Pursuing your passion - Kate Cooksey, Tunnel Design Engineer, Morgan Sindall
At 27, Kate is working on the designs for Crossrail, with responsibility for managing its £45m instrumentation and monitoring project. At 24, she set up the British Tunnelling Society young members' committee. She represents the changing face of the engineering profession, and is an inspirational ambassador for young women. In 2012 she won the Karen Burt Award for the best newly qualified Chartered Engineer from the Institution of Civil Engineers and a place on Management Today's "35 Women Under 35" list.Changing the rules - Anne McNamara, Director, Shine Bid Services
Anne is a creative powerhouse, running a tight-knit consultancy from her offices in Clerkenwell. Anne is behind contract wins worth over £1bn for clients. Over the last decade she's been working behind the scenes with major contractors on architecting bid winning strategies. She came into bidding by chance, her early career included co-founding The Big Issue in the North. Anne has helped to raise the standard of bid competitions, by challenging clients to prioritise value over cost, and relentlessly pursuing innovation.Taking on giants - Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE, Chief Executive, MITIE
Ruby is the first Asian female chief executive of a FTSE 250 company in 2007, but she would rather be known for achievements in the role. Since joining MITIE, she has helped grow revenues from £0.5bn to £2.0bn, and tripled employee numbers to 62,000. She's focused on growing MITIE into a convincing contender to its bigger outsourcing rivals Serco and Capita. Ruby was a reluctant role model for women, but since being thrust into the limelight she's used her profile to raise awareness of workplace equality.Design excellence - Hannah Lawson, Architect, John McAslan + Partners
Hannah won the 2012 AJ Emerging Woman Architect of the Year Award for the ‘quality and diversity' of her work. She has a promising future, already a board director, only four years after joining from the Bartlett School of Architecture with a prolific output of work. Hannah heads up the practice's culture and education unit and led the design of high profile projects including a £21m Academy in Enfield; a contemporary mosque in Doha; a cathedral in Kenya; and a sustainable low-cost school in Malawi.Shaping the future - Elspeth Finch, Director, Elspeth Finch
In 2000, Elspeth, co-founded Intelligent Space, a specialist consultancy in pedestrian movement and space use. Seven years later, it was acquired by Atkins. She now leads the Atkins Futures team, which analyses the long term environmental and social changes and their likely impact on infrastructure. She recently published in partnership, the research report, Future Proofing Cities, which looks at the climate and resource risks faced by cities, and identifies practical solutions.Doing the mega deals - Hannah McCaughey, Head of Commercial, Centrica Energy
Based in the Centrica Energy nuclear team, Hannah is commercial lead on their £2.3bn low-carbon power joint-venture with EDF, which involves constructing, operating and decommissioning four UK nuclear power stations. A former human rights lawyer, Hannah can be described as an ‘environmental capitalist', at the forefront of climate change and low-carbon energy investment. In her previous role, as VP of Group Funds at Climate Change Capital, she helped raise the largest private sector carbon fund value in excess of €1.5 billion.Influencing policy - Kate Henderson, Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association
Kate is the first female chief executive of the charitable Association, she's also the youngest to hold the position. Kate is responsible for taking a leading role in shaping Government policy – providing challenge, comment and advocacy on planning, housing and the environment issues. Under her leadership, she's reinvigorating debate around building new large-scale communities based on garden city ideals. She's also keen to change the perceptions of planning as the business of ‘middle-aged white men' by raising the profile of women in the sector.