Joanna Kennedy

Dr Joanna Kennedy OBE FREng FICE, (born 22 July 1950),^[1] is a British civil engineer and project manager. She is currently a non-executive director of the property company Native Land^[2] and a director of the ERA Foundation,^[3] 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),^[4] which she helped launch in 1984.^[5] In June 2015 she was appointed a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery,^[6][7] where she is deputy chair of the Trustee Board and chairs the project board for the gallery’s Inspiring People redevelopment.^[8]

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.^[9] She is the mother of two sons, one of them the musician Pearson Sound.^[10][11]

Career

Kennedy joined Ove Arup & Partners, consulting engineers, in 1972^[12] and her projects as a design engineer included the M25 Runnymede Bridge^[13] 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^[14] and 2012.^[15] She was a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation from 2010 to 2020.^[1]

She was project director for redevelopments at the Southbank Centre designed by Richard Rogers, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall,^[16] Hackney Empire, the Horniman Museum and she led the design team for the remodelled King's Cross St Pancras tube station.

She was Arup's project management director from 2008 to 2013 for the Francis Crick Institute^[17] and from 2009 to 2013 project director for the planned Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre.^[18][19]

Kennedy's other appointments have included Vice-Chairman of the Port of London Authority,^[20] a Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, a Trustee of the Science Museum^[3] and a member of the Engineering Council.^[9] She was a Trustee of Cumberland Lodge from 2001 to 2011 and 2013 to 2018 ^[1] and is a Trustee of Poole Museum Foundation.^[21]

She was appointed to the Council of the University of Southampton from 1996 until 1999,^[1] and of the Royal College of Art from 2001 until 2016 (also chairing the Buildings & Estates Committee).^[22] She was commissioned as a Major in the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps in 2004^[23] and was elected to the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers in 2005.^[1]

Honours and awards

• 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^[24]
• 1997: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering^[25]
• 2007: Woman of the Year at the Atkins Inspire Awards for the built environment^[26]
•  

  Dr. Joanna Kennedy
  2008: Woman of Outstanding Achievement – For Leadership and Inspiration to Others.^[20]
• 2013: First Woman of Engineering at the CBI/Real Business Awards.^[27][28]
• 2017: Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art^[29]

References

1. "Kennedy, Joanna Alicia Gore". Who's Who online. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
2. "People – Native Land". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
3. "Our Board - ERA Foundation". Retrieved 26 November 2017.
4. "WISE Patrons". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
5. . Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
6. "The Prime Minister appoints a new Trustee to the National Portrait Gallery". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
7. "Joanna Kennedy reappointed as Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery". GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
8. "Dr Joanna Kennedy OBE". Retrieved 9 October 2022.
9. Richmond, Caroline (7 June 1984). "Joanna Kennedy: A builder of bridges". New Scientist: 38.
10. "Dr Joanna Kennedy OBE". Royal Academy of Engineering.
11. Winter, Laura (2012). Debretts People of Today. ISBN 9781870520973.
12. "Debretts People of Today". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
13. Taylor, Allegra (June 1985). "Women engineering change". Illustrated London News: 34–37.
14. "Arup win Project Management Company of the Year".
15. "APM award winners 2012". 3 August 2016.
16. "Shiver my timbers (RIBA journal December 2002)" (PDF).
17. Berry, Steve. "Engineering DNA" (PDF). CIBSE Journal (September 2014): 24–28. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
18. "A Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre Volume 1: Feasibility Study Report" (PDF). Retrieved 5 November 2016.
19. "The Origins of the DNRC programme". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
20. "Inspiring Women Engineers". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
21. "Meet our Trustees". Retrieved 9 October 2022.
22. "RCA Celebrates Battersea Milestone as Woo Building Frame is Completed". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
23. "Army appointments" (PDF). The London Gazette. Supplement: 3165. 15 March 2005. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
24. "Queen's Birthday Honours 1995" (PDF). The London Gazette. Supplement: 12. 17 June 1995.
25. "Celebrating Leading Women in Engineering". Retrieved 5 November 2016.
26. Arnold, Damian (15 August 2007). "Inspirational Force: Joanna Kennedy, Woman of the Year". New Civil Engineer.
27. "Joanna Kennedy wins First Woman of Engineering Award 2013". Retrieved 20 February 2015.
28. "First Women Awards Winners 2013". 17 August 2021.
29. "Honorary Fellows - RCA". Retrieved 26 November 2017.