Institutions’ Honorary Fellows.

Everyone was young once, with fun inventive ideas, tonnes of enthusiasm, and creativity in abundance – how does that passion and those ambitions become reality?

Our Honorary Fellows are at the top of their profession, but they all started their journey in primary school too, just like you and me. Here are their primary school stories, their dreams and aspirations, and where their story has taken them.

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Peter Bingham
Chief Engineer Ofgem

At primary/junior school I loved to play out, build dens and have adventures roaming in the hills around our house. I loved playing football, running fast, and sledging in the snow that came every year. I used to love making things: Model planes, Lego and Meccano. I liked to invent things and take stuff apart. I was good at Maths but couldn’t spell, and liked to write weird stories. I had a bear called fluffy who went everywhere with me, and we had a cat called Cat!

Nick Ellins
Group Chief Executive, Energy & Utility Skills

Nick Ellins is the Chief Executive of Energy & Utility Skills Group and the National Skills Academy for Power.

Nick found his time at his Primary School in a small village in Bedfordshire as the most stimulating time in his whole education.

Alison Fergusson
Associate Director Analytics Ofwat

I was a bit of a generalist but in particular I loved maths at primary school and found it came very naturally to me. But my love of science too was awakened by a fantastic teacher I had at the age of 10 who intrigued me with exciting experiments. I remember making a large model of a blast furnace, doing some serious woodwork to make life size chess pieces, discovering what happened with magnets and iron filings, and watching our teacher do amazing experiments with mysterious chemicals that we weren’t allowed to touch. It made me want to discover more, but at that point I had no idea it would lead me to a career in chemical engineering in the water industry.

David Wright
Electricity Transmission Director & Chief Engineer at National Grid

At Collingham primary school near Leeds, I was inspired by Thunderbirds – the children’s television programme – fuelling my ambition to be an astronaut. This wasn’t to be but I was fortunate enough to get into Leeds Grammar School. I remember thinking I must have fluked the entrance exam to get in! I worked hard not only in class, but also organising things in school and on the rugby pitch where I developed my passion for teams and team sports.

Jo Parker
Vice President Engineering at The Institute of Water

Although I loved dancing and music, looking back I can’t imagine what else I could have done except engineering. I loved building things – my favourite toys when I was very young was a huge set of beautiful wooden bricks and I loved making dens in the garden. I really really wanted a set of Lego although I had to make do with Bayco, a sort of kit for building model houses. At school there were huge boxes in the playground with which you could build walls and other structures that I just loved.

Gerry Facenna
Chairman and Owner, Allied Vehicles

What did you want to be when you was at Primary School?

As a young boy all I wanted to do was work in my Dad’s garage. Before and after school I would spend time there helping at the petrol pumps and learning from him.

Jon Stanton
CEO Weir Group

When I was in primary school I loved to read and learn about the world we live in and the space in the universe that surrounds us.

My mum and dad encouraged me to get a good education and enter one of the professions.