I have 13 years’ experience in construction working in a variety of roles including Project Management, Design, and on-site Field Engineering. I have had the opportunity to work on the most amazing projects worldwide from Crossrail and High Speed 2 in the UK to Muscat Airport and Riyadh Metro in the Middle East.

The key thing that attracted me was the ability to travel with work and how interchangeable I felt the skills were.

I am so passionate about the industry that I am now the Diversity and Inclusion Project Manager for the Infrastructure Business unit at Bechtel driving the strategy for DE&I. I am working on trying to understand any barriers in the workplace and how to remove them to develop a strong culture of inclusion where people can be authentic and still feel like they belong.

I think there are many perceived stereotypes that are associated with the industry. Given the current statistics around lack of gender diversity in construction the main challenge is being the minority in a team. However, this is starting to change and given the problems the industry is trying to solve we need more people and more women!

I would tell anyone wanting to join the industry – you won’t regret it! The diversity in opportunities available is amazing. You will never get bored of all the options available from design to being on site. However, the key thing that attracted me personally was the ability to be part of something with big impact to the society and the positive legacy it leaves behind for the community.