Caroline Lassen is Operations Director of Global Accounts and Special Projects at the international consultancy and construction company Mace, a RedR Patron. Caroline has been a member of the RedR UK Board since 2013. She was recently named ‘Best Woman Consultant 2016’ at the European Women In Construction and Engineering (WICE) Awards.
My involvement with RedR dates back to the beginning of Mace’s involvement. The Mace Foundation were looking for a new charity to support, and I was championing RedR and learning more about it at the same time. I’m now coming to the end of my three years as a Board Member, and I’ve had the best time. I’m surrounded by inspiring people, several of whom are women. It’s actually quite a balanced Board, comparatively speaking. I’m lucky to be sitting alongside some amazing role models
Being a woman has most definitely had an impact on my career, in both positive and negative ways. I’ve always been surrounded by strong women, both in and out of work, and I suppose that’s spurred me on.
It’s very gratifying to have won ‘Best Woman Consultant’ at the 2016 WICE Awards. The judging process was quite gruelling. I was nominated by Mace, then had to attend a Judging Day Forum with the other nominees, where I gave a twenty-minute presentation on my work and contribution to the sector. This was followed by a twenty-minute question-and-answer session, and then I had to give a one-minute pitch - in front of my fellow nominees, and the fifty judges - to say why I should win. I was convinced I hadn’t won after that - it really didn’t feel like I’d done my best work! - but I found out on the night that I had.
The construction and engineering industry is a huge amount of fun. I would encourage anyone who’s considering entering the sector, especially women, to do so: it’s amazingly interesting.