INTERVIEW | CAROLE ONEIL A focus on developing and retaining diverse talent will enable Cundall to grow its business despite the economic challenges, says new managing partner Carole ONeil. Alex Smith and Molly Tooher-Rudd speak to the companys first female boss RAISING THE BAR C undalls new managing partner Carole ONeil is adamant that economic headwinds wont knock the consultant off its route towards its net zero goals. The multidisciplinary engineering consultancy has pledged to be working only on net zero projects by 2030 and ONeil says that will continue under her leadership. Climate change isnt going to stop simply because we are in choppy economic waters. We have a responsibility to keep pressing ahead, she says. While net zero, coupled with excellence in delivery, is at the heart of Cundalls business strategy, ONeil has been appointed managing partner primarily to grow the business. She was given the same task 15 years ago, when Cundall hired her to help recruit the talented engineers it needed to grow and expand overseas ONeil has a human resources background. The leadership team felt that it was the right time to bring someone in who could focus on people. We were facing the skills challenges that we face now, in terms of availability, attraction and retention of talent, she says. After five years, ONeil was promoted to the board. On first meeting, ONeil exudes warmth and openness, and you can see why she has been chosen to lead a company striving to appeal to the best talent in a competitive labour market. She appreciates the importance of a healthy work-life balance, and helped formalise agile working at the company, allowing employees to pursue passions outside work. For ONeil, that means having more time to train as a competitive powerlifter. Extra benchpressing sessions during the lunch hour has enabled her to build up her strength and compete at a national level (see panel, From strength to strength.) Despite rampant inflation and forecasts of an economic slowdown, ONeil says Cundall is still aiming for growth particularly in Asia, 18 August 2022 www.cibsejournal.com an area of the business she knows well, having spent 18 months in Hong Kong and Australia until 2020. She describes her role there as peripatetic leadership support, working with local teams to address human resourcing challenges. Providing opportunities for people to set up offices overseas has been key to growing the company, as well as retaining staff, she adds. We believe staff are more likely to stay if they are able to pursue ambitions overseas. Moving country and job is quite a big deal, isnt it? But if you only have to do one of those two things, theres more of a safety net. Cundall was partially insulated from the effects of Brexit because it has offices in the EU, says ONeil, which meant employees could move to Cundall offices in countries such as Ireland, Romania and Spain. While the company didnt see an exodus of people returning home post-Brexit, the new restrictions on mobility make recruiting engineers from Europe challenging. Thats cut off a source of talent for us and made it more difficult, ONeil says. Its challenging in terms of the practicalities, from a business point of view, and the aspirations that people have to come to the UK. As one of the first women to head up a global engineering consultancy, ONeils appointment is highly symbolic, and she says reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, both internally and from clients. But she warns there is still a long way to go. Although they are getting better, the numbers for female representation are not yet where we want them to be, she says.