Zara, a civil engineer by profession, has had a varied construction career with the opportunity to experience service delivery from many different perspectives. Starting in a design practice in Northern Ireland she joined Carillion in 1987 as a site engineer and over the subsequent years held various position in a range of divisions until 1998 when, as Contracts Director, she was offered the opportunity to lead the Governments Construction Best Practice Programme. The purpose of this initiative was to capture best practice, specifically in relation to productivity, sustainability and MMC, from within construction and other industries and make it accessible and relevant to everyone in construction immaterial of the role they played or the size of the organisation. Since returning to Carillion in 2003 she has put into practice all that she learned regarding construction improvements and now leads a team of 60 Lean practitioners across the Carillion Group. Badged as Operational Excellence their remit is to roll out and upskill everyone in the use of lean tools and techniques as well as delivering improvement projects. In 2012 they achieved savings in the region of £18m.