Karen Quinlan, Director – People & Culture truly champions change across SMEC & Robert Bird Group (RBG), most prominently for gender equality. Karen takes action to raise awareness, understanding and the need for change, and delivers important initiatives to make this happen, both at her workplace and in the community.

In 2019, Karen’s role expanded to include managing the People & Culture function for SMEC’s sister company, the Robert Bird Group (RBG). In this role Karen has continued to drive cultural change, including securing RBG’s commitment to gender equality as demonstrated by gaining the Board’s support to establish a global equity, diversity and inclusion framework, as well as commitment to strengthening practices, policies, programs and processes that help RBG to be recognised as an employer of choice for gender equality, with plans to pursue a WGEA citation in the Australian division. As we move into 2024, Karen’s role has once again expanded, now encompassing the management of People and Culture for our global Infrastructure and Energy (I+E) Business Line. This expansion consolidates various brands within the SJ family, including Surbana Jurong, SMEC, and KTP. We eagerly anticipate Karen’s continued leadership and impact in her expanded role, confident that her expertise will contribute significantly to the success and growth of our organization.

Additionally, Karen is driving SMEC’s partnership with the United Nations (UN) Global Compact to pledge support for the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women