Mum who builds bridges to women in construction
Helen Leung – executive director, transport with consultancy firm Aecom
Helen Leung – executive director, transport with consultancy firm Aecom
To many visitors and Hong Kong people alike, the Tsing Ma Bridge, part of the vital link between Lantau Island and the rest of the territory, is nothing short of an engineering marvel. However, to the teenage son and daughter of Helen Leung, executive director, transport with consultancy firm Aecom, the world’s largest suspension bridge of its type carrying both motor vehicles and a railway is always referred to as “Mum’s” bridge.
The Tsing Ma Bridge also holds a special place in Leung’s career satisfaction portfolio. Over the years she has been closely involved with a number of Hong Kong’s iconic infrastructure projects. “It was the first project I worked on after finishing my studies in the UK and returning to Hong Kong to join Mott MacDonald’s bridges and highways department in the late 1980’s,” Leung recalls.
Having earned her MSc in construction management from Britain’s Birmingham University, Leung joined a team of international civil engineering and construction experts to work on the HK$7.2 billion Tsing Ma Bridge project, one of nine large-scale infrastructure projects with Hong Kong International Airport as the centrepiece. “It was a fantastic way to begin my career, I learned so much and was able to do so many different things during the decade the Airport Core Programme was taking place,” says Leung, ho at the time was one of a handful of women in the construction industry.
These days, as a senior civil engineer, Leung is herself a mentor, motivator and source of inspiration to a team of professionals that includes a growing number of women. “I try to pass on my enthusiasm and passion,” she says, pointing out that the talent shortage in the construction industry has led to firms stepping up their efforts to redress the gender imbalance, with many making a concerted effort to attract, recruit and retain women in their organisations. “I would encourage anybody who has an interest in any construction industry-related career to pursue that interest,” Leung says.
Initially keen to become a chemical engineer, Leung was drawn to the civil engineering profession after listening to the father of a school friend make a careers presentation at her school. “He said working on large construction projects was like watching a child grow up,” remembers Leung. “You conceptualise, nurture and see the finished project in front of your eyes. The sense of great satisfaction never changes,” she says, adding that no two projects are ever the same. In the same way that infrastructure projects have similarities with raising a family, as far as possible Leung ensures that she balances her busy schedule with family time. “I don’t recall ever having missed a school event,” she says.Alongside her other professional engineering qualifications, Leung says that in her MSc in construction management, known in the industry as an engineering MBA owing to its similarity to a general MBA programme, modules focus on finance, tax principles, arbitration and contract laws. This has provided her with a solid platform for a multi-faceted career in consultancy and project management.
Following the frenetic implementation of airport-related projects in the 1990s, the Hong Kong construction industry experienced a downturn in the early years of the new millennium, the effects of which were magnified by the impact of the Sars outbreak. During this time, with young children to look after, Leung decided to take a break from engineering in order to be a full-time mum. At the same time, juggling the joys of motherhood with academic studies, she completed her postgraduate diploma in education from the University of Hong Kong.
“I spent about two years doing supply teaching and really enjoyed it,” Leung says. “There was no rote learning in the classes I taught,” she adds. Soon, however, the lure of engineering enticed her back to the profession she knew best, this time as project development director for infrastructure at Ocean Park, supervising its master redevelopment plan. Leung’s responsibilities included supervising the removal of more than a million cubic metres of soil from the mountain headland, and the construction of the “Ocean Express” funicular tunnel. Ironically, because of a long-held belief in the construction industry that females entering tunnels while they are being excavated brings bad luck, Leung was not able to “walk through” her project until both ends of the tunnel were joined.
With the Ocean Park project completed, six years ago Leung joined Aecom, the biggest engineering consultancy firm in Hong Kong, where she immediately became involved in the Sha Tin-Central rail link. More recently, she has been working on the proposed Hong Kong Airport third runway project. “Having worked on underground, over ground and various transport projects, my colleagues joke that I need to find a space project to work on,” Leung says, adding that her career success has been possible because of the support of her husband and children.