AT HOME WITH...Professor Li Shirong

Professor Li’s CV is impressive to say the least with her work spanning academia, industry and government, even more impressive when you consider that she left school during the Cultural Revolution.

But it was her experiences working on a wheat farm in the Chinese countryside that have made her the woman that she is today – someone who works hard, makes the most of every opportunity that comes her way and never takes anything for granted.

She says: “Life was difficult but I think it made you stronger. I always say that it was a good experience because we worked so hard and it was such a difficult time, that anything you faced afterwards was easy.

“I believe a lot of people from this generation are very strong, work hard and are always appreciative of opportunities. Many of those who went to university straight after the Cultural Revolution now have good careers and play important roles in society.” With her typically unassuming demeanour Professor Li insists that she was one of the lucky ones, having only been working on the farm for a year when Chinese policy changed and the universities re-opened their doors to students.

Deciding what to study was easy for Professor Li; her father was a civil engineer so she followed in his footsteps before gaining an MSc in Construction Management, later becoming a professor of the subject, and teaching at the University.

As China began to open up more to the outside world in the 1990s Professor Li spent some time in Holland before winning a scholarship from England’s Reading University, where she gained a PhD.

She was part of the research team for a comparative study between the UK and Chinese construction industry and it was during this time that she joined the CIOB, achieving a double first as the first female member in China and also the country’s youngest member.

But even these great achievements didn’t give Professor Li any indication of what was to come and she says that she never could have imagined that 15 years later she would be achieving yet another double first when she took over the reins as President.

Joining the CIOB in the first place had been a massive jump because China had been closed off for so long and she relished the opportunity to work in an international field and to learn more about the construction sector outside of China.

“You can always learn from each other and globalisation has forced us to think differently,” she says. “You can’t just think locally and nationally, you have got to think internationally.”

Closer collaboration within the international community is high on the agenda for Professor Li who believes that the U K and China can learn a lot from each other. “Each country has its advantages but if you come together you are both stronger,” she explains. For Professor Li, it is about breaking down barriers and sharing experiences and in June the CIOB will hold its annual general meeting in Shanghai, the first time in its 175- year history that the event will take place outside of the UK.

In 2003 Professor Li’s career took a different direction when she took up a position in local government, where she served as vice-mayor of the Shapingba District of Chongqing – a city with a population of 32 million.

The role included responsibility for urban planning and development as part of the modernisation of the area, as well as leading a team to develop the Shapingba ‘University Town’. The project involved relocating farmers and building an urban area housing 10 universities and 80,000 students.

The task in hand was huge and provided a massive challenge for Professor Li. “Because my background is construction and I have experience abroad I was selected by the Government because they needed expertise on the international view,” she explains. “It was quite a jump to go from a professor at university to vice mayor of the Shapingba district.

“There was a lot of construction and urbanisation work, and I was responsible for the urban planning bureau, construction commission, the environmental protection bureau, housing bureau and land bureau, so I was very busy.

“Planning the area so that it is sustainable was the biggest challenge as well as making the development stable, as sometimes it happens too fast. Also because you are relocating people you need to make sure that everything is done on time, so management skills are important.”

Typically Professor Li took the challenges in her stride. “I feel I learned a lot to go from a professor to local government as it was a big change with a lot of challenges but you learn from practice,” she says.

In 2007 she was appointed as a deputy director general of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission, where she is responsible for the promotion of foreign trade and investment.

Professor Li has pioneered the ‘sustainable cities’ project, between the Chongqing and UK governments, to develop sustainable urban and rural areas that provide a destination for UK companies to promote innovative green products and services.

She is also a key player in the development of the China UK Centre for Professional Excellence, in Chongqing, providing a link between UK training platforms and Chinese technology, to allow professionals to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

To date Professor Li has published more than 170 papers and 27 books, both in China and overseas and as well as her CIOB presidency she holds a number of professional qualifications, including fellowships of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), as well as the Chartered Environmentalist qualification (CEnv) of the Society for the Environment.

She is also still teaching part time as professor of construction management at Chongqing University.