Hub South East’s Eileen Mackin wins inspiring women award for her role in Beatlie School Campus project

Eileen Mackin, Project Director at Hub South East Scotland, has scooped the award for ‘Contribution to a Project’ at the CN & NCE Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering Awards for her role in the Beatlie School Campus project.

With nominees from across the UK, judges decided that Eileen stood out for her inclusive and collaborative approach to ensure bespoke solutions for Beatlie School, a West Lothian Council learning space providing specialist education for pupils (3-18yrs) with severe/complex support and profound medical needs.

The new £15.7 million school serves as a centre of excellence for children and young people, with purpose-built facilities including a sensory garden, hydrotherapy pool and NHS Child Development Centre and Eileen was an integral driver of the team, carefully managing cross-agency education/health collaboration, and being the conduit between clients and supply chain. Eileen championed the use of innovative assistive technology for Beatlie which will have a profoundly positive impact on pupils’ lives and she has gone above and beyond, leaving a lasting legacy. Facing her fear, in 2022 Eileen even did a 10,000ft skydive, raising £9k+ for the school!

Eileen is delighted to have picked up this prestigious award, saying: “I’m completely shell shocked at having won, especially given then number and quality of my fellow nominees.

“To be able to create a facility that enables the educational experience of the truly inspirational young people, staff, carers and families of Beatlie to be richer, was a real privilege. The greatest accolade of all was returning to see the smiles from those people as they enjoy their new learning space. Beatlie was, and still is, the project closest to my heart and this award may be in my name but it belongs to every single person who worked with me on the project.”

Paul McGirk, Hub South East’s Chief Executive is proud of Eileen and the industry recognition for her work, adding: “Beatlie School isn’t simply an off-the-shelf new-build project. It’s a special place and it needed a special person to take the lead and ensure the best possible solution for its young people. Eileen is that person and we’re incredibly proud, not only of the high-quality work done, but the passion and determination she has shown throughout.

“Personally and professionally, Eileen has taken Beatlie to her heart and has taken others on this journey too. She is an inspiring role model to the women on our team and across the supply chain and is a very worthy winner of this award.”

The Awards, held in London this week, celebrated the role models and organisations empowering women in construction and engineering and were jointly hosted by New Civil Engineer and Construction News. Amongst hundreds of entries, in total, 15 winners were crowned, recognising the women and teams that stand out as exceptional and showcasing both individual and organisation wide initiatives.