision.  A highly experienced and commercially strong, financially focused Operational Director with extensive knowledge within a wide variety of sectors, ranging from Manufacturing to Service Delivery in Offshore / Onshore Oil & Gas, Engineering & NDT Inspection / Rope Access, with experience in Heavy Crane and Plant Hire.  Delivering on commitments, an experienced senior manager who engages and empowers both within teams and across the wider organisation, creating a strong sense of ownership, support, and communication.

John has long been dedicated to the training and development of all levels of staff and has been involved with the ECITB Apprenticeship Schemes throughout his career at Applus.  He also pioneered the programme within Applus of working with the M.O.D. Resettlement Scheme to identify and re-train personnel that had relative skills gained during their military career, enabling them to transition into civilian qualifications, becoming valuable members of the workforce.  A passionate advocate for STEM and particularly Women into STEM, recognising that to limit the opportunity for industry to take advantage of the whole spectrum of potential candidates is essential to ensure that the skills gap can be adequately managed and that employers can benefit from a more diverse and capable workforce.