Susan Cormican is on a mission to get more women into engineering, all the while leading the Urbanism team at Ethos Engineering

In 2023, Susan Cormican became the first ever recipient of the ‘Women in Construction’ Award at the Irish Construction Industry Awards 2023. It’s an accolade that was well deserved and probably long overdue. Susan, who holds the role of Urbanism Director at Ethos Engineering, has over 30 years’ experience as a building services engineer under her belt, working across projects spanning healthcare, retail, commercial, residential, mixed development and protected structures. At Ethos Engineering, she is responsible for leading a 35-strong group of engineers tasked with delivering high quality, innovative mechanical, electrical and sustainable design solutions for clients across a range of sectors. Current projects include a new brewery for Diageo in Newbridge which has just started on site, a number of data centres in Ireland and Germany, a radiation oncology building in Beaumont Hospital and several residential schemes in the Dublin area. “It’s an interesting, varied and challenging role. Being able to work across so many sectors keeps the group and myself energised and motivated,” says Susan.

Business is good at Ethos, with opportunities across a wide range of industries. Innovation and an ability to evolve with the market is key, says Susan. “The shift to remote working since Covid has led to a slowdown in the office market, so that side of our business has adapted. A lot of our fit-out work has been about reimagining offices. Instead of open plan spaces, we’re designing and building more cubicles, hubs and meeting rooms and a lot more get-together areas that are designed to entice people back into the office. That market has been quite slow this year and we’re hoping it will pick up.”

Data centres are relatively new to the Urbanism team. “Technically, they’re very exciting. Clients in this space know what they want and so projects move along quickly.”

Residential, both private and public, is booming. “We have delivered some great projects on the residential side, but it’s a sector that can be quite tricky, with very tight margins. Healthcare and public works in general is also busy.

We delivered the new National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and a couple of years ago, we delivered two satellite units for the new children’s hospital at Connolly in Tallaght. Those projects are particularly rewarding, but Government contracts with consultants are quite difficult.” Government contracts tend to be protracted, while budgets can shoot up significantly.

“A lot of problems on projects are due to budgets being low-balled at the start and consultants not having a mechanism to recoup those fees when invariably, the budget goes up once the fees are locked in. It’s a very cynical approach from Government and it’s causing issues. If there were one or two things in the industry that I’d like to fix, that’s definitely one of them.”

Another is the lack of women in the engineering industry. It’s an issue Susan is passionate about. When she joined the Ethos team in 2016, she was the only female engineer in the company. “At that stage I was almost 30 years in the industry and I still found it intimidating.” She uses her platform on the ACEI (Association of Consulting Engineers) to advocate for more female representation in the sector and often gives talks about the issue at industry events. “When I was finishing school and deciding on a college course, I wasn’t really aware of engineering as a career. I don’t think the situation has changed much in the intervening years, although engineering as an option is available on the secondary school curriculum. Girls don’t seem to be opting for it as a subject and so the question is, why? I think it’s because they don’t see female engineers as role models. They’re not seeing them on the shows they watch on Netflix; they’re seeing lots of doctors and solicitors, but no engineering role models to inspire them.”

Ethos takes on a number of female TY students each year, many of whom go on to study engineering in college. “It’s amazing how beneficial just a bit of exposure can be. Having a senior female engineer at Ethos who’s making sure that girls get an equal crack of the whip by getting them in as TY students, bringing them in as interns and then as grads – it’s not just about growing our percentage of diversity. It’s helping to spread the word that careers in engineering are exciting and diverse. If the Government put their mind to it and invested resources into promoting engineering to girls, it would make such a difference.”

Receiving the ‘Women in Construction’ Award last year also gave Susan an opportunity to highlight the career opportunities that exist for women in engineering. “It’s frustrating and it won’t change unless engineering firms and Government take a proactive approach and bring in female secondary school students into their business and show them how rewarding a career in engineering can be.”

What does Susan attribute her win at the awards to? “Probably several things. My role at Ethos has given me the opportunity to expand into ACEI, so I’ve been able to represent engineering consultants throughout the country. I’ve also chaired the ACEI M&E committee and I sat on the board for a couple of years. Ethos is very invested in innovation and so I had the chance to participate in the Innovation 4 Growth programme at Enterprise Ireland, which included a trip to MIT in Boston to participate in a great course in innovation. I think those roles and opportunities have given me huge exposure to other professionals in the industry and they’ve also given me the chance to advocate for more women in engineering.”

Susan’s career in engineering happened almost by accident. She ‘fell’ into an engineering course in the UK, before taking a role in an Irish mining company doing environmental impact assessment. A role as a graduate engineer with Lord Consultants in Navan followed. “I was there for seven years, moving up to senior engineer level, and learned a huge amount. I was working on critical infrastructure projects including overseas power stations and critical power systems for hospitals; that role taught me so much about power infrastructure.”

Clients began to request mechanical services so Susan embarked on a master’s in building services. In 2000, she moved to Dublin and took up a senior engineer role at Buro Happold which had just established an Irish office. The Irish construction industry boom had just kicked off, so projects were diverse. “I got the opportunity to work on Ballymun regeneration, the Cork School of Music and a large number of public works projects such as swimming pools and schools that were being built right across the country. It was a time when the construction sector was maturing; builders who previously weren’t very contract savvy were now much more shrewd. It was probably a very important period of time in construction in Ireland.”

Roles at P.H. McCarthy and Arup followed. Bust followed boom and in 2008, Susan was taking any and every opportunity she could avail of. “Thankfully, there were lots of opportunities in Arup. I worked on a lot of exciting overseas projects in the likes of South Korea and Doha, where I was involved in a couple of very early scheme designs for the World Cup. I also worked on projects at home, including the air traffic control tower that’s now operational in Dublin Airport.” After eight years, it was time for a new challenge. “I wasn’t really moving through the ranks at Arup, so joined Ethos as Operations Director in 2016 before taking on the Group Director Urbanism role.”

Staff retention is an issue across all facets of the industry, says Susan. “People don’t expect a job for life anymore. For most new recruits, a long time in any one role is probably three years. At Ethos, we retain people through flexible and hybrid working, along with staff development initiatives. We have regular one-to-ones with every staff member and we also have a nine-day fortnight.

Every second Friday, people have time off to just decompress. Having that extra day at the weekend makes a huge difference to staff morale and also to productivity. We try and align it with a bank holiday weekend too so people get a nice break.” Looking after people defines the culture at Ethos Engineering. Client satisfaction is key, as is employee wellbeing.

“One thing that Ethos is particularly good at is giving proper feedback. We don’t leave a staff member that’s not performing or progressing to flounder. If they are performing, we let them know how they’re doing and they get rewarded as a result. There are no limits here.” They say you don’t have a job if you enjoy what you do. “That’s how I feel about my role here. My motivation for getting up in the morning is about our team performing to the best of their ability in a nurturing environment. If they’re coming to work happy, leaving on time and nobody has to work weekends, all while ensuring the client is satisfied, then I’m happy.”

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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine

Email: michael@irishconstruction.com      WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE