Louise Adams, Chief Operating Officer

Louise Adams

Louise is Aurecon’s Chief Operating Officer, responsible for driving the financial, operational and people performance across all areas of the business to achieve the Group’s strategic business goals. Reporting to Aurecon’s Group CEO, Louise is a member of the Group Executive Leadership Team.

Prior to her current role, Louise was the Chief Executive for Australia and New Zealand, overseeing a workforce of approximately 4300 people involved in the delivery of infrastructure solutions in the Transportation, Water, Defence, Built Environment, Energy, Resources, Telecommunications and Aviation sectors.

Louise became the first female Executive Director on Aurecon’s Global Board in 2013 and is Aurecon’s global spokesperson for Women in Leadership. She has a passion for organisational diversity and the role it plays in innovation and is an advocate for female leadership and equality within STEM.

In 2018 Louise was awarded a Chief Executive Women (CEW) Scholarship to attend the Wharton Business School and is a member of Australia’s CEW Group. Most recently, following the Second Australia-Vietnam Economic Partnership Meeting held in October 2021, Louise was appointed as one of three inaugural Business Champions to further two-way trade and investment opportunities to business communities in Vietnam and Australia.

Louise is also a member of the National Advisory Board of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and is the Chair to Consult Australia’s Champions of Change and appears at many industry events. In November 2020, Louise was named the Australian CEO of the Year, which is part of The CEO Magazine’s Executive of the Year awards. In October 2021, Louise was named as a Deakin University Alumni of the Year, and in November was elected to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering (ATSE).

As a Chartered Civil Engineer, Louise has over 20 years’ experience managing and designing works in both civil and multi-disciplinary projects in land development as well as technical advisory for project planning. With a background in stormwater management, flood risk assessment and mitigation, Louise has undertaken work in the public and private sectors as well as part of emergency relief efforts.

In previous roles, Louise has led major civil and multidisciplinary projects in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Iran, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Guyana, North America, Pakistan, Libya, Qatar, and the UAE.