Melissa Herkt

construction engineer on a $30 million project in Denmark, to project engineer on a successful $3 billion project in the US, to Exxon’s first-ever woman construction manager on a European project in the early 1990s.

After two decades in petrochemicals, Melissa became project director for a pharmaceutical facility that was two years behind and only half-built. Her reputation was cemented as she put its problems right, then helped present a court case recouping millions in delay-triggered losses. In 2000, Melissa became vice-president of global project management at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and was assigned to develop a world-class best practices system for their capital investment program (£2 billion annually). Melissa exploited advances in project management to create a multicultural, multidisciplinary team, instituting seamless processes at GSK sites worldwide.

Melissa received the Construction Industry Institute’s 2004 Outstanding Implementer Award, recognizing her leadership at GSK. Former chair of CII’s research committee, she served on its executive committee, and received the prestigious Richard L. Tucker Leadership & Service award in 2011. Melissa also gives her time and knowledge, serving on the Auburn University Alumni Engineering Council, advising the civil engineering faculty, and travels with the college’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. She received outstanding alumna awards from Gadsden State, AU, and the Chancellor of Alabama’s college system. She was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2008 and the National Academy of Construction (USA) in 2009.