Celebrating International Women’s Day with Kelly White

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2025, Kelly White, Head of Bidding, talks about her career, balancing personal and family life and promoting equity in the construction industry.

Kelly White joined Sir Robert McAlpine 13 years ago. After starting in more operationally focused roles, as varied as subcontract purchasing, writing management systems and site auditing, her career progressed into business development, bidding and work winning, and she was recently promoted to Head of Bidding.

She was not destined for a career in construction, however, having initially been expected to study medicine. “I was going to medical school and only applied to schools which needed three As at A Level,” Kelly explains. ‘‘Having narrowly missed out, the decision was ‘do I repeat a year and apply again?’, but the stubborn 18-year-old me said no to that and continued with the back-up plan.”

After university she found herself working for a small family-owned construction business. She hasn’t looked back since. Through hard work and determination, she carved out a successful career over the past 20 years, taking every opportunity for further development and training.

Upon joining the industry, Kelly soon realised that the reality was very different from the “very much on site, getting dirty’ image that she had. She discovered that the key to success was all about collaboration across different areas of expertise. As a self-described people-person, it turned out to be a perfect fit.

In her relatively recent new role as Head of Bidding, Kelly oversees the development and submission of bids for all new projects. She and her team bring our collective knowledge and expertise together into a proposal which, as she describes, “meets the needs of our clients in a way that makes them understand why they want to work with us.” It involves close collaboration between engineering and technical, project management, estimating, commercial and creative teams.

Kelly is focused on making a broader impact across the business. She believes that the psychology of bidding and inspiring teams to sell themselves and their value effectively is where the real differentiation lies. By motivating and empowering teams, she aims to drive success and create a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

With promotions often come new challenges and new responsibilities, which can sometimes have an impact on personal circumstances and make it more difficult to manage work life balance.

In Kelly’s case, it has been the source of enhanced satisfaction: “It is taking me to a place where I feel so motivated and inspired, it’s brought an increased level of positivity in both my professional and personal life.”

Kelly is a busy mum who successfully combines her professional career with her family life, organising her time between the hustle and bustle of Bristol, London and other UK cities and the quiet surroundings of rural South Wales where she lives.

Although Kelly really loves the job and the environment in which she evolves, she admits that the industry was a bit different twenty years ago. There were fewer females and many gender preconceptions.

“I think about how [the industry] has developed over the last 20 years and it has become so much more diverse. When I first started working, the expectation, because I was the female in the room, was that I was there make the tea. That has changed no end.

“I was empowered and enabled by both male and female mentors throughout my journey to have the confidence to challenge that perception. It does not change overnight. It takes work. We need to continue to turn the dial, not by dwelling in the past but by focusing on sharing the passion we have for the industry and the rewards a career in construction affords us.”

Kelly is a staunch advocate for enabling working parents and care givers to continue to thrive in their careers. She has been Chair of Sir Robert McAlpine’s Working Families Affinity Network since its inception, advising senior leaders on the opportunities and challenges for working families.

Her driving force is to set an outstanding example to her own children, centred around the values of hard work and grabbing opportunities with both hands.

“When I think about my children, I want them to feel motivated about getting up and going to work, and having that work ethic that I feel I was brought up with,” Kelly says.