Eight women have been shortlisted for BD’s inaugural Female Architectural Leader of the Year award.

The list includes Shireen Hamdan (AADipl 2007 & AA Member) who became the first female member of Populous’s global board of directors last year; Madeleine Kessler (AADipl 2013 & AA Seminar Tutor) of Haptic Architects, who sits on the National Infrastructure Commission’s Young Professionals Panel, volunteers for the Stephen Lawrence Trust and has worked to establish a resource-sharing system for small practices; Sadie Morgan, co-founder of Stirling Prize-winning dRMM and chair of the National Infrastructure Commission and HS2 design panels; and Valeria Segovia Trigueros (AADipl 2006 & AA Member) who became a principal at Gensler last year, sits on the Hackney design review panel and is recognised for her teaching and advocacy of equality and diversity.

Others listed: Sue Emms, BDP; Tara Gbolade, Gbolade Design Studio; Joan McCoy, White Ink; Architects; Rita Ochoa, AFL Architects. The winner will be announced in May.

Image: Madeleine Kessler’s The Red City project, 2013