Jeremy Gardner

Said the following about Ana Walpole:

“Ana is a civil engineer who has developed her capabilities rapidly through the early stage of her career working on rail projects for AECOM since graduating. Ana is a person who is always keen to take on the next challenge and then delivers beyond expectations, producing quality work and successful outcomes.

Currently she is working on the Wessex Capacity Programme, carrying out major packages of structural design and assessment of the former Waterloo International Terminal to bring it back into use as a station for domestic services. Ana recently led the design of an emergency escape route to a fast-track programme of 10 weeks, from outline design to ‘Approved for Construction’.

Ana was also instrumental in winning a £1.5million ‘Access for All’ project after delivering an effective bid presentation to Network Rail, leading to nearly £1million of further work. Ana took a leading role, mentoring engineers and facilitating production of high quality feasibility and option selection reports. Ana built an excellent working relationship with Network Rail throughout the project.

During a secondment to Network Rail in 2014, Ana managed a team of engineers to review over 5000 Network Rail structures. Through encouraging and open leadership, she delivered the evidence for a funding proposal for reconstruction, strengthening and repair work, robustly and on time.

On graduation, Ana received an ICE award for civil engineering and, in 2014, won the regional CIHT papers competition presenting on rail bridge assessments. In 2015 Ana was part of the winning regional team of the ICE communications competition and just recently she won the 20 Rising Stars of Rail award.

Ana is passionate about promoting the industry. She has mentored placement students and given interactive workshops and presentations about careers in engineering and rail.

Ana is an all-rounder, demonstrating excellent technical engineering ability allied with strong leadership and communication skills. These qualities are admired by clients and colleagues and will no doubt lead to a bright future for her in the industry.“