Eur Ing Brian M Back CEng FIET

Managing the complexities of running his own micro-business, Brian is continually propelled forward by his mission to deliver ‘technology for good’

Journey towards entrepreneurship

“In 2007 I became a ‘dragon’ investing in several startups, one of which, Environmental Innovations, delivers solutions to tackle industrial pollution and firewater, and I now lead this business on a voluntary basis.”

The multi-faceted nature of running a business

In 2010, Brian jointly founded Radio Data Networks Limited, an organisation set up to place research, innovation and the development of “technology for good” before profit.

The micro-business environment has given Brian significant exposure, and “instils the ability to multi-task and develop skillsets to cover all aspects of the business from sales, through to design and strategic planning.”

Although a micro-business, they have already delivered Europe’s largest groundwater monitoring solution, which straddles Belgium, incorporating technology that monitors thousands of combined sewer overflows for spills of sewage, delivers innovative solutions for flood control, protects chalk streams and retrofits smart networks technology that reduces the spills of plastics in the oceans. This initiative has been granted a patent and has received recognition at the IET’s Excellence and Innovation Awards.

For Brian and his small team, “operating a technology micro-business is very demanding but equally rewarding, in particular when you know that you are delivering technology for good.”

The unsung heroes

Brian has been actively involved in the Worshipful Company of Engineers, “through which we support great engineering causes via the Engineers Trust,” including speaking to engineers at trade shows to encourage them to progress their careers from Member to Fellowship status.

By turns, Brian has also been a visiting professor at universities, promoting the need for students to follow the engineering profession. With two other Liverymen, Professor Nachi Chockalingam and IET Past-President Commodore Barry Brooks as co-Directors, Brian founded and is the lead engineer on a ventilator project started during the pandemic.

An immensely proud achievement, Brian has recently been elected as Junior Warden under the theme of Engineer for Good, celebrating his work to promote “engineering as a profession, professional development for Chartered Engineer (CEng) holders to become Fellows, join the Worshipful Company of Engineers and for the general public to understand that engineers are the unsung heroes of our modern world.”

Recognition and credibility

In the world of small business, Brian feels that being a Fellow “gives you a degree of credibility on the stage when presenting, which is particularly important when your business, being small, is an unknown brand.”

Having aspirations from the ‘70s in his first role at Hawker Siddeley of becoming a Fellow from admiring this status of one of his directors, Brian’s ambition of being an IET Fellow was realised in 2000.

This has been a catalyst for future success: “Without being a Fellow of the IET, I would not have been able to become a Freeman of the Company, then Freeman of the City of London, unable to become a member of the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, join their Court and subsequently be elected to Junior Warden with the ultimate aim, subject to election, to become the Master Engineer in 2027.”