Fiona Chow PhD graduate 1997

In 2003 Fiona moved to Perth, Western Australia, where she helped establish the WorleyParsons Geotechnical group becoming the Global Director of their Geotechnical Consulting Practice comprising more than 150 people in 23 offices around the world.  In 2014 she joined Woodside Energy, first as Chief Geotechnical Engineer, then becoming Engineering Manager for a range of disciplines including Structures, Geotechnical, Metocean, Environmental and Process Safety.  In 2022 she transferred to Drilling and Completions and became Subsurface Manager for a team of geo-specialists spanning Perth and Houston.

“Moving to Australia was risky, but has turned out to be a fantastic opportunity.  I have been involved in tunnelling projects in the Perth CBD, pipeline stabilisations in outback Australia, supervised offshore ground investigations and offshore piling, designed foundations around the world and provided expert witness evidence.  Now my career has broadened into different disciplines and I’m learning something new every day.”  She is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and has chaired both the Australian Geomechanics Society WA and the Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics Perth committees, and now the Subsurface Manager, Global Wells and Seismic, Woodside Energy Ltd.

“The Imperial College MSc and PhD have underpinned my success and I would not have achieved so much without them.”