The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Project Manager Award

Steve Miller

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah is an exemplary Rail project manager managing the multi-disciplinary design delivery in support of the South East NR Development team.

Here are some recent quotes from South East NR Development programme manager - Adam Littlewood in support of her abilities and attributes within the four primary NR review categories:-

Customer-driven: - This is area Sae Ah excels at. She is always keen to support us in our challenges and responds in a measured way. The early warning system Sae Ah manages on our behalf has become a staple to allow us to identify issues in the difficult space we manage in between delivery and our client base. We often include Sae Ah in 3rd party and client meetings as she understands the political nature of the space we work in. Finally with the annual funding constraints we now find ourselves with in CP6 Sae Ah gives us confidence with a good commercial sense and adherence to budget has been historically very strong.

Accountable: - Sae Ah understands her area of accountability and will own any issues and risks identified. The team have no problem challenging Sae Ah and this is done with a recognition that the challenge will be dealt with receptively and pragmatically and where relevant rebuffed.

Challenging: - Sae Ah clearly challenges her team to get results. Representing our clients we appreciate the changing environment we are currently working in Development can cause difficulties in managing a hard working team.

Collaborative: - Again a strong subject for Sae Ah and well explained in the first two items above. Both our teams regularly complete the Prism scoring and Sae Ah has been receptive on our plan to implement some joint KPIs. I believe Sae Ah feels like one of our Development team and buys into the culture we have grown in ASK Track Development (Anglia, Kent & Sussex).“

Wales Cheung

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah is a well respected Project Manager experienced in managing multi-disciplinary rail projects for AECOM. Calm, composed and has great communication skills, Sae Ah is also a Chartered Engineer who has in-depth knowledge in engineering processes and delivery, she induces confidence in her ability to manage projects to schedule, cost and quality. She has great people management skill, and is always available to her team, she ensures the projects are delivered even with stretched targets with the commitment and support from her team.

Sae Ah was Project Manager for Reading Viaduct, successfully delivering the complex project to programme and to budget. Since 2016, Sae Ah has been the Design Manager in IP Track Development, managing the whole GRIP1-3 S&C portfolio for Southeast and Anglia routes, requiring the management of over 10 schemes concurrently with over 25FTEs in her team. Her performance has received glowing praise from Client and Stakeholders, and has led to work in excess of £6.5m and counting on the GRIP1-3 package, a truly impressive achievement.“

Jon Barry

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah is an integral member of the GRIP 1 to 3 Development Team, based in Stratford. The Project's remit is diverse and demanding, and yet Sea Ah deals with all the issues and challenges in a thorough and professional manner. Her interaction with the Client team, and within the Design team itself, is exemplary, based upon calmness and collaboration. With a focus on efficiency, program and quality, Sae Ah provides a stable platform for the whole Team to deliver, time after time.“

David Stinton

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“It is a great pleasure to work with Sae Ah on the GRIP 1-3 S&C Development for the South East and Anglia. With our design team spread across a number of offices around country it is amazing that multi-disciplinary designs can be brought together with such success. Sae Ah ensures the delivery of quality designs despite sometimes challenging constraints.

Not only is an excellent project manager, Sae Ah also my line manager and Delegated Engineer for my ICE chartership. Sae Ah has helped me to make a professional development plan and put this into action. It's fantastic to have such a capable individual as a mentor.“

Konstantinos Paraskevas

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah is an exceptional and highly motivated Project Manager managing the GRIP1-3 S&C portfolio for Anglia and Southeast within IP Track Development. Working with her on a daily basis is a pleasure as she has great people's skills, she is always supportive and striving for improvement and excellence.

Sae Ah is able to work on schemes with different requirements and stakeholders (such as the Victoria 3 Re Signalling Scheme) where the relationships between client, consultant and contractor are varying. She has proven herself on multidisciplinary projects both for IP Track and IP Signalling. Always proactive she is able to foresee any issues that might impact the project (in terms of programme, cost and resources) and act quickly to prevent such issues.

Finally, she is always close the team and very approachable. She strikes the right balance between pushing the team to deliver better while keeping the team's wellbeing as a top priority.

I definitely nominate her for the Rail Project Manager Award!“

Nicolae Bidiga

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“I had the great opportunity to work with Sae during her early steps into the profession of Civil Engineering; Form the start she gave me all the signs of a rising star; listening, planning and sound delivery were the main attributes I could remember, always giving me the confidence that our agreed targets will be met. Delivery of Reading Viaduct design and construction support was the “great test” and Sae did a superb job, initially as Assistant Project Manager and moving later in full time Project Manager for the job. I personally fully support and recommend Sae in nominating her for this award.“

Joaquin Ramos

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“As GRIP 1-3 S&C track renewals design manager, Sae Ah is one of the main reasons why the team is constantly delivering great engineering work. She is always doing the life of every member of the team that manages easier and giving everybody the needed support. The fact that she is managing successfully a team spread not only in different offices but in different countries speaks by itself about her work.“

Alex Jenkins

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah is a very diligent Project Manager who remains calm under pressure, has a positive attitude, and always strives to do the right thing.

