To celebrate International Women’s Day 2026, which took place on 8 March, BE News is running a series of interviews with inspirational women who work across the built environment sector
Name: Michele Steel
Job title: Chief executive, Regeneration Brainery
What I do: I lead the award-winning not-for-profit Regeneration Brainery, which works to open up access to economic opportunity for young people from under-represented backgrounds through careers in the built environment
Why I got into the property industry: Total accident. A boyfriend when I was doing my A-levels had already left school and was a trainee building surveyor. I liked buildings (the “built environment” wasn’t a term that meant anything to me then) and so I started looking at surveying as a degree, which led me to an interest in planning. Sadly, such accidental routes into the industry are still the primary way that those without family connections find their way in.
How I did it: I studied for free under a 90’s government, with the benefit of a full government grant plus a hardship grant from uni, and got a degree in town and country planning from the University of Manchester. A set of circumstances that today’s teens don’t have the privilege of.
My first proper job: A graduate planner at Drivers Jonas – a rather wonderful firm of surveyors where company culture was absolutely top drawer. You knew every single one of the 600+ employees and (almost) all of them were at the top of their game.
My first big break: Being trusted to present the results of Drivers Jonas’ biggest research publication and client event, the Manchester Crane Survey, to all of the firm’s biggest clients in the north. I was a fairly junior planner when asked and whilst every year it caused me to lose an enormous amount of sleep, heading up that event each year until I left in 2016 gave me such a great platform to build a personal brand. I think that was such a pivotal moment for me at such an early stage of my career and the desire to pay-it-forward and give confidence and encouragement to the next generation is probably what has brought me to where I am now.
My inspiration(s): As a planner, John Adams – the “OG of planning”: an immense talent and thoroughly nice bloke with it. In life, Terri White – a fierce fighter of injustice and anti-poverty advocate.
The biggest challenge I’ve encountered to date: Being made redundant with a seven-month-old baby that had been four years in the making via nine rounds of IVF felt pretty challenging.
My greatest achievement/proudest moment to date: Pulling myself back from that challenge. I had two years of really ropey times. Massive drop in confidence. I fFelt completely lost and unsure of anything that I did. It’s amazing how other people’s belief in you can really lift your self esteem, and I was lucky to have some great former colleagues help me to realise that.
The biggest misconception people have about the property industry: That it’s a single word job market: architect, brickie, estate agent. Nothing else exists. It really hasn’t changed much in 30 years.
My biggest bugbear about the industry/the one thing I would change about the industry: I still look around rooms and see mainly men, almost exclusively white, and not a physical disability in sight. It’s a really weird landscape when you consider what we all do for a living, which is creating great places that should work for all. We should really be doing better by now to make sure there is better representation across the industry.
Why I’m so passionate about DE&I: I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs as a female in the property industry. But equally, I was the beneficiary of a number of lucky strikes: a fortuitous insight into the world of surveying whilst at school, a free higher education. Being intentional about supporting more people from more varied backgrounds into the property industry absolutely feels the right thing to do given my background.
We support so many young people who think that these kinds of opportunities and careers ‘aren’t for them’, but once you show them what’s possible, they get really excited about it and I’m incredibly proud that so many of our former ‘Brainees’ are now thriving in industry or in further education working towards built environment careers.
Where I’d like to be in five years’ time career-wise: Out of a job because Regeneration Brainery has achieved its aim of a more diverse property industry and the rooms where decisions are made on our future places and spaces look more like the cities and towns that we work in (I don’t think that’s very realistic within the next five years – we can but try!)
Who I’d invite, living or dead, to a dinner party: I’d have Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam who is (a) a great musician (b) a great advocate for social justice and (c) some eye candy, assuming I could go back in time and have Eddie circa 1992; Ozzy Osbourne (RIP) for the rock n roll tales; and Caitlin Moran who just gives me so much life with her take on life as a working class woman.
What I do in my downtime: Not much time for that with Brainery Week programmes all across the UK, but I’ve revealed my musical persuasions above and I love gigs and live music of any sort (upcoming gigs include Lambrini Girls, Madness, Deftones, Kings of Leon, The Cure and Pulp); and keeping fit via HIIT sessions and reformer pilates is an ongoing joy/obligation as I creep towards the end of my current decade in life.
The job I’d be doing if I was not doing this: I would have loved to have been an actor growing up. I was forever performing (terribly) and wishing I was a star. Kids from the west end of Newcastle didn’t really do stuff like that though. Until PJ and Duncan came along…..
My advice for someone just starting out: Property is all about people. People like working with people. Yes, you need to be good at what you do, but if you’re a good human with it, and show an interest in the people you work with/for, they’ll stick with you. And networks are everything. Show a personal interest in the people you’re spending time with and it’ll pay dividends in the long run.
My motto/mantra: Shy bairns get nowt – it’s a Geordie saying which lots of the Brainess have adopted (or their own southern version, which is “closed mouths don’t get fed”). You’ve got to be your own best advocate. What’s the worst that can happen?
