Dr Joanna Kennedy OBE

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...

FICE, (born 22 July 1950), is a British civil engineer and

project manager A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined f ...

. She is currently a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of the ...

of the property company Native Land and a director of the ERA Foundation, having been Global Leader for Programme and Project Management at Arup until 2013 (a Director from 1996). She is a Patron of Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), which she helped launch in 1984. In June 2015 she was appointed a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, where she is deputy chair of the Trustee Board and chairs the project board for the gallery’s Inspiring People redevelopment.

Early life, education and family

Born Joanna Alicia Gore Ormsby, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Kennedy was educated at

The Abbey School, Reading The Abbey School is an independent selective day school for girls, in Reading, Berkshire, England. Overview The Abbey School provides education for girls aged 3 to 18 years. The school is based in the centre of Reading, on Kendrick Road. The c ...

and Queen Anne's School, Caversham and won a scholarship to

Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

; 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 Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

Prize. She is the mother of two sons, one of them the musician Pearson Sound.

Career

Kennedy joined

Ove Arup & Partners Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

, consulting engineers, in 1972 and her projects as a design engineer included the

M25 Runnymede Bridge Runnymede Bridge is a motorway, A-road, pedestrian, and cycle bridge, built in the 1960s and 1980s and expanded in the 2000s, carrying the M25 and A30 across the River Thames near the uppermost end of the Staines upon Thames and Egham reach of ...

and St Paul's Thameslink station. She was a founder of the firm's

project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. Th ...

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 and 2012. She was a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation from 2010 to 2020. She was project director for redevelopments at the

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...

, the

National Maritime Museum Cornwall The National Maritime Museum, Cornwall is located in a harbourside building at Falmouth in Cornwall, England. The building was designed by architect M. J. Long, following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions. The ...

Hackney Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in Lon ...

, the

Horniman Museum The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Modern Style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical ...

and she led the design team for the remodelled

King's Cross St Pancras tube station King's Cross St Pancras (also known as King's Cross & St Pancras International) is a London Underground station on Euston Road in the Borough of Camden, Central London. It serves King's Cross and main line stations in fare zone 1, and is an ...

. She was Arup's project management director from 2008 to 2013 for the

Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute (formerly the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation) is a biomedical research centre in London, which was established in 2010 and opened in 2016. The institute is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Impe ...

and from 2009 to 2013 project director for the planned Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre. Kennedy's other appointments have included Vice-Chairman of the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

, a Commissioner of the

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the international exhibition of 1851, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. The Great Exhibition was held ...

, a Trustee of the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and a member of the

Engineering Council The Engineering Council (formerly Engineering Council UK; colloquially known as EngC) is the UK's regulatory authority for registration of Chartered and Incorporated engineers and engineering technician, holding a register of these and providing ...

. She was a Trustee of

Cumberland Lodge Cumberland Lodge is a 17th-century Grade II listed country house in Windsor Great Park 3.5 miles south of Windsor Castle. Since 1947 it has been occupied by the charitable foundation known as Cumberland Lodge, which holds residential conferences ...

from 2001 to 2011 and 2013 to 2018 and is a Trustee of Poole Museum Foundation. She was appointed to the Council of the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

from 1996 until 1999, and of the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

from 2001 until 2016 (also chairing the Buildings & Estates Committee). She was commissioned as a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in the

Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps is a part of the Royal Engineers in the British Army Reserve. It is intended to provide advisers on engineering and logistics to the British Army at a senior level. Following its work creating the NHS Nighting ...

in 2004 and was elected to the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

in 2005.

Honours and awards

* 1994: Honorary

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

at the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

* 1995: Appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...

* 1997: Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from aroun ...

* 2007: Woman of the Year at the Atkins Inspire Awards for the built environment * Dr Joanna Kennedy FREng OBE

2008: Woman of Outstanding Achievement – For Leadership and Inspiration to Others. * 2013: First Woman of Engineering at the CBI/Real Business Awards. * 2017: Honorary Fellow of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Joanna Officers of the Order of the British Empire Engineers from London English civil engineers British women engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Living people People educated at The Abbey School People educated at Queen Anne's School Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford 1950 births 21st-century women engineers