Dervilla Mitchell is Deputy Chair of Arup Group. Dervilla trained as a civil engineer and has spent most of her working life in the UK, where she has been involved in a wide range of projects laterally leading the design of major building projects. A large part of her career has been involved with aviation, designing terminal buildings including T5 Heathrow, T2 Dublin and more recently Abu Dhabi Midfield Terminal. Other notable projects include Portcullis House, Westminster, and the Athletes Village for London 2012. 

Prior to her current role she was Executive Chair of the UK, India, Middle East and Africa Region of Arup responsible for over 6,000 people. 

Dervilla is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Irish Academy of Engineering, Engineers Ireland, and the Royal Academy of Engineering.  She has been active in championing diversity in the construction sector and supported initiatives to encourage young people to consider engineering as a career. 

She was a member of the Prime Ministers Council for Science and Technology for a decade and chairs the National Engineering Policy Centre’s decarbonising UK working group. 
She was awarded a CBE for services to engineering in 2014 and received an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin in 2016 and Imperial College, London in 2021.