A career built on refusing the script.

I decided early that I wasn’t interested in the path laid out for me.

At 16, I chose a trainee electronics technician role over the more conventional options on offer, and found in it the beginning of my route into engineering. A boss who backed my ability gave me the confidence to back it myself, and from there I moved through work experience, placements, study and training until engineering wasn’t just an interest – it was my career.

I was the only woman on my university course. That set the tone for much of what followed: rooms where I had to prove my competence before anyone would take it as given. In 2006, I left Scotland to build a new life in Norway as an ICSS/Instruments Engineer, and from there built a body of work I’m genuinely proud of – leading complex, high-stakes projects across multiple countries and technical environments.

None of that came without cost. I’ve navigated overdue promotions, glass ceilings and colleagues who underestimated me, and I made hard personal choices to protect the career I’d built. What I took from it is simple: don’t let anyone dull your spark, and don’t mistake other people’s discomfort with your success for a reason to shrink.

The obstacles never defined me; my response to them did.

More than 25 years on, after building an international engineering career across some of the world’s largest energy projects, I’m passionate about sharing that experience through Energy Sector Heroes – celebrating the people driving our industry forward, and encouraging others to believe in themselves, challenge expectations and pursue careers they never thought possible.