At Symal, we’re recognised as a business that champions diversity and celebrates women who are changing the face of construction. 

To support this mission, we’re proudly sponsoring the upcoming NAWIC Awards for Excellence which seeks out, recognises and celebrates the women who are taking the industry by storm. NAWIC is a passionate body set up to represent and empower women in construction and serves to shift the perception and understanding of what our industry can offer.

We have some amazing women in our business who we’re proud to see dominate, so we’ve nominated four of our very own megastars for the 2021 awards who deserve the light shined on them.

Sandra Costanzo
Nominated for the ICON Businesswoman of the Year Award

Sandra is a leading construction and infrastructure lawyer who advises on project structuring, contractual risk allocation, dispute management and dispute resolution across the building, infrastructure, construction, and engineering sectors.

Over the years, she has established a strong reputation for being accessible, responsive, and delivering strategic outcomes to the problems faced during an entire project life cycle, and she strives always to resolve issues quickly and cost-effectively across all Symal group businesses.

Not only is she instrumental to the company’s success, but her influence and enthusiasm for greater diversity and inclusion across the industry are extended beyond the workplace, lending her support and time to industry bodies to impact real change.

Her role in achieving the Supply Nation certification for Symal’s Aboriginal majority-owned and managed business was a significant milestone. This certification has fuelled Wamarra’s growth in the last financial year as they were awarded 35 projects in total, generating an annual turnover of $14 million.

“In a primarily male-dominated industry, it’s essential we work together to drive significant change for women in construction. I’m proud to be part of industry events that encourage women in our business to attend and empower each other to progress in their careers.” Sandra Costanzo

 

Barbara Cortese
Nominated for the Lendlease Building and Construction Award

Working as a Project Team Leader, Barbara’s main responsibility is to ensure everything runs smoothly on any given project that she tackles, ensuring people, plant machinery and materials are always kept moving and jobs are progressing as they should be.

Over the years, she has made key relationships in the industry due to her excellent communication skills and places great importance on building and managing a strong team to get the job done.

Barbara is one of the most driven employees we know! Her career kicked off at a water main renewal company supervising traffic across their worksites and took every opportunity that came her way.

As she quickly gained the confidence and necessary skills needed to rise in this industry, her drive and passion led her to join bigger projects and find better opportunities and lucky for us has now found herself at Symal.

Heading towards reaching her fifth-year anniversary with us, Barbara is a prime example of what you can do if you have the drive and determination. We encourage our female workforce to build anything from high-rises to highways, schools to stadiums, and beyond.

“I want to inspire anyone interested in entering the construction field, especially women. Before entering the industry, I was managing restaurants and always knew I wanted to pursue a career in construction, and I encourage anyone thinking about making a move because the opportunities are endless.” Barbara Cortese 

Holly Sanders
Nominated for the Lendlease Building and Construction Award

Holly is truly an inspirational leader for female engineers. She continually invests in her career through regular training and upskilling and supports our communities by utilising her skills to perform on massive complex projects.

What sets Holly apart is her ability to work with key stakeholders on complex projects and adapt to the ever-changing environment. It is an essential skill that empowers her to support our people in delivering multiple tasks on any construction site.

Holly embodies many capabilities and has had key responsibilities and deliverables on several Symal projects, such as controlling and executing more than $16 million worth of bridge works, overseeing complex works in a mine environment with MDG compliance, and maintaining a high level of quality under RMS NSW specifications.

Her insight and qualities in the engineering discipline in a primarily male-dominated industry greatly benefits any project.

“Women can offer a different approach, which is advantageous in successfully navigating the priorities within a multifaceted project. It’s all about having strong communication skills, building relationships, and remaining calm in highly complex environments whilst dealing with a multitude of challenges at once.” Holly Sanders

 

Alexandra Holman
Nominated for the Acciona Student Award

Alex is one of our brightest stars; we have no doubt she’ll take things to even greater heights at Symal.

In October 2020, Alex joined the team to support and gain invaluable knowledge during the construction of the Level Crossing Removal Authority multi-level car park project at Mooroolbark Station.

Despite being a challenging and complex project, Alex took every opportunity as a great learning experience and made sure to involve herself in the day-to-day activities as much as possible to gain the necessary experience to handle any complexities that might come her way.

Even though Alex has had multiple highlights at Symal, one that stands out at the beginning of her career was being thrown into the deep end and asked to design a small parking area at our Toll Webb Dock site.

Although it was a relatively small task, it was an important point in her career to gain that invaluable experience to work on a project of her own.

“I have a great passion for seeing a project through to the very end, and perhaps one day I’ll get the opportunity to point at a building or piece of infrastructure and be able to say, I helped build that.” Alexandra Holman

Alex continues to blow us away with her initiative and attention to detail, and we’re so proud of the progression she’s made this early in her career.