| Elspeth Finch | |
| Alma Mater: | University of York Newcastle University University College London |
| Employer: | Indigo& |
| Known For: | City design and planning |
Elspeth Finch (born December 1975) is the founder and CEO of IAND (Indigo & Limited). She won the 2013 Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and was appointed MBE in 2018.
Finch's mother was a medical physicist and her father was a physics professor. She likes to say that her engineering career 'is about removing friction'.[1] She studied chemistry at the University of York when she was only 17.[2] [3] She completed a masters in transport and planning at the Newcastle University. She started a career in research and lecturing at University College London.
Finch's career journey spans government policy and transport engineering to software product design.[1] At the age of 24, she founded her first business Intelligent Space Partnership, a transport consultancy that integrated the needs of pedestrians and cyclists into town planning.[4] Here she developed software that uses technology to analyse how people move.[5] She worked on the Boston Downtown Crossing and Regent Street strategy. She worked with the Metropolitan Police Service and Notting Hill Carnival. She sold Intelligent Space to Atkins as a FTSE 250 global infrastructure company in 2007.[6]
After selling her company to Atkins she joined as a lead of the Futures team, identifying changes in populations' environments and societies and assessing their impact on infrastructure.[7] She was the youngest ever director of Highways and Transportation.[8] Finch was appointed UK Innovation Director of Atkins, where she was responsible for the 2009 redesign of London's Oxford Circus.[9] She was responsible for Future Proofing Cities, a report looking to identify challenges in global urbanisation using evidence from 129 cities.[10] In 2009 she was nominated as Management Today's 35 Women Under 35. She is the cofounder and CEO of the start-up Indigo&, a digital supplier management platform.[11]
Finch is an advocate for more diversity in science and engineering.[12] In 2013 she was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for her contributions to UK engineering.[13] She was only the fourth woman ever to win the award. That year she was named as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's 175 Faces of Chemistry.[14] She is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity and Inclusion panel.[15] She is a judge for the Royal Academy of Engineering Launchpad competition for budding entrepreneurs.[16] In January 2018 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.[17] In 2021 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[18]