Dr Joanna KennedyOBEFREngFICE, (born 22 July 1950),[1] is a British civil engineer and project manager who was Global Leader for Programme and Project Management at Arup until 2013 (a director from 1996). She is a patron of Women into Science and Engineering (WISE),[2] which she helped launch in 1984.[3] From 2015 until 2023 she was a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery,[4][5] latterly as deputy chair of the Trustee Board, and she chaired the project board [6] for the Inspiring People redevelopment which was completed on time for the gallery's reopening, after three years closure, in June 2023.[7][8]
Early life, education and family
Born Joanna Alicia Gore Ormsby, in London, Kennedy was educated at The Abbey School, Reading and Queen Anne's School, Caversham and won a scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford; she was one of just three females among over a hundred engineering students and graduated with first class honours in Engineering Science and the ICE Prize.[9] She is the mother of two sons, one of them is the musician Pearson Sound.[10][11]
Career
Kennedy joined Ove Arup & Partners, consulting engineers, in 1972[12] and her projects as a design engineer included the M25 Runnymede Bridge[13] and St Paul's Thameslink station. She was a founder of the firm's project management practice in 1990, became its leader for Europe in 2006 and was appointed Global Leader for Programme and Project Management in 2010. The practice was named the APM Project Management Company of the Year in both 2007[14] and 2012.[15] She was a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation from 2010 to 2020.[1]