As we reach the end of our 60 years celebrations campaign, we asked Hannah Smith, Associate to talk about her time at CampbellReith.
In my 15 years at CampbellReith, I’ve been fortunate to work on an array of exciting projects in a variety of different sectors – from high-end residential refurbishment projects such as 28 Blomfield Road in Maida Vale, to complex facade retention schemes like 315-319 on Oxford Street and most recently, delivering one of only two NHS high energy proton beam therapy centres in the UK – UCLH Proton Beam Therapy and Cancer and Surgery unit. With all of this in mind, what has made working with CampbellReith even more rewarding, is the encouragement given throughout the practice for everyone who works at CampbellReith to promote and support the evolution of our engineering and construction industry.
At CampbellReith our commitment goes beyond our project work. Our passion for engineering includes promoting the industry among young people to inspire and guide those with the same passion. Since CampbellReith’s inception, our teams have been involved in a range of activities with external bodies – from MERGE to working with universities, schools and colleges.
Our internal STEM ambassadors regularly reach out to schools and colleges as part of the STEM learning initiative. They work with young people across the UK, visiting primary and secondary school students and undergraduates, as well as attending careers fairs such as Innovate Guildford. We also work with the Landscape Architectural Students at Greenwich University to provide insights and ‘an introduction to Structural and Civil Engineering’.
“I find it extremely rewarding to be able to engage and connect with people outside of the industry and encourage interest and enthusiasm through my passion for my work.”
In recognition of our efforts, we were delighted to be awarded both the NCE100 award for Contribution to the Profession and the Ground Engineering Consulting Firm of the Year Award. The judges for the Ground Engineering award identified that CampbellReith shows “excellent examples of collaboration, strong community engagement and commitment to quality resulting in repeat and extended work”.
Women in Engineering
I feel incredibly lucky that throughout my career I have been supported by a range of strong team members and women in engineering – at Partner level as well as my contemporaries, and the teams I’ve managed and worked with. Having been in the industry for almost 20 years’ now, you became accustomed to being the only woman in the room at meetings and on site with the average percentage of women in engineering at 20%. But I am happy to note that things have changed since my early career! Initiatives that promote women in engineering are invaluable and an example of a recent obvious success in our own internal project team was on the UCLH Proton Therapy Centre – the team was made up of 40% women, in a technical team of around 15, and this continues to be the case across our projects! We’re really proud of this.
“We know, of course, that more needs to be done to encourage skilled individuals to take up engineering as a career. At CampbellReith we have undertaken several activities to promote and support our team members, most recently, creating a company wide network for the Women in Engineering to share thoughts on how we can support each other and encourage female leadership across the practice, as well as benefitting the company as a whole.”
Every year we enjoy celebrating International Women’s Day and continue to support this through raising awareness with charity and fundraising events for causes close to us, in particular Care International. We are always getting involved with activities across the industry, including the world record for leaping high fives, which was hosted by the Women in Engineering Society at Horse Guards Parade.
It’s been an exciting and fruitful career so far with CampbellReith, and I for one, am looking forward to continuing to promote and shape the industry in the future!