In conversation with our female leaders

International Women in Engineering Day is an opportunity to mark the great strides women have made across the industry, as well as the issues that still cause concern. We speak to some of the female partners at Buro Happold to learn about their experiences.

Are women set up to thrive within engineering? While the picture has changed over the last few decades (in March 2022, Engineering UK reported that women make up 16.5% of all engineers in the UK, compared to 10.5% reported in 2010), the numbers do not signify any sense of parity.

To mark International Women in Engineering Day, we spoke to female partners at Buro Happold to gain a sense of their experience in the past, how things look now, what being a female leader means and how we can encourage more women to enter the engineering industry.

We spoke to Sarah Prichard, Anna Wendt, Christine Lowry, Emily McDonald, Jennifer Price, Mei Ren, Yasmin Rehmanjee, Julie Janiski and Sarah Sachs at Buro Happold’s 2023 partner conference in Amsterdam.

How has the landscape of women in senior roles at Buro Happold – and the wider industry – changed?

Sarah Prichard: There are women in leadership roles now, which has to be the biggest change to the whole business. When I started, there were almost no senior female role models and now it’s brilliant that we have female MDs, directors and partners throughout the business.

I think also it’s changing the agenda because we’re talking about the challenges of balancing work and life, which is as important to men in the business as it is for women.

Christine Lowry: I can’t think of any women in leadership roles when I joined the industry. I think we’re in a whole different place now.

Women who do make leadership roles do still seem to be ‘exceptional’. And I think what would be good in the next few years is to see more ‘normal’ people becoming leaders as well as the exceptional ones.

Emily McDonald: I think it’s changed an enormous amount on a practice wide level; we have a sustained and growing group of female partners which is something to be celebrated, and an increasing number of female directors and people coming through.

On a personal note, I would say that actually when I joined a long time ago as a young graduate, I was really fortunate that although most of my colleagues were indeed men, I had some immediate people just ahead of me, like Tanya Ross, who were people I looked up to and helped me believe that being a female within the industry was possible.

So, I don’t think that my experience in the industry and within Buro Happold felt lacking in female leadership. It wasn’t until I became senior myself that I suddenly felt lonely, and I was aware that there were only a few of us.

What’s lovely is I feel less lonely now, because there’s this amazing group of diverse and wonderful and brilliant women coming up, standing behind me, standing next to me, being part of the change that is coming to Buro Happold and to the industry. That makes me feel incredibly proud and I have great hope for the future.

Yasmin Rehmanjee: There’s been a huge transformation within Buro Happold and the industry in general in terms of the number of women represented in leadership. I’ve been at Buro Happold for eight years and within that time we have gone from single digit women partners to double digits, which is fantastic and amazing.

There’s been a huge transformation within Buro Happold and the industry in general in terms of the number of women represented in leadership

Yasmin Rehmanjee, partner at Buro Happold

Sarah Sachs: I’ve been with Buro Happold since 2004, so have watched the evolution of the firm. Although I’ve always been a champion and passionate about Buro Happold, I didn’t have an aspiration to be a partner because I didn’t see that as a table to sit at. I didn’t want to go elsewhere, or I didn’t necessarily feel there was a barrier, but it didn’t feel that the seat was being drawn out for me.

The dynamic is quite different now; it starts to shift the conversation and the energy in the room. I’ve really appreciated that over the last year.

Julie Janiski: The first partner meeting I was at, there was a group of us; I think we had just got to ten women partners. But still you walk in the room, and it feels like you’re not represented. You’re a little bit of a stranger. It felt a little bit uncomfortable, to be honest. And this year being able to sit down at a table, Emily McDonald came over and sat next to me and I thought: yes, I need more of this! I was really, really grateful that we can sit at a table together and just feel good and that we belonged.

Ana Araujo: It has changed a lot. Not just in terms of gender presence but also in terms of age group. That’s changing quite significantly. In a way, as someone that just joined the Buro Happold leadership team and partnership, I think I had an easier time than colleagues that did it previously. I had that benefit of perspective from others that went before me and were so generous in sharing their experiences.

If you could speak to your younger self – or to women reading this now – what advice would you give?

Anna Wendt: Be patient. That is still something I have to tell myself now; change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. I love the enthusiasm and the way that our staff holds us as leaders to account. They are demanding change from us. They want to see progress and I remember being in their shoes and wanting to see that as well.

Mei Ren: Over the years I learnt how to stay optimistic, and that all your experience will pay off in one way or another. Don’t feel that your views won’t be heard.

I love the enthusiasm and the way that our staff holds us as leaders to account. They are demanding change from us

Anna Wendt, partner at Buro Happold

Sarah Prichard: We need to support each other to bring our whole selves to work to be really successful and to help us manage what is going on, both inside and outside the business. I would also advise patience…things take time, and you need to take time to learn and get the most out of each experience.

I always say Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote of ‘do something every day that scares you’. Build on your experience, grow and learn from it. But take the time and don’t look to move too quickly because by consolidating your learning, you’ll be a better leader in the future.

What does being a female leader mean to you? What opportunities has it created?

Jennifer Price: When I was first running a US region for another company, it gave me a much stronger voice. I had some advice early on from a female non-profit leader in the Seattle area that I’ve always taken with me, and she said, ‘You have to get yourself to the table’; whatever table that is and wherever decisions are being made that impact you, you have to get yourself to that table. Being a leader, I feel I’m at that table.

It also comes with some responsibility; I have to use my voice in my leadership to create a better place for everyone to work.

Mei Ren: The platform is a lot bigger. Your view can be projected and be impactful. The landscape has changed; there is a wider acceptance of a female role model, and certainly more female faces in a meeting room and different dynamics than in the past. It gives opportunities to the next generation of female engineers.

What are you proud of during your time at Buro Happold?

Anna Wendt: One of the biggest privileges that I’ve had in terms of my leadership role at Buro Happold is supporting the specialist consulting disciplines within the UK.

There are some absolutely incredible talent and capability within those disciplines; over the last few years, seeing how those capabilities have matured and developed and some of the incredible projects that they’re delivering against, is really amazing.

Yasmin Rehmanjee: As a structural engineer, I feel we have the ability to make a huge impact. We’re talking of the embodied carbon impact of our projects; we have so much ability to influence it, reduce it, minimise it.

I love that what was a passion for me as a teenager, I’m able to implement now two decades later as a structural engineer. Sharing our knowledge and sharing how we can make the world better through engineering has been really great.