Executive Women’s Leadership Forum
Committee for Perth’s upcoming Executive Women’s Leadership Forum will feature a conversation with Kate West on Thursday, 9 November 2023 at HopgoodGanim Lawyers.
Kate – Co-Chair of the Australasia Region for sustainable development consultancy Arup – is dedicated to addressing significant gender imbalances in her profession.
She is also a key advocate for the workforces of tomorrow, as one of only six Western Australians at the Albanese Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit last year.
A rare leader in a workforce with only 13 per cent female representation, Kate will share her journey, which began as an engineering graduate with Arup in Perth, then led her to Melbourne and Europe. Since 2021, she has led more than 3,000 employees from her Perth base along with her Co-Chair, Kerryn Coker.
The Executive Women’s Leadership Forum is a community of executive level, senior and future-leading women in Committee for Perth’s membership, who meet throughout the year to hear from inspiring leaders about their career and life journey.
Don’t miss this networking event.
Our speaker
Kate West
Co-Chair Australasia Region, Arup
Kate graduated from the University Western Australia with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (1st Class Honours) in 1999.
She started her professional life at Arup as an engineering graduate based in Perth, trying many disciplines before pursuing structural engineering as her core skill. She took advantage of Arup’s global view to move to Melbourne and then London, working as a structural engineer and design manager while completing further study in the form of Masters of Architecture University of Cambridge, UK in 2007.
While in the UK, she led a multidisciplinary team on the $2 billion Dublin Airport Terminal 2, a critical element in Ireland’s national transport infrastructure involving the design of a 75,000m2 terminal building with the processing capacity of 15 million passengers per year which opened in 2010. She returned to Perth, becoming a Principal in 2015 and WA Consulting Group Leader in 2017, guiding teams on a range of significant city shaping projects, including Perth Airport T1 International Departures Expansion, Perth Airport Terminal 1 Domestic, and the new METRONET Morley-Ellenbrook rail line.
In 2019, she became an Australasian Region Board Member and in 2021, Kate was appointed as Co-Chair of the Arup Australasia Region which incorporates Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and employs more than 3,000 specialists working in the built environment.
She has been recognised with a number of awards including:
- 2007 Cambridge University Bursary
- 2007 IStructE UK Study Grant
- 2017 National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Crystal Vision Award
- 2018 WA Business Review 40U40 Business Leaders Award
Kate is a Chartered Professional Engineer and a regular speaker at industry events, presenting on topics including infrastructure, women in leadership, STEM and specific projects. She has three children, is an advocate for flexible working and a mentor for emerging leaders across the industry.
Date
Thursday, 09 November 2023
17:00 – Registration Opens
17:15 – Event Start
19:00 – Event Concludes
Free for invited guests of Committee for Perth.
Please note, if you have previously registered for this event, your registration has automatically been carried over.