Inspire - recognising women in the built environment, in association with Every Woman. 27thy June 2008, The Bewery, London

Judges

Judging Chairs

Krystyna Blackburn, Project Director, The Housing Forum
Krystyna joined The Housing Forum in 2003 and has worked on The Partnering Toolkit, the How To Guides and a variety of Working Groups. She leads on the Construction Legacy - Housing and Construction Legacy - London training and employment initiatives. A member of the Demonstration Projects Working Group, the Operational Management Group and is responsible for The Housing Forum national and regional conferences and events. Previously worked for Lovell Partnerships and The Notting Hill Housing Trust.

Also a Board Member of Housing for Women, a specialist Housing Association.
Vaughan Burnand (BSc (Hons) Building, MCIOB), Chief Executive, Shepherd Construction
Vaughan Burnand joined Shepherd Construction 15 years ago and was appointed to the Board of Directors in 1998, becoming Managing Director in November 2000 and then Chief Executive in July 2003. Vaughan is a member of the CIOB, IoD and a major supporter of modernising the industry through process reforms such as Lean, Risk, Collaborating Value and Supply Chain Management, and aims to achieve high levels of integration between Clients, Designers, Contractors, Subcontractors, Suppliers and the Workforce.

Vaughan is the Chairman of the Major Contractor's Group Health and Safety Committee, Chairman of Be (Collaborating for the Built Environment Ltd) and a Director of Constructing Excellence.
Caroline Cole, Partner, Colander Consulting
Caroline Cole read architecture at New Hall, Cambridge and has worked both as a design professional: with Arup Associates, Conran Associates and Crighton Ltd, and as a client: with Olympia & York at Canary Wharf. She also used to run the RIBA Clients' Advisory Service. Today she leads Colander, the consultancy that helps architects and engineers to manage their businesses better. She is a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation.
Sunny Crouch OBE, Managing Director, Capital & Provident
Sunny Crouch is credited with "transforming the economy of Portsmouth" and contributing to the regeneration of East London. She holds Directorships with a housing company and a Development Corporation and is a Governor of the University of East London. She has won many awards, including 'for being an inspiration to other women' and was honoured with an OBE.
Katrina Dowding, Chair, NAWIC
Katrina Dowding has been Chair of the National Association of Women in Construction in the UK since 2005. With nearly 6,000 members worldwide, the organisation looks to provide business, educational and networking support to women working in all roles in construction. Katrina is the Construction Business Stream Corporate Projects Manager at Skanska UK. Katrina originally trained as a Quantity Surveyor and has led Commercial teams on a variety of high-profile contracts including an award winning car park, some of the largest PFI contracts delivered to date in the UK, the new build and refurbishment of hospitals, educational projects, defence works with high levels of mechanical and electrical installations, new-build offices and retail units, retail refurbishment and fitting out of offices, in addition to working operationally taking a Project Management role in the successful delivery of several construction projects. Working now for the UK plc, Katrina has been involved in the strategic review process and has responsibility for helping deliver improvement activities across the Construction Business Stream. She is a Chartered member of the RICS and holds a BSc(Hons) and a MSc from UCL.
George Ferguson, Director, Acanthus Ferguson Mann Architects
Past President of the RIBA, he is an outspoken writer and broadcaster on architectural and environmental matters. Founder of the national group Acanthus, his interests are diverse - theatre proprietor, restaurateur, brewer and creator/owner of the renowned Tobacco Factory in South Bristol.

Sara Fox, Former Project Director of 'The Gherkin'
Since leaving Swiss Re, Sara Fox has set up a consulting practice, FOX&Co Consulting. She worked for Swiss Re for ten years during which she built two headquarters buildings for them, one in New York, and one in London. Most recently, she was responsible for the construction of the group's 40-storey, Foster-designed tower, most familiarly known to Londoners as the Gherkin. She began her career in property at Olympia & York Canary Wharf in the late 80s.

Sara is regularly asked to speak on a range of issues ranging from "women in business" to leadership and management. She is also a Community Governor at Orchard Primary School in Hackney.

Sara holds an MBA from Stanford Business School.
Dr Victoria Harris, Chief Executive Officer, Architects for Aid
Dr. Victoria Harris set up A4A in June 2005. She has a BSc in astrophysics and PhD in nuclear physics from Imperial College London which she then followed with 5 years in investment banking and 2 further years in banking consultancy, working in the area of securitisation.

Victoria worked on projects such as football gate-receipt receivables to headhunting teams for investment banks. While seeking a career change into the not for profit sector, Victoria began (though did not finish this time!) a second PhD (in psychology) at Cambridge University working on research with the charity the Autism Research Centre. At the same time she also undertook professional experience in psychology working in some more hostile environments.

This influenced her move full time into aid work and post disaster redevelopment, and setting up A4A. She is the full time chief executive of the charity. To reflect the growth on the organisation, as of 1st June 2008 A4A will be known as Article 25. The 25th article of the universal declaration of human rights is the only one referring to shelter as a fundamental human right.
Michelle McDowell, Director of Civil and Structural Engineering, Building Design Partnership
Michelle joined BDP in 1997 and now, as a board director, leads its Civil and Structural Engineering group.

