Susan McGarry: A dream career in the construction industry

Navigating professional and personal challenges with poise, vision and courage Susan McGarry, Ecocem Global’s Director of Public Affairs and Sustainability, shares her inspirational journey

Susan McGarry has always been a dreamer with a mission. A self-described ‘hippie child’ she grew up believing she could make a real difference, whether it was saving the whales, protecting the environment, or championing a worthy cause.

That passion for sustainability stuck with her, guiding her education and eventually leading her into the construction industry, where she’s built a thriving career centred around sustainability.

When it came time to choose a college path, Susan wanted something hands-on that could create real change.

She considered environmental science and social policy, but a talk at TU Dublin (formerly DIT) on civil engineering caught her attention. It seemed like the perfect blend of problem-solving and making a tangible impact on the world around her.

Of course, engineering wasn’t all smooth sailing. While some of the more technical aspects, like bending moment diagrams and shear force calculations, weren’t exactly her favourite, she was drawn to the environmental side of things.

Water engineering, environmental legislation, and sustainability efforts captured her interest, proving that she could thrive in the industry without being tied down by traditional structural engineering concepts.

Graduating in 2011 wasn’t easy. The job market was tough, and most engineering grads were leaving Ireland to find work. Determined to stay, Susan applied for countless jobs before landing an internship with Ecocem as an environmental services intern, an opportunity that turned out to be a gamechanger.

Many career advisors recommend jumping between companies to climb the ladder, but Susan found something different at Ecocem. The company’s mission, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional cement, deeply resonated with her.

She joined at a time of rapid growth, and instead of looking elsewhere, she found ways to grow within the company, moving from intern to leadership over time.

Whether she was giving CPD presentations to engineers and architects or talking to contractors about sustainability, she loved being the bridge between technical solutions and realworld application.

As Ecocem expanded beyond national markets to become a global player, Susan’s role evolved too. She took on new challenges at the group level, bringing her expertise to a broader audience.

Personal progress in a paused industry

In 2020, Susan reached a milestone that was both historic and deeply personal, she became the first female and youngest managing director of Ecocem Ireland.

It was a moment of immense pride, not just for her own career trajectory, but for what it symbolised in an industry where women remain under-represented at senior levels.

“From early on, my personal mission was clear,” she says. “I wanted to create space for women in senior leadership teams. It wasn’t just about getting a seat at the table, it was about making room for others and bringing them along.”

Her rise to managing director of Ecocem Ireland came at a time when gender disparity in engineering was still stark. When she graduated in 2011, only 16 per cent of engineering graduates were women, and just 12 per cent actually entered the workforce.

Fast forward to 2024, and while the number of female graduates has increased to 24 per cent, the percentage of women in the engineering workforce has frustratingly remained at 12 per cent.

“That’s just wild to me,” she says. “A decade later, and we still see so few women making it into the workforce in engineering. The wider construction sector is doing slightly better, but engineering itself remains a tough space to break into and stay in.”

Despite these challenges, Susan has continuously proven her capabilities, demonstrating the value of diverse leadership.

A month after stepping into her new leadership role, the world was turned upside down. Taking over as MD of Ecocem Ireland in February 2020 she was ready to roll out her vision, focused on collaboration, innovation, and people centric initiatives.

But by March, everything changed as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the construction industry, turning her first years in leadership into an intense exercise in crisis management.

“Suddenly, my leadership style had to pivot overnight,” she says. “Instead of building long-term initiatives, it was all about survival, how do we navigate this? How do we take care of our staff? What does the future of production look like?”

For two years, Susan led Ecocem Ireland through some of its toughest challenges. The cement and concrete industries came to a near halt, and uncertainty loomed over every decision.

Then, as the world began to emerge from the pandemic, a new crisis hit in the form of the global energy crisis. When Russia invaded Ukraine, energy intensive industries like cement production faced soaring costs, with electricity prices surpassing the price at which they could sell their product.

“It was terrifying,” she admits. “We had to make tough calls on whether or not to continue production, or pass costs onto customers? Facing the challenge of how to remain competitive without compromising our values.”

The pressure of leading during such a tumultuous period was immense.

“I’d say I lost a little bit of myself during that time because I gave it my all. Being the first and the youngest, I felt like people were waiting for me to fail,” she says.

“In my mind, especially as a woman, I had this thought, I need to be the best. I need to make this a success.”

The stress of that responsibility took its toll.

“You become so focused on work that you neglect other aspects of life, your hobbies, your outlets, the things that keep you balanced,” she adds. “Looking back, that’s a big lesson I’d share with others. Your career is important, but it’s not everything.”

As the dust settled and the crises began to ease, she found her stride again.

“I refocused on my health, my fitness, and really started enjoying being managing director,” she says. “Because once there’s no crisis, it’s actually a really enjoyable job. You get to spend time with customers, with your team, and think about new ideas and strategies. It’s incredibly rewarding.”

The world turned upside down

But in May 2023, everything changed. A routine day turned into something unimaginable when she received a breast cancer diagnosis.

“Nobody expects to hear those words,” she recalls. “Even when the doctor is telling you, ‘we’re dealing with a cancer,’ it takes a while to truly register.”

The timing felt surreal. That very week, Susan was scheduled to speak at the Northern Ireland Concrete Society.

Initially, her instinct was to carry on as planned. “I remember thinking, I think I can still do it,” she says, “but by that evening, it hit me, I needed to start cancelling things.”

A week later, she was meant to travel to Munich for the second module of Enterprise Ireland’s Leadership for Growth programme, an initiative she had been thriving in.

That, too, had to be put on hold as she stepped away from work to focus on her health.

