Dr Clare Anderson - Class Of 1992
THE WORLD NEEDS ENGINEERS
Loreto Toorak Alumna, Clare Anderson (1992), has many fond memories of her time at School. In 1988, and in Year 8 at the time, Clare recalls the School Principal announcing during an Assembly the whole-school trip to Uluru to celebrate Australia’s Bicentenary. Students travelled by bus and stayed in tents along the way; our annual PAF was held in the Northern Territory and, while the costumes were not up to the usual standard, it was nonetheless a lot of fun.
She remembers thoroughly enjoying Maths and Science while at School and, although engineering wasn’t a common choice for young women at the time, she was well supported in her subject choices. The teachers were excellent; Clare has fond memories of her chemistry teacher Mr Elliot, and his methods of making chemistry fun. She recalls enjoying the experiments—from copper sulphate crystals in Year 7 to explosive reactions in Senior Years. Such experiments were partly the reason behind Clare’s decision to study and complete a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) at Melbourne University.
Following her graduation from Melbourne University, Clare was employed as a Graduate Engineer with BHP, based mostly in Perth, supporting the offshore oil and gas facilities. She resigned from BHP after four years to travel around Southeast Asia with her future husband and, after several months of travelling, with many wonderful new experiences, they returned to Australia. She was soon employed by the engineering company, Fluor, which took her to South Africa. She spent a year working on the world’s largest Synthetic Fuels facility and, to her great enjoyment, enabled further travel opportunities around Southern Africa.
During those early years of her career and influenced by travel, Clare wished for a career that aligned with her values of reducing environmental impact, particularly in relation to climate change. She returned to university, where she embarked on a PhD in Carbon Capture and Storage (a technology for reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels). Whilst working on her PhD, Clare and her partner welcomed two daughters, and she continued to work in the low-carbon space within the University of Melbourne until 2013. The travel bug bit again once her daughters were settled into primary school, and the family decided it was a good time for another overseas adventure, basing themselves in London.
Whilst in London Clare was employed by Worley, a global engineering and construction company. Her initial role was in managing small projects, and eventually she was promoted to Engineering Lead on a $10 billion project. From there, Clare became Engineering Manager, with responsibility for overseeing a major infrastructure project across London, Turkey, and India. At the time, it was the largest pipeline in the world, running all the way from Azerbaijan through Turkey to Greece, and an incredible experience for Clare to manage numerous large teams.
At the end of 2017, Clare and the family moved back to Melbourne. Still with Worley, Clare took on the role of leading the technical consulting team and began to build momentum on decarbonisation opportunities with energy customers. This naturally led to her current role as the global Director of Sustainability Performance, where she has responsibility for sustainability directives, including climate change initiatives, protecting biodiversity loss and supporting industries transition into delivering low-carbon infrastructure projects. Clare’s role at Worley also comprises researching and publishing design and construction methods that will build the scale of infrastructure projects required across industries and cities, all within budget, timeline and according to sustainability principles. Clare also serves on the advisory committee for Net Zero Australia, a project between Princeton University and the Universities of Melbourne and Queensland that aims for net zero emissions in Australia by 2050.
Clare believes now is an exciting time to be an engineer. The world is facing complex sustainability challenges and engineers can provide the solutions we need. If you’re keen to solve problems, work in teams and maybe even save the world, then engineering is a great choice!
If any students are interested in engineering as a career choice, please speak to Loreto Toorak Careers Counsellors for advice on work experience opportunities and attending University Open Days.
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