Jo da Silva OBE
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
As a prolific engineer, Jo da Silva has spent much of her career sharing her expertise with those in need, including developing programmes to support sustainable societies as part of her extensive humanitarian work.
Jo was born in Washington DC, where her father was working in the British Embassy. He had a passion for the diplomatic service and joined the Foreign Office after World War II, becoming a specialist on the Middle East, while her mother was a housewife who also worked part-time as a volunteer manager of a charity.
When Jo was three, she and her family moved to the UK and lived in Surrey. She had a passion for all things creative, including making clothes and also playing the clarinet to the highest standard. She completed her A Levels at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, where she also excelled at sport, particularly tennis and lacrosse.
She attended Trinity College at Cambridge University to study engineering but she is no stranger to Coventry University, having recently shared her expertise as a keynote speaker at the Building and Social Housing Foundations International Conference held at the University in January of this year.
Jo travelled the world at the age of 18 and was fascinated by different places and cultures. During her travels she also became acutely aware of the important role engineers play in providing water, shelter, sanitation and roads and enjoyed seeing this first hand. She began her career working in central India before joining Arup in 1989 as a graduate engineer and developed her technical skills working on projects in the UK and overseas including Hong Kong International Airport, Potsdamer Platz (PLATS), Berlin and the National Portrait refurbishment, London.
Her interest in post-disaster contexts began in 1991 when she became a member of RedR, a non-governmental agency providing training and technical expertise after major disasters. Some of the projects she has been involved with include provided engineering expertise to support refugee camps during the Rwandan genocide, shelter advice following Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and supporting operations in Haiti after the earthquake.
Following the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, Jo took a secondment as Senior Shelter Coordinator in Sri Lanka with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. She took a lead role in implementing a nationwide transitional shelter programme, moving the displaced population from emergency shelters such as tents, schools, emergency camps to temporary shelters providing an interim solution until the large number of houses lost had been rebuilt.
Her achievements were considerable, and included; coordinating the efforts of around 100 Non-Governmental-Organisations, ensuring 53,000 shelters were built in six months and by September 2005, 95% of all shelter needs were met and public buildings vacated, tents and emergency camps de-commissioned.
For this work she was awarded a British Expertise International Award.
In 2007 Jo established Arup International Development, a not-for profit business within the Arup Group. Arup International Development works in partnership with humanitarian and development organisations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and Oxfam. She provides strategic advice and technical expertise to help realise the sustainable and resilient communities required to meet today’s global challenges of rapid urbanisation, the uncertainty of climate change and widespread poverty.
Passionate about her work, she cites a desire to do ‘something practical that makes a contribution to society’ as the driver behind her ambition. Jo believes firmly that engineering is wonderfully tangible and is about people, not just technology.
Ghandi is the biggest inspiration on her career and when working in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, she realised how lucky she was to have chosen engineering as a career - therefore having the hands-on practical skills that could actually make change happen.
Jo has achieved much during her career to date. She was the first woman to deliver the Institute of Civil Engineers International Brunel Lecture, in 2012 and a year earlier, she was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to engineering and to humanitarian relief and she is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Jo currently sits on the Grants Panel of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund and the International Development Policy and Practice Panel at the Institute of Civil Engineers.
She lives in North London with her long term partner Graham and his two children Ella and Tyler. As well as her family, Jo cites her passions as rock climbing and mountaineering.
For her contribution to the field of engineering and humanitarian relief, particularly the role played in developing long-term development programmes to support sustainable and resilient societies, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Honorary Doctor of Technology, honoris causa, on Jo da Silva OBE.