Kate Wyatt is Preconstruction Leader at Laing O’Rourke, working alongside clients to help realise their development visions. Kate loves working in the construction industry, starting her career as a Trainee Site Manager with Wates, joining as a non-cognate graduate after completing an undergraduate degree in Art History. She completed a MSs in Project Management in the Built Environment while completing the trainee programme, and her curiosity in why clients instruct the projects that we build led her from site management into preconstruction, finishing her first 5 years with Wates as a Proposals Manager leading National Academies Framework bids. This got her closer to answering the ‘why’ and ‘how’ projects come together in the early stages, developing approaches to client engagement in the early design stages alongside muti-disciplinary teams.
This was an eye opener into the value of cross-industry collaboration and early contractor engagement on projects, something that Kate has been passionate about throughout her career.
Kate has worked on the other side of the fence, and the other side of the pond, as a consultant working with Gleeds as a Project Controls Manager on infrastructure projects in Atlanta, USA. Coming back to London as a Project Manager with Gleeds, this experience helped develop an appreciation of how clients set up and deliver projects which she took with her back into main contracting.
Kate went on to work for a small, local main contracting firm as Business Development Manager and then Business Manager. She had oversite across all aspects of the company and grew their presence in the local market before moving back to Wates as Business Development Director where she developed and grew their profile in the science & tech market. After six more years at Wates, Kate joined Laing O’Rourke, moving back into Pre-Construction. She loves being back on a project and being able to bring her varied experience from across the industry to support multi-discipline teams work towards the shared goal of delivering for clients.
Kate lives in Oxford, with two small children aged 4 and 7, two kittens, and husband.
