Full Name
Dr Sarah Prichard
Job Title
Partner, UK Chief Operating Officer
Company
Buro Happold
Country (Work Address)
United Kingdom
Speaker Bio
Sarah is Partner and UK Chief Operating Officer at Buro Happold. Starting as a graduate structural engineer, she has worked for the firm for 20 years+, developing a passion for the delivery of multidisciplinary projects and people-centric business leadership. She has held many roles in the firm, most notably Engineering Director and Managing Director for UK Buildings. In 2024, after a business restructure, she became the UK COO, which incorporates the entire UK business and Hong Kong, China and Greece.
Sarah joined Buro Happold in the Bath office as a Trinity College Dublin graduate in January 2001. Having completed her PhD on the response of concrete to impact, she decided to put what she had learnt into practice and ‘build things!’.
Working for Buro Happold over the last 20+ years has presented Sarah with many opportunities to pursue this calling and she regards herself as uniquely lucky to have worked on several challenging technical projects that have developed and honed her skills as an engineer. She developed a passion for the delivery of multidisciplinary projects across several sectors, ensuring a high quality of delivery and client satisfaction. She spent three years in Qatar leading the supervision of the engineering works on Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Msheireb Downtown Doha Project, formerly known as the Heart of Doha. This project aimed to entirely recreate the centre of Doha in a sustainable and sympathetic way for the 21st century. She is proud of how she engaged with the construction, site and design teams, and helped many of them reconsider what a woman in a position of leadership could accomplish.
Sarah is the Chair of the Board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). She also sits on the Confederation of British Industry’s UK Competitiveness Committee.
Sarah is a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Inclusion and Diversity are a key focus of her leadership, together with gender equality in engineering, being an LGBT ally and the challenges of mental health in the construction industry and beyond.
Sarah joined Buro Happold in the Bath office as a Trinity College Dublin graduate in January 2001. Having completed her PhD on the response of concrete to impact, she decided to put what she had learnt into practice and ‘build things!’.
Working for Buro Happold over the last 20+ years has presented Sarah with many opportunities to pursue this calling and she regards herself as uniquely lucky to have worked on several challenging technical projects that have developed and honed her skills as an engineer. She developed a passion for the delivery of multidisciplinary projects across several sectors, ensuring a high quality of delivery and client satisfaction. She spent three years in Qatar leading the supervision of the engineering works on Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Msheireb Downtown Doha Project, formerly known as the Heart of Doha. This project aimed to entirely recreate the centre of Doha in a sustainable and sympathetic way for the 21st century. She is proud of how she engaged with the construction, site and design teams, and helped many of them reconsider what a woman in a position of leadership could accomplish.
Sarah is the Chair of the Board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). She also sits on the Confederation of British Industry’s UK Competitiveness Committee.
Sarah is a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Inclusion and Diversity are a key focus of her leadership, together with gender equality in engineering, being an LGBT ally and the challenges of mental health in the construction industry and beyond.
Speaking At
