My passion for the built environment began with Lego bricks and blossomed in high school geography class, where I became fascinated by the urban, social and environmental challenges that characterise our world. This early engagement with the natural and built environments ignited my vocational drive and led me to study City Planning at university, a knowledge base that I have since enhanced via rewarding work within urban planning/design and property development contexts.
My project work to date has included overseeing the delivery of major industrial and commercial developments across Australia, most notably the Nepean Business Park, a $2 billion development on a 49 hectare former quarry site in Sydney. The array of environmental, economic and political complexities experienced on this project was instrumental in fostering my critical problem-solving, management and interpersonal skills.
More recently, having relocated to London, I have had the opportunity to manage a team providing design advisory services across hundreds of projects in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. This role has allowed me to draw upon my planning knowledge, project management skills, as well as my appreciation for different cultures to help positively and sensitively shape the development of this incredibly special, yet exceptionally fragile place.
Coming from Australia with its ancient indigenous history and contemporary multicultural society, I have an appreciation for how diverse cultures can enrich our lives, and an attuned sense for the importance of acknowledging the past in the present, whilst planning for the future. On a personal level, growing up as the eldest of four kids in a close-knit, bilingual household across two continents, I understand intuitively how different personalities, perspectives and experiences can complement one another. This philosophy strongly informs my approach to every project I work on.