Women in Construction Awards 2025 recognise sector excellence

Ecocem Global’s Susan McGarry has emerged as the winner of the overall leader award at the Women in Construction Awards 2025, which recognise the contribution of women professionals, teams and projects within the construction industry, highlighting their originality, innovation and excellence in the built environment.

The second annual awards ceremony, held at the Crowne Plaza Santry in Dublin and hosted by Ruth Scott brought together 277 attendees to celebrate exceptional talent across the sector. This year’s event saw 42 companies compete across 22 trophy categories, with a total of 120 entries submitted across the programme.

Ecocem is a pioneer in high-performance technologies that reduce CO2 emissions in the cement and construction sectors. Its ACT technology reduces the overall carbon footprint of traditional cement manufacturing by more than 70 per cent, and the company produces more than two million tonnes of low-carbon cement and additions annually.

McGarry, director of public affairs and sustainability at Ecocem Global, said she was “very proud to be recognised alongside such inspiring leaders”.

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Her award citation noted that McGarry’s visionary leadership has positioned Ecocem at the forefront of climate action in cement and concrete. “Susan is widely respected for her commitment to collaboration, excellence, and empowering others. She continues to inspire change and shape a more sustainable future for construction,” said the judging panel.

The legacy award was presented to Maria King, health and safety adviser at Colas Contracting based in Oranmore, Co Galway. King has worked extensively across construction, civil engineering and the quarry industry, and at Colas she focuses on auditing, incident prevention, and ensuring compliance. “She is passionate about sharing her knowledge in areas such as mobile plant, work at height and accident investigation, making her a valued leader in health and safety,” said the award citation.

Debbie Treacy, head of HR at gold sponsor Walls Construction, commented: “We were proud to return as a gold sponsor for the 2025 Women in Construction Awards, because recognition drives progress. These awards highlight talent, inspire future leaders, and help to challenge outdated behaviours and norms.

“By celebrating women’s achievements, we strengthen our industry, making it more inclusive, innovative and resilient. We were delighted to have a strong presence among the finalists this year, representing the exceptional talent within Walls Construction. Congratulations to award winner Hafsa Alghazi and to all our other nominees up for awards.”

Clíona Molloy, deputy managing director at McKeon Group and Hereworks, expressed her delight at receiving the award in the business owner category, emphasising that it represented recognition for her entire team.

Award winner Suzanne Tracy, chief technology officer at SIRO, noted that the awards shine a light on all the great women in the sector and demonstrate that “we’re here to stay”.

Patricia Barrett, project manager at Rogerson Reddan, was moved to tears when she received her award. She explained that the awards promote women in construction and show how any woman in their company can progress.

Breda Gleeson, COO at gold sponsor FKM Fit Out, stated: “FKM proudly supports the Women in Construction Awards, celebrating leadership, championing diversity and inspiring future generations. Recognising the women shaping our industry highlights the power of inclusive teams and drives meaningful progress. Together, we’re building a stronger, more equitable future in construction.”

Award winner Malepeli Malataliana, senior quantity surveyor at AECOM, emphasised the importance of women in engineering working together “to make sure that there is inclusivity, diversity, and excellence”.

Caroline Henry, director of health safety and environment at Greenlink Interconnector, stated: “We are a new company to market, so we are honoured and delighted with this prestigious award. It’s an opportunity to benchmark against the best in the industry and to see how we can improve and how we’re performing.”

Ramya Janardhan, senior structural engineer at McElroy Associates, noted that winning an award earned recognition and provided “a boost to self-confidence”.

Winners of the 2025 Women in Construction Awards

Award finalist Frances Rooney, managing director at Firepro Logistics, said the recognition showed that women in leadership were driving meaningful progress in the industry globally. She emphasised that honouring excellence and recognising fire protection as a vital role in construction and safety was essential for “meeting the needs of our society”.

Judging coordinator Róisín Murphy commented that the award nominations reflected not only technical excellence and leadership, but also remarkable resilience, innovation, and a deep commitment to advancing the construction industry in Ireland.

“These women are not just breaking barriers, they are setting new standards of excellence across the entire sector,” Dr Murphy explained. “From project management, operations and sustainability leaderships in architecture, engineering, consultancy and contractor organisations, the calibre of talent and impact demonstrated across every category has been nothing short of inspiring.”

She described the Women in Construction Awards as a wonderful celebration and powerful reminder of the strength of leadership, talent and innovation brought by women to the sector. “The awards reinforce the value of diversity and demonstrate the vast range of opportunities for an exciting career within the sector,” Murphy added.

Kevin O’Driscoll, director partnership programmes at awards organiser Business River, said: “Events like this are made possible through the support of sponsors. We are thankful to our 2025 sponsors which include Walls Construction, Mercury Engineering and FKM Fit Out. I also want to recognise our supporters, Cronin Group, Lighthouse Charity, and Amárach Research. Their investment in the awards underlines their commitment and support of this key business area.”

Awards judges

Dr Róisín Murphy (judging coordinator) – senior engagement manager: engineering, construction and built environment, Technological University Dublin
Avril Behan – director, FET College of the Future (Capital), SOLAS – Ireland’s Further Education & Training Agency
Lizette Conneely – director and co-founder, Conneely Wessels Architects
Susan Cormican – group director, Ethos Engineering
Lorraine Fitzgerald – head of sustainability, Glenveagh
Tomás Kelly – director, AECOM
Emma Maye – chief executive, Ardale and Core Building Providers
James McNamara – lecturer, TUS Midlands/Midwest
Trevor McSharry – head of faculty of engineering and design, Atlantic Technological University
Nevan Mulvihill – lecturer, TU Dublin
Ruth Quinn – lecturer of civil engineering, Atlantic Technological University – Sligo
John Spillane – associate professor, University of Limerick
Julia Stevens – chief executive, Constructionarium Ltd

Award winners

Overall leader award (sponsored by Mercury Engineering)

Winner: Ecocem Global – Susan McGarry