She is committed to inter-disciplinary approach and believes that architects and engineers thinking together from the start of a project brings a new dimension to design, leading to better buildings. Michelle's recent projects include the award-winning BBC Mailbox in Birmingham, an innovative new Children's Hospital in Brighton, and an award-winning city academy in Ramsgate.

Michelle is a Board member of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, a member of the Design Matters Group at the Royal Academy of Engineering and a past vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Brendan Morahan, Director, Taylor Woodrow
Brendan is a member of the Executive Board of Taylor Woodrow responsible for Capability and Performance - improving the way we do business with our customers. In this role, Brendan has functional responsibility for:

  • Winning Work
  • Supply Chain
  • Research, Development and Innovation
He has operational responsibilities for:

  • The 10 year framework with BAA
  • Activities provided through the Technology Centre in Leighton Buzzard.
He is also responsible for leading the strategic direction of the business including the business planning process.
Suzannah Nichol MBE, Chief Executive, National Specialist Contractors Council
Suzannah Nichol is the Chief Executive of the National Specialist Contractors Council (NSCC), the representative umbrella organisation for building specialist organisations within the UK construction industry. NSCC has 28 member trade organisations representing over 7000 Specialist Contractors across the spectrum of building trades.

Suzannah has a BA Honours in Building Management and Technology from Liverpool University and began her career in construction as a site engineer with Lovell Construction (now YJL) on a successful £4m city centre project. To widen her knowledge she moved into the Lovell Group health and safety department and gained the NEBOSH construction certificate and the NEBOSH diploma in health and safety. Suzannah furthered her experience by joining the Engineering Department at Bovis (now Bovis Lendlease) and was responsible for the development and implementation and carrying out in house safety training for all levels of management, graduates and Directors.

In October 1996, Suzannah joined the Construction Confederation, the representative organisation for main contractors within the UK construction industry, where she worked for 6 years as Director of Health and Safety. During her time in this position Suzannah developed and managed the introduction of the current industry competence targets.

Suzannah was awarded an MBE in 2005 for Services to the Construction Industry.
Lucy Penman, Deputy Project Manager, Taylor Woodrow Construction
Lucy is a Chartered Civil Engineer and has spent her career with Taylor Woodrow Construction, working in the rail sector. She is passionate about promoting women as equal players in the industry and was chair of Generation for Collaboration (G4C) in 2007.

Suzanne Reeves, Construction Partner, Wedlake Bell solicitors
Suzanne has had a long association with the Specialist sector and acts for the National Specialist Contractor's Council (NSCC) and its members. She sits on the JCT Drafting Subcommittee and is a committee member of the Technology and Construction Solicitors Association (TeCSA) in which capacity she is involved in the DTI Review of the Construction Act.
Canute Simpson BSc(Hons), MCIOB, NLP Practitioner
Canute Simpson is Director at Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment and leads the Business Improvement Services team working with companies (small, medium and large) within the construction industry to help them improve business performance and productivity. Canute is a Chartered Builder with 8½ years site based experience and before joining the programme worked for the Chartered Institute of Building.
Morag Stuart, Head of Procurement, Olympic Delivery Authority
Morag began a career with BAE systems formerly British Aerospace in 1998 following a degree in Business Administration at Cardiff University.

She has worked in many areas of procurement in different business units within BAE systems including Ro Defence, Airbus, Head Office, Insyte.

She spent four years in the US working on a prime contract to the US marine Core. She helped set up and run a supply chain across the US and UK to support a $1 billion programme to provide 600 lightweight 155mm howitzers.

Morag has now moved into the public sector and brings with her experience of managing major supply chains, complex programmes and an understanding of the ranging requirements of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

She has lived in France, South Africa, US and the UK and travels extensively. She now lives in Richmond upon Thames and enjoys most outdoor activities.

Judging Chairs

Toni Eastwood, everywoman
Toni has over 20 years experience working in business development, designing and delivering training solutions, specialising in women's development for the last eight years. She has published research on the issues and barriers around harnessing diversity in all aspects of the economy, including entrepreneurship, leadership and the glass ceiling, in sectors such as ITEC, SET, Construction and Health and Social Care, hard to engage communities and social exclusion.

Toni has led the development of organisational and Regional strategies for unlocking the potential of women and in 2007 Toni was recognised in the New Year's honours list with an OBE for her contribution to Equal Opportunities.
Karen Gill, Co-founder and Director, everywoman
Working in senior sales and marketing roles for many years in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific markets Gill has established a vast knowledge of global business. Returning to the UK, her homeland, Karen co-founded everywoman in 1999, out of a passion to provide accessible resources for women in business. everywoman is now the UK's leading provider of services to increase the number and enhance the status of women in the economy and has over 31,000 members.