I am a second generation British Indian, a geologist, engineer, mum of three, podcaster, school governor, speaker, gender equality advocate, and female business leader, working in the UK construction industry. I am co-founder and co-CEO of Ground & Water, a geotechnical and environmental engineering consultancy, founded 14 years ago, alongside my good university friend, Francis Williams. The company exists to build sustainable communities in the UK and beyond, through better ground engineering. Our overarching aim is to do ‘business for good’ and help create a better world. At Ground & Water, we have equality and diversity at the top, something which I'm immensely proud of and keen to promote throughout the organisation and within the industry. I actively use my platform and my voice to create more equality at work and remove the stigma around female issues that people just don't talk about, e.g., periods, pregnancy, parenthood, post-natal depression, and menopause. My purpose in life is working towards Gender Equality (UN SDG 5). I’m passionate about inspiring and empowering young girls, women, and women of colour into the industry, and supporting them in their careers. A passion project I embarked on in 2022 was starting a podcast to bring awareness of the lack of ethnic minority female engineers in the industry, called Chai & Chat Engineering. Alongside recording a second season of the podcast soon, current, and future work involves going into secondary schools to talk about careers in STEM to young girls.

Statement:

We know that diverse teams lead to better teams, bringing together wider perspectives and ways of thinking and problem solving. One way to ensure we can achieve this balance is to empower women and women of colour, working towards gender equality. Representation really does matter at all levels, it is very difficult to be what you cannot see.