Lianna Mah, P.Eng., FEC, FGC (Hon.)  

Vice President, Business Development, Associated Engineering

Over her extensive consulting career, Lianna Mah has not only been an influential technical and strategic leader, but a legendary champion of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Lianna completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from UBC before heading to Ontario at a time when women represented less than 3% of the engineering workforce. In 1990 she returned to the Lower Mainland to work for Associated Engineering, where today she is the Vice President, Business Development.

Lianna has often shared that the 1989 December 6 massacre at L’École Polytechnique was a turning point for her. Redirecting her heartbreak and anger into advocacy, Lianna and her 3 besties founded the Division for the Advancement of Women in Engineering and Geoscience in 1990 and set out to change the profession not just for themselves, but for generations of engineers to follow. The DAWEG experience also introduced Lianna to the benefits of professional service with Engineers and Geoscientists BC – then APEGBC – and introduced EGBC to the benefit of having Lianna’s voice, passion, and professionalism on their team.

Lianna has served her profession in many roles including as EGBC President in 2018-2019 and as Chair of the EGBC Foundation where she helped establish two, self-sustaining awards, including the Sheri Plewes Scholarship for Women in Engineering.

With ACEC-BC, Lianna has been a long-term contributor and agitator, encouraging change within the industry through her thoughtful engagement of members and our team. She was a founding member of our EDI Committee and continues to work with us through the Membership Affairs Committee and Regulation Working Group to recognize and promote the benefits of engaging a diverse team to better serve our clients and our communities.

Through her significant and present leadership at Associated Engineering and through professional service, as well as through many, many keynote speeches, presentations, and conference participations, Lianna has inspired and engaged diverse people who feel seen and valued as a result of her presence.

For her considerable, long-term, and sustained commitment to representing, empowering, and engaging underrepresented people in engineering, and her foundational work to establish spaces where women could connect, grow, and prosper, ACEC-BC is pleased to recognize Lianna with the 2024 EDI Award.

About the Award

In 2020, the ACEC-BC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee worked with our Board to bring forward a new award recognizing the impact of member actions on advancing our values of equity, diversity, and inclusion. The Committee proposed the Award to shine a light on the many ways members are working together to build a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive industry and to recognize the considerable effort needed to effect change.

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award selection was made by a panel of members representing different business practices, which acknowledges that actions supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion are not the responsibility of any one person or group, and must be considered core to the business practice of every member firm.

Change can be difficult. Like building any technical skill, change needs time, clear intention, and deep commitment. Building a more diverse and inclusive industry is a journey, and our inaugural Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award recipients support us all through their leadership by example.

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