CIBSE’s CEO, Ruth Carter, and CIBSE President 2025/26, Vince Arnold, completed a highly productive visit to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in October, engaging with industry leaders, partners, policymakers and members across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Joined by CIBSE MENA Chair Imran Shaikh, the visit highlighted CIBSE’s growing presence in the region and its commitment to supporting excellence in building services engineering globally.
Over the course of the visit, the delegation strengthened strategic relationships, explored opportunities for technical collaboration, championed innovation, and celebrated the achievements of the regional engineering community.
Driving innovation in modular construction
The trip included a visit at BK Gulf LLC’s offices and modular factory in Dubai, where Ruth, Vince and Imran witnessed BK Gulf’s leadership in modular construction and their impressive commitment to innovation.
A particular highlight was the company’s strong graduate training programme, demonstrating meaningful investment in the next generation of building services engineers.
The visit underscored the importance of collaboration between industry and professional bodies in advancing sustainable, high-performing buildings across the region.
Advancing sustainable urban development with KAFD
In Riyadh, the CIBSE delegation met the team at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) to explore opportunities to support the district’s ambition to become a world-leading, sustainable, high-performance urban environment.
Discussions centred on shared priorities, including:
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Climate-resilient design and pathways to Net Zero
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Digital engineering and performance-led asset management
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ESG commitments and global certification goals
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Energy optimisation, maintainability and post-occupancy performance
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Decarbonisation of current and future assets
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Capability building through CIBSE chartership, accreditation and CPD
The meeting marked an exciting step toward deeper technical partnership, with CIBSE looking forward to supporting KAFD’s Vision 2030 commitments.
Celebrating innovation at Schneider Electric
Ruth and Vince also visited Schneider Electric’s new Dubai offices, where they explored advanced FM and BIM capabilities and saw CIBSE guidance in action across the facility.
As a gesture of appreciation, they presented selected Schneider Electric colleagues with Tree of Life coasters, symbolising sustainability and acknowledging the shared commitment to a greener built environment.
Discussions focused on expanding collaboration to support decarbonisation and performance-led engineering across the region.
Strengthening professional pathways with Egis
The delegation met the engineering team at Egis, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to begin the accreditation of Egis’ graduate training and development scheme.
This milestone reinforces both organisations’ dedication to nurturing early-career engineers and creating robust, internationally recognised professional pathways across the MENA region.
Celebrating excellence at the CIBSE MENA Awards
The visit coincided with the second annual CIBSE MENA Awards, held at the W Palm Jumeirah Hotel.
The awards celebrated outstanding engineers, projects and companies across the Middle East and North Africa, highlighting excellence in:
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Engineering innovation
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Outstanding project delivery
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Professional development
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Student achievement
The revitalised awards programme continues to strengthen community, collaboration and recognition across the region.
Presidential keynote at the MEP International conference
CIBSE President Vince Arnold delivered the opening keynote at the MEP International Conference MENA, emphasising:
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The role of smart policy and regulation
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Collaboration between regulators and professional bodies
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Harnessing emerging technologies for performance and resilience
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The importance of empowering the next generation, aligned with his Presidential theme Paying it Forward
Vince also reflected on the evolution from CIBSE UAE to CIBSE MENA, reinforcing CIBSE’s commitment to consistent standards and knowledge sharing across borders.
Industry collaboration at the CIBSE Decarbonisation Conference
The CIBSE Decarbonisation Conference 2025, hosted by CIBSE MENA, brought together regional leaders to explore practical pathways to Net Zero.
Sessions covered cooling strategies, data centre decarbonisation, embodied carbon, and adapting global Net Zero standards to regional contexts, highlighting the growing momentum for sustainable transformation.
Showcasing future talent at the Student Design Competition
Ruth and Vince attended the Student Design Competition 2025 Pre-Awards Celebration, recognising exceptional students from across the UAE, KSA and wider GCC.
This year’s theme, Intelligent Buildings, challenged participants to explore IoT-driven systems, adaptive lighting, smart HVAC and real-time energy optimisation—reflecting the skills and creativity shaping the future of the profession.
Strengthening partnerships with Arup
At Arup’s Dubai offices, CIBSE signed an MoU to progress accreditation of Arup’s graduate schemes, reinforcing shared ambitions to support early-career engineers and advance excellence in building services engineering across the region.
Exploring sustainable engineering at Desert Rock Resort
A standout moment of the visit was the tour of the Desert Rock Resort in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea region—a fully self-sufficient development powered by solar energy and supported by advanced engineering systems.
The delegation met the project team and explored the sophisticated plant room that powers the resort’s sustainability features, illustrating the harmony between world-class engineering and nature-led design.
Supporting engineering talent at WSP
CIBSE and WSP Middle East signed an MoU to begin accreditation of WSP’s Training & Development Scheme. Ruth and Vince also engaged with WSP graduates, discussing chartership, professional growth and leadership in building services engineering.
Leadership round table on decarbonisation
Ruth and Vince participated in a Leadership Round Table hosted by BNC Network, in collaboration with Ramboll and CIBSE MENA.
The session explored data-driven approaches to accelerating decarbonisation, and included the launch of the BNC Project Carbonisation Index, an important step in measuring carbon efficiency in construction across the region.
A strategic visit strengthening CIBSE’s global impact
The October MENA visit highlighted CIBSE’s deepening influence and strengthened partnerships across the region. Through collaboration, technical leadership, and a shared commitment to sustainable, high-performing buildings, CIBSE continues to support industry transformation across the Middle East and North Africa.
CIBSE looks forward to building on the momentum of this visit as the Institution continues to champion innovation, excellence, and professional development worldwide.