New president for consulting engineers

At its Annual General Meeting held in November, Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) appointed Lynne Pretorius from ITS Engineers as president of the organisation for the next two years. She holds a BSc Engineering (Civil) and M. Engineering (Transportation) from the University of Cape Town and has worked in the Engineering industry for 22 years after graduating in 1993.

In her inaugural speech, Pretorius indicated that South Africa is on a dynamic trajectory that requires visionary leadership and flexibility from all stakeholders and role players to adapt to the changing and challenging environment currently prevailing. She stated that her key objectives are to get the CESA house in order, encourage members to submit quality bids and to be open and honest about corruption.

Pretorius has worked for both the private sector and public sector (including four years with the City of Cape Town). She specialises in transportation engineering with a focus on sustainable transport modes and integration between transport and land use.

She is passionate about the growth of small businesses as well as the development of young engineers. She vehemently opposes corruption and sees it as one of the biggest threats to service delivery and the industry. Pretorius began her career at Aurecon (then Van Wyk & Louw) in 1994 and moved to the City of Cape Town in 2000. She started a transportation engineering consultancy practice in 2004, which was incorporated into ITS Engineers in 2012. She is currently a director of ITS Engineers and joined the CESA Board in 2013 as the organisation’s deputy president.