The design team is based around the UK and Sae Ah has managed to create a great team environment where everyone feels like their views matter. Team events are organised to welcome new starters and keep morale high. She has great people skills and is approachable to everyone.

I have complete confidence that I can raise any concern and Sae Ah will resolve the issue.

Working with Sae Ah is a lot of fun and I look forward to delivering future projects her and the team.“

Paul Belle

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“Sae Ah and I worked for 3 years on the GRIP 1-3 development in South East (South Alliance) and in that time, we turned around a proposition in need of improvement into a team which delivered high quality results.

Sae Ah is methodical in her approach to project management but is also capable of being dynamic and reacting positively and effectively to situations which emerge in design.“

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“I have known Sae Ah for a number of years and, in particular, worked closely with her in an effectively line-manager capacity overseeing her work on CP5 Bridgeworks projects. From the outset I noticed a steely determination to always do the appropriate thing in any situation but to do so quietly and steadily and without fuss. She has consistently achieved goals on time by meticulous planning, a great attention to detail and the setting of high standards. I know and saw the Client’s disappointment when she left the role for another position because they had come to rely upon her in a highly co-operative manner which had simplified and strengthened Client relationships. She managed the Client relationship by clear communication; not hiding or delaying any bad news but communicating bravely and promptly. She also managed her core design team by setting clear and agreed milestones and ensuring a ‘no last minute surprises’ culture.

I thoroughly endorse her for this award.“

Kirk Plews

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“I have worked with Sae Ah on the S&C Alliance works for close to two years now. During this period she has worked tirelessly to manage and progress the works. These works often consist of numerous sites being developed together and managing the progress of each site through to completion is often challenging. Sae Ah deals with these challenges in a calm, relaxed and very professional manner. It can be difficult dealing with railway engineers who often communicate in their own 'techno speak' expecting everyone to understand them. Luckily, Sae Ah is technically very competent and understands the issues we often throw at her, making our jobs much easier. I think her skills and abilities should be rewarded and I have no hesitation in nominating her for this award.“

Gabriel Azevedo

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“I had the pleasure of working with Sae Ah as her assistant Project Manager in the CP5 Anglia Bridgeworks renewals project, where Sae Ah managed the survey and design delivery of over 50 No. bridge renewal schemes across East London and Anglia.

As a project manager, Sae Ah was always committed to not only deliver the scope but to offer added value to the client, with a proactive and collaborative approach to problem solving, using her technical engineering background to add value to the project from a project management perspective.

Sae Ah is also a chartered Engineer with the Institution of Civil Engineers, and part of her role involved acting as a delegate engineer. Within this role, Sae Ah demonstrated she takes an interest and ownership of the development of those she manages and not only encourages but promotes the development of graduates towards chartership.

I thoroughly recommend Sae Ah for this nomination as a reflection of all the great work she has done.“

Jun Liang

Said the following about Sae Ah Yoon:

“I worked with Sae ah for over 10 years on various railway projects, and recently as Contractor’s Responsible Engineer, I worked with her on NR CP5 Anglia Structural Framework, where she was the consultant Project Manager.

Sae ah truly demonstrated her abilities in managing and delivering over 60+ bridges varying from GRIP 2 to GRIP 7 in this framework, when working with/for multi-disciplines, as well as principal contractor, client and stakeholder. What I admire the most is her ‘speak of the truth’ management style, the ‘attention to details’ planning skills and ‘hands on’ approaches, which have approved to be corporative, effective and earned the trust from all parties involved.

When facing the challenged projects, she often analysed the best and worst scenarios to enable the honest discussions with internal and external parties, from where the pragmatic solutions always have been achieved.

Her remarkable planning skill not only was the key successful element to the on budget, on time delivery, but more importantly, it highlighted the potential programme/resources issues so proactive arrangements could be made to minimise the adverse impact.

She remained an interest to the basic engineering principles even as a full-time project manager. For example, she planned and undertook site inspection on Long John Hill Bridge to investigate the site constraints for this very challenging bridge reconstruction project, such visit coupled with her project management skills, she was able to bring the internal design and external constructability discussions to the next level, which ended with a high profile success in the framework. This bridge reconstruction project won the NR Aspire Award.“