Jane Atkinson

For the pioneer and writer, see Jane Maria Atkinson.

Jane Victoria Atkinson, FREng is Senior Vice President Utilities at Vice President of Utilities Operations at SembCorp Utilities UK.

Jane joined Sembcorp in 2004 and is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the company’s main assets on the Wilton International site, including two power stations and a water treatment plant. Her career began as a sponsored engineering student with British Steel in 1990. On completion of her first degree she worked as a technical advisor at the Teesside Blast Furnace before moving into operations, managing the Cast House at Redcar. During her time in the steel industry she managed many major production units and spent five years with the company in Alabama in the USA.

She studied chemical engineering at Loughborough University, and in 2011 she received an honorary doctorate in business administration from Teesside University.

Jane became the first woman in the world to manage a blast furnace in 2004 – the Corus cast house at Redcar – and was the second woman in the world to manage a coke oven.

The CBI honoured her as Britain’s top female engineer in 2007 and in 2010 she became the youngest woman Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is also a Fellow of IChemE and has chartered and designated European Engineer status.