The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has appointed its interim boss as its permanent chief executive.
Jo Passingham has worked at the charity for a year and a half, initially as chief operating officer before becoming interim chief in October last year.
She succeeds Alice Bunn, who left last year to become co-director of the UK Space Agency.
Before joining the engineering charity, Passingham was chief financial officer of the customer experience company Ventrica, a role she held for two and a half years. She also worked at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for a year (2021-2022), in two separate interim finance director roles.
Passingham has also held senior finance roles at the National Citizen Service Trust and The Prince’s Trust (now The King’s Trust); and spent a year as interim director of corporate services at the Science Museum Group.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said that under Passingham’s interim leadership, the charity had increased its engagement with government and external stakeholders, while strengthening the profile of its policy and public affairs work.
Passingham said: “IMechE has a huge opportunity to make sure engineering expertise is heard where it matters.
“We need to be ambitious, outward-facing and focused on making a real difference, both for the profession and for the country.
“I’m looking forward to working with our members, fellows, partners and colleagues to build on the progress we have already made and make IMechE an even stronger voice for engineering.”