To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, which takes place on 8 March, BE News is running a series of interviews with inspirational women who work across the built environment sector
Name: Rachel Edwards
Job title: Strategic ecosystems development lead, Lendlease
What I do: I support the development of innovation districts across Lendlease’s European portfolio of large-scale mixed-use neighbourhoods. My role involves building ecosystems, relying on partnerships and collaboration, and designing for places that create the right environment for open innovation to thrive. I’m on the board for SHIFT, East London’s Innovation District on the Olympic Park, which Lendlease is a founding partner of, along with our neighbours at LLDC, UCL, UaL, Loughborough University, Here East and Plexal.
I am also working on developing ecosystems for two new mixed-use city-centre places: Euston – a transport-super hub with a vision to be an inclusive neighbourhood for mission-led, frontier innovation in technology, science and culture, and Smithfield Birmingham – designed around a new vibrant food market which will connect the heart of the city, it will meaningful strengthen industry growth, talent retention and investment into the region. We’re also looking forward to launching our Smithfield Birmingham workplace offer later this year, creating spaces designed to support collaboration and growth for innovative businesses.
Why I got into the property industry: This industry is more than real estate. Places shape our lives and experiences and have deep rooted influence from climate and social justice to enabling economic growth. Working in property has allowed me to experience being a corporate occupier supporting business transformation from the inside, a strategic consultant working with diverse clients and projects, and a developer working in large-scale city-shaping projects – which are just three of the diverse opportunities offered in our industry. I’ve also met a network of incredibly passionate people driving the property industry forward, working in Australia, the UK and on projects in Asia and the US.
How I did it: About 15 years ago, for a university project, I viewed a live build site of a corporate office. Rather than the design, I was captivated by the future occupier’s business strategy driving the project, and sometime after found myself working for them.
My first proper job/first big break: I found my passion for strategy and transformation in the corporate real estate team at Macquarie Bank, Sydney, where I worked for six years. Macquarie was going through an industry pioneering business transformation that needed cultural, digital and workstyle shifts. It was led by some really inspiring people, and where I learnt to always challenge the status quo.
My inspiration(s): So much! I like to travel to see the way different cultures live and work. Right now, I am enjoying Simon Sinek and Brene Brown’s leadership conversations online.
The biggest challenge I’ve encountered to date: Living in multiple places, I moved from Glasgow to Sydney in my young teens, and in my mid-20’s moved to London “for a year” – travelling alone I volunteered in Asia and South America on my way. Over a decade later I’m still in London, and think my biggest challenge now is calling multiple cities around the world home!
My greatest achievement/proudest moment to date: Everything I’ve worked on has a place here, but I’m most proud of the collaboration to solve problems along the way. This includes my very first project moving teams at Macquarie to a new way of working, to co-designing a new proptech platform with global teams at Lendlease. A really memorable time was leading the workplace workstream with the Loneliness Lab – an initiative co-founded by Lendlease to reduce loneliness in cities through the design of places and spaces. It brought together over 800 people and businesses under a shared mission. So many learnings which we’ve adopted across projects. The Turing Building at Stratford Cross is an example: from permeability to the street and the ground floor experience to the way facilities are detailed.
The biggest misconception people have about the property industry: That property equals bricks and mortar. I’m continuously surprised by the parts of this complex system that are evolving – driven by innovation in everything from how places are experienced to how they’re designed, delivered, contracted, and used.
My biggest bugbear about the industry/the one thing I would change about the industry: I’d like to challenge the industry to think more strategically about aligning environmental purpose with and profit, and to move away from the perceived hurdle that financial profit is in competition with investment in planet or society. I’m proud of the triple bottom line approach that Lendlease take to measuring success (societal, environmental, and economic), and note it’s not a challenge that one industry can tackle alone.
Why I’m so passionate about DE&I: I believe understanding diverse perspectives and experiences is the foundation for living in a fair society, and in my experience diverse leadership teams can deliver more powerful outcomes. Great book – read ‘Rebel Ideas’ by Matthew Syed!
Why I’m so passionate about ESG: One of the privileges of working in real estate is that our work continues on long after we leave. Our choices today and tomorrow will impact those who use our places for many decades and centuries to come, so it is so important we take the long view. I remember an advert on ‘wasting water’ from when I was a child and often think about how quickly the years pass in comparison to the speed that change is implemented. So, my passion is that we don’t treat ESG as a tick-box exercise and really consider the impactful difference every decision can make.
Where I’d like to be in five years’ time career-wise: I love the opportunity to create, connect and lead creative and strategic projects. Going forward, I want to continue working with awesome people, challenging the way things are done, and learning lots along the way.
Who I’d invite, living or dead, to a dinner party: Vivienne Westwood, to talk about how she led an entire culture revolution through punk fashion; Serena Williams, to talk courage and how she held her own in such a tough, competitive environment; and Tina Fey because she has a hilarious and insightful way of viewing the world.
What I do in my downtime: My family are spread across the world, when I’m not travelling around visiting them (and immersing in other cultures) I enjoy street markets, yoga, cycling, painting and practicing my newly found green thumbs.
The job I’d be doing if I was not doing this: I love connecting people, so I think I’d enjoy running some sort of network service.
My advice for someone just starting out: Build your network, find generous leaders to learn from, and be open to failing before learning and ‘winning’.
My motto/mantra: Every day is a school day.
Why IWD is important to me: I grew up feeling camaraderie with my three brothers – so I’m passionate about equity and opportunity for everyone. We’re in a strange time where globally DE&I is particularly fragile, and we need to protect and celebrate what we’ve achieved to date, and recognise we are still on the journey. I equally love and celebrate the women I work alongside and inspire me to create change every day.