As she navigated the uncertainty of her diagnosis, Susan reflected on the toll her career had taken on her well-being. Now, she is a strong advocate for wellness, mental health, and balance, especially in high-pressure leadership roles.

“You can’t give everything to your career, because if you do, there’ll be nothing left of you at the end.”

The treatment process was intense. For women diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause, the journey is particularly complex. Susan underwent fertility preservation treatment to safeguard her fertility before chemotherapy, an emotionally and physically taxing process.

Then came the chemotherapy, which required immediate hormonal intervention. To prepare, Susan was placed into medically induced menopause within four weeks.

“I had no concept of what menopause truly felt like until I experienced it firsthand,” she says.

Through it all, she gained a profound appreciation for the resilience of women.

“I’ve worked alongside women going through IVF or menopause while holding down incredibly demanding jobs. Until I experienced it myself, I didn’t fully grasp just how tough that is.”

A new perspective

During her time away from work, Susan had plenty of space to reflect. With everything she had been through, she found herself asking, ‘Do I really want to return to the same role?’.

No matter how much she tried to picture herself back in the managing director seat, something didn’t quite fit. It wasn’t that she hadn’t enjoyed the role.

Once the immediate crises of the pandemic and energy shortages had passed, she had loved the strategic elements, the team building, the progress they had made.

But after everything she had been through, she realised she wanted something different. She just didn’t know what that was yet. And then, unexpectedly, the answer found her.

Throughout her time as MD, she had played a key role in pushing for policy change in Ireland, particularly around sustainable construction. At the time, there were no legal requirements to encourage low-carbon cement and concrete, a challenge she had tackled head-on.

Years of effort had finally paid off, in 2024, Ireland introduced its first-ever green public procurement guidelines for cement and concrete. It was a groundbreaking moment for the industry, and Susan had been at the heart of it.

Now, the conversation around sustainable policy was growing beyond Ireland.

Across Europe, policymakers and industry leaders were taking notice, eager to accelerate change at a global level. But with so much momentum, Ecocem’s leadership realised they needed someone dedicated to driving this movement forward.

The offer came at just the right time.

It was a role that aligned perfectly with everything she had been working toward, impact-driven, future-focused, and a chance to create lasting change.

In March 2024, she returned to work, stepping into her new role as director of public affairs and sustainability, ready to take on this next chapter.

A fresh chapter

After months away from the industry, Susan made her return at last year’s CIF International Women’s Day event, the first major event she attended postdiagnosis.

While she was excited, she also felt a deep nervousness. With her newly short black hair, a stark contrast to how people had known her before, she stepped into the room, unsure of how it would feel to be back among colleagues and peers.

But the moment she was there, speaking, engaging, sharing her journey, she felt it: ‘I’m back’. That event marked not only her return to the industry but also a new chapter in her career.

While she had been proud of her time as MD, she knew this was where she was meant to be, working on the bigger picture, shaping policy, and driving sustainable change on a global scale.

One particular moment from that time stands out to her: a photograph of herself standing beneath the towering European Commission sign in Brussels.

It was taken on the day of her first major trip in her new role, a trip that led her straight to a meeting with the climate commissioner’s team to discuss decarbonising the global cement industry.

For Susan, that moment was surreal.

“The little girl who wanted to save the world had just walked into a meeting with the European climate commissioner to talk about how we can actually do it.”

That was the kind of full-circle moment that reaffirmed everything she had worked toward. Aligning her personal values with her career had not only led to professional success but also to a role that felt deeply fulfilling.

The view from Europe

From her new role at a European level, Susan has gained a fresh perspective on gender balance within the construction and engineering sectors, and Ireland, she says, is falling behind.

Ecocem’s research and development (R&D) team, for example, is a rare case of true gender balance. With a 50-50 split between men and women, it includes engineers, scientists, and material specialists working on cutting-edge technology to decarbonise one of the hardest-to-abate industries, cement.

“We don’t think it’s hard to abate anymore,” Susan says. “Because we have the technology, but the creation of that technology is being driven by a gender-balanced team. And that’s unheard of.”

By contrast, in Ireland, achieving even a balanced interview panel for hiring remains a challenge.

At the European level, the picture is different. In her policy work, Susan frequently meets with teams at the European Commission and European Parliament.

Whether discussing technical files or industry regulations, she’s just as likely to sit across from a woman as a man.

“It’s much more diverse,” she says. “When I meet architects and engineers working on large-scale projects, it’s close to 50-50. Here in Ireland, if you walk into a room for a meeting, it’s almost always a man you’re meeting.”

“There’s a lived experience here for women that makes this industry unattractive. And that’s a real pity, because an engineering qualification is a gateway to so many different careers. Even if you don’t want to be a traditional engineer, the doors it opens are huge.”

The shift is happening, she believes, but far too slowly. “And there’s no reason for it to be that slow.”

Building a sustainable future

With political landscapes shifting globally and within the European Union, she sees the urgency in protecting and advancing climate policies.

“It’s really about the importance of climate legislation and sustainability legislation that’s coming through,” she says. “The Clean Industrial Deal is a huge opportunity, while we can still be very competitive, we need to ensure we’re building sustainably.”

“Too much work, time, and energy has gone into developing better ways to build,” she says. “We’ve come so far in Ireland with modern methods of construction, and that’s something we have to keep pushing forward, not just here, but across Europe.”

“You have to start where you are,” she says. “We have the ability to be leaders in sustainable construction, and that’s important, not just for Ireland, but as part of a wider European and global movement toward decarbonisation.

“Ireland has the opportunity to be a leader, and we need to seize it.”

Susan McGarry is the keynote speaker at CIF’s International Women’s Day Summit 2025 taking place on March 7 at Johnstown House Hotel, Co. Meath. You can find the full line-up and more on www.cif.ie