Alumna Vasiliki Bowler is this years’ ‘Rising Star’ at CIOB Construction Manager of the Year Awards

The “Rising Star” category is new for the 2020 CIOB Construction Manager of the Year Awards, and it recognises those who have demonstrated excellence in their work at the very start of their career in the construction industry.

Vasiliki graduated in 2016 from the MSc Project and Enterprise Management programme and joined Faithful+Gould as a Graduate Project Manager and by 2018 became a chartered PM with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. 

During her four years at Faithful+Gould, Vasiliki has carried out a range of roles on both private and public sector projects, with a number of clients across a total of 39,000 sqm of refurbishment projects worth approximately £85m. 

Vasiliki said, “I wanted to pursue a career in the construction industry as there is nothing more exciting than being able to physically see how important and impactful effective team collaboration is when solving difficult problems. It is great to be in an industry where this continuous problem solving in a team environment has a demonstrable social impact on the local communities where we live and work.”

Some of Vasiliki’s other achievements include being awarded one of 18 places on the coveted Faithful+Gould internal Management Development Programme 2020 in a selection pool of over 250 candidates. Vasiliki was also awarded the ‘Best Student Contribution Paper Award’ at the Academy for Design, Innovation and Management International Conference for her paper which was based on her dissertation ‘The practice of managing as designing’.

In addition to her day-day role Vasiliki plays an active role in the career development of her colleagues by supervising and coaching less experienced peers, aiming to support them achieve their chartered project manager goal aspirations. 

To encourage women to apply for construction roles, Vasiliki contributed to an article sharing her experience of working in the sector - What it's really like to be a young woman in the Construction Industry.

Vasiliki’s advice to future graduates is: “Set SMART goals, learn from everyone around you, stay positive and whatever you do enjoy it!”.