International Women’s Day special – In conversation with Bindu Pokkyarath and Snigdha Jain, Directors at Turley
Please note that this article was published prior to the new brand name of PREACH Inclusion® on 25 April 2024, so you will notice references to BAME in Property.
To mark International Women’s Month, throughout March 2023, BAME in Property is celebrating some brilliant ethnic minority women making waves in the built environment industry. From those early in their careers challenging norms, to those more established who have inspired others and created a wave of positive change, we’re here to shine a light on female ethnic minority talent at all levels.
This month, we bring you our latest interview with not one, but two, brilliant directors from Turley – Bindu Pokkyarath, Director of Business Cases, Funding and Economics, and Snigdha Jain, Director of ESG. Both have had incredible careers and a look back on their upbringing, experience and impact, shows us why they are leaders in their respective fields.
Bindu Pokkyarath and Snigda Jain, Turley.
Careers at a glance
Bindu and Snigdha were both born and raised in India, albeit different parts. Bindu’s family was originally from Kerala, but she undertook her education in Kolkata. With a natural creative flare and interest in buildings, Bindu pursued a degree in Architecture, followed by a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. Throughout her education, Bindu was also interested in economics and finance and picked modules in this area, later leading to her roles in business funding, economics, and infrastructure. She started off in the Policy and Investment Advisory Services at EY, then moved to the Economics team at BuroHappold, which resulted in travel and working on international projects across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Prior to her current role at Turley, Bindu worked in the economics team at AECOM.
At Turley, Bindu leads on business cases and funding for schemes where public funding is required, also conducting appraisals and due diligence for various public funding programmes.
Snigdha grew up in Delhi and also studied architecture, which she described as ‘no sleeping for five years!’. She always had an affinity to nature and enjoyed being outdoors but never really labelled this interest as ‘sustainability’. It was a term that she developed a deeper understanding of when she started her academic education as an architect, with a natural bias towards designing projects that worked with nature.
Snigdha has had multiple sustainability roles across notable firms including WSP, Hilson Moran, Arcadis, working on projects across the UK, EU, Africa and US and for the last year or so, at Turley, leading the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) offer, as part of a 15-strong team. Here, she defines and advises on the implementation of ESG at a corporate level, helping companies demonstrate their leadership and facilitating transparent disclosures for the benefit of stakeholders, employees and communities.
Influence of Indian architecture
Both Bindu and Snigdha reference Indian architecture as influential in their career decisions and interests today.
“Sustainability is not a privilege of the wealthy, on the contrary, with some thought and care, we can develop low cost, equitable and mass-market solutions that can be adopted for everyone." - Snigdha
Bindu: “I trained at a firm where they experimented with local materials and involved local community groups. By working with local people, you understand the impact that built environment can have on local communities.”
Snigdha: “My experience of visiting influential buildings like the India Habitat Centre and working on projects like the Development Alternatives World Headquarters, exposed me to green buildings challenging the norm to create a future based on social justice and a clean environment. The approaches pursued made me realise that sustainability is not a privilege of the wealthy, on the contrary, with some thought and care, we can develop low cost, equitable and mass-market solutions that can be adopted for everyone.”
Overcoming challenges
“There was always an expectation on behaviours, either women were not ‘bullish’ enough or women were ‘too aggressive’ with it being difficult to find a happy medium." - Bindu
It was interesting to hear that both Snigdha and Bindu faced similar challenges in their early careers. Often being the only female in meetings and decision-making situations, both felt the need to be heard and challenge the notion that the males in the room knew better. “It was apparent that it wasn’t a level playing field… I was always told to be more assertive and be more like my male colleagues in early days of my career,” said Bindu, while Snigdha described how “there was always an expectation on behaviours, either women were not ‘bullish’ enough or women were ‘too aggressive’ with it being difficult to find a happy medium.”
Though neither women faced any unpleasant situations in their careers, again, both referred to a cultural difference of whether disagreeing with someone was disrespectful. “Although this wasn’t common in India few years ago, in the UK, people have learnt to disagree respectfully,” said Bindu.
Furthermore, both echoed how they rarely saw BAME women in senior positions, making their current roles as Directors all the more inspirational, as women who have challenged perceptions and broken glass ceilings.
The impact of mentoring
Although Bindu wasn’t surrounded by a family of architects or had guidance in the built environment more widely, this didn’t stop her from pursuing a successful career in this space. That being said, she does wonder about the impact of having the right guidance in place and how this can support someone’s career.
By contrast, Snigdha was surrounded by engineers and her mother had a keen interest in architecture but sustainability was still an amorphous concept. She had lots of support when she was growing up but recognises the clear need for better definition of the career pathways and opportunities whilst pursuing an interest in sustainability.
Bindu added, “While people generally understand architecture and design, there is less knowledge how this can intersect with other sectors. There are many fields, which are not obvious to people not familiar with this industry.” This is exactly why it’s important to speak to young people and share the array of brilliant careers in our industry.
Embracing Equity
“Embracing equity is all about social value and the impact on communities." - Bindu
With the theme of International Women’s Day 2023 being ‘Embrace Equity’, it was only right we explored what this means to each of them.
For Bindu, in the workplace this means, “one solution doesn’t fit all… we needed different interventions for different needs. But this only comes from all of us being invested and caring about others.”
While from an output’s perspective, embracing equity is all about “social value and the impact on communities.”
Snigdha described how equity in the workplace is about “having the emotional intelligence to determine whether someone is uncomfortable in a situation and creating an environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves and voice their opinions.”
As someone immersed in sustainability, it wasn’t surprising when Snigdha also referenced equity in climate change and redirecting resources where they are needed more to alleviate challenges and create a just transition.
Role models
“David Attenborough is a universal figure, who gets his message across to everyone, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or age." - Snigdha
We really could have chatted for ages but as we drew our interview to a close, talk turned to role models and who inspires Bindu and Snigdha.
Bindu: “Barrack and Michelle Obama. They lead with grace and humility and have the right balance of leadership.”
Snigdha: “For me, it’s David Attenborough. He’s a universal figure, who gets his message across to everyone, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or age and what we crucially need in an increasingly polarised world.”
One thing was sure when chatting with Bindu and Snigdha – they didn’t let their ethnicity, or their gender define their careers. For them, simply being good at their jobs, exploring their passions and creating positive change was all that mattered.
A pleasure speaking to Bindu and Snigdha, thank you for sharing your stories.