Joanna Kennedy

Dr Joanna Kennedy OBE FREng FICE, (born 22 July 1950),^[1] is a British civil engineer and project manager. She was Global Leader for Programme and Project Management at Arup until 2013 (a Director from 1996 to 2013), and is currently a director of the ERA Foundation^[2] and a Patron of Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), which she helped launch in 1984.^[3] She became a Trustee of Cumberland Lodge in 2001^[4] and in June 2015 was appointed a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery.^[5]

Early life, education and family

Born Joanna Alicia Gore Ormsby, in London, Kennedy was educated at The Abbey School, Reading and Queen Anne's School, Caversham and won a scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford; she was one of just three females among over a hundred engineering students and graduated with first class honours in Engineering Science and the ICE Prize.^[6]

Kennedy joined Ove Arup & Partners, consulting engineers, in 1972^[7] and her projects as a design engineer included the M25 Runnymede Bridge^[8] and St Paul’s Thameslink station. She was a founder of the firm’s project management practice in 1990, became its leader for Europe in 2006 and was appointed Global Leader for Programme and Project Management in 2010. The practice was the APM Project Management Company of the Year in both 2007^[9] and 2012.^[10] She was project director for redevelopments at the Southbank Centre designed by Richard Rogers, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall,^[11] Hackney Empire, the Horniman Museum and she led the design team for the remodelled King's Cross St. Pancras tube station. From 2009 to 2013 she was project director for the planned Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre.^[12]

Kennedy's public appointments have included Vice Chairman of the Port of London Authority,^[13] a Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, a Trustee of the Science Museum^[14] and a member of the Engineering Council.^[15]

1994: Honorary Doctor of Science at the University of Salford
1995: Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours^[16]
1997: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
2007: Woman of the Year at the Atkins Inspire Awards for the built environment ^[17]
2008: Woman of Outstanding Achievement – For Leadership and Inspiration to Others.^[18]
2013: First Woman of Engineering at the CBI/Real Business Awards.^[19]^[20]