Tom Foulkes

ICE Nominee

Biography

Educated at Clifton College, RMA Sandhurst, RMCS Shrivenham, the Army Staff College, the Royal College of Defence Studies and the Open University, Tom Foulkes held senior UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) appointments in weapons development, equipment management and barracks construction before joining the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) as Director General and the board of Thomas Telford Ltd (TTL) as Deputy Chairman in 2002. 

After commissioning into the Royal Engineers in 1971, Tom worked in military road and airfield construction before joining the UK MOD Weapons Staff in 1982 and specialising in the design and procurement of military equipment.  On promotion to Brigadier in 1998, he returned to civil engineering with responsibility for the British Army Estate and its long-neglected barracks construction programme. Tom’s proudest achievement in this period was the Army Board’s adoption of his vision of garrisons where soldiers and their families would want to live. This enabled him to formulate a 30-year barracks´ recovery strategy and create the `Army Estates Organisation´ to deliver it.

In 2002, Tom left the Army to become Director General of the ICE.  He now leads a vibrant, global organisation focussed on people: ICE members, staff and the worldwide society that ICE serves.  More recently, he has guided the ICE Group’s growing commercial success through better marketing and increased integration of ICE and TTL operations, thus helping TTL to record profits in 2006.  Tom is also Secretary General of the Commonwealth Engineers Council and a member of the Construction Industry Council.  Tom is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a Member of the Institution of Royal Engineer.