Louise Adams

Louise Adams FTSE is a Chartered Civil Engineer and as of October 2022 Aurecon's chief operating officer. In 2020, Adams was awarded Australian CEO of the Year by The CEO Magazine. Previously she served as the Chief Executive for Australia and New Zealand at Aurecon, overseeing a workforce of 4300 people. In 2013, Adams became the first woman to serve as executive director on Aurecon's Global Board and is Aurecon’s global spokesperson for Women in Leadership. Adams has worked as a civil engineer for over 25 years.

Adams is passionate about championing diversity in STEM fields and acknowledging, what she calls, the uncomfortble truth that the engineering sector has a "significant lack of cultural and gender diversity". She says that: "For decades, our industry has been positioned as a male-centric profession. Promoted with images of hard hats and heavy machinery, a profession most suited to men. I believe this has narrowed our thinking, our perspectives, it has created a gender imbalance, siloed cultural profiles and above all – stifled potential for diversity of thought and, in turn, innovation."

In 2018 Adams graduated from the Wharton Business School, through the Chief Executive Women Scholarship.

In 2021, Adams was recognised as a Deakin University Alumni of the Yearand later that year, in November, she was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.

In 2023 Adams was made the Australian Business Champion to Vietnam by the Australia Vietnam Poliy Institute.