New CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering announced 

Dame Tamara Finkelstein DCB has been appointed.

She will succeed Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, who is stepping down after eight years as CEO, with 21 years of service to the Royal Academy Academy of Engineering as a whole.  

Finkelstein will take the role substantively in February 2026.

Before this she had a long career as a senior leader in the civil service, most recently as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

At Defra, she led the department through Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As Director General, Building Safety, at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, she created the government’s building safety programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

As Leader of Policy Profession in government, she also worked closely with the science and engineering profession to raise science and engineering capability in policy professionals, raising the percentage of STEM graduates in the policy fast stream from 9% to 31% over the last five years.

Finkelstein is a trained engineer and economist, and has supported the work of the Academy in government as a champion of the Policy Fellowships programme, and participant in the pilot Senior Policy Fellowships programme. 

She has also fulfilled several charity leadership and advisory roles, including as Vice-chair of Norwood, a charity for vulnerable children and people with learning disabilities. 

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the 2025 New Year Honours for public service.  

Finkelstein comments, ‘I am delighted and honoured to become the next Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Having started my career in engineering it is an immense pleasure to return.’ 

She will start working with the Academy’s senior leadership team in late November and will start in post full-time on 9 February 2026.