Industry Leaders EP20 with Sarah Buckeridge

Sarah Buckeridge graduated into a serious Victorian recession in the mid-1990s, went to Singapore because there was no work at home, and came back to interview at Hayball as a graduate when the practice had about thirty people and one office. Three decades, three children and several redefined roles later, she is Co-Managing Principal of a national practice of more than 130 staff across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. In this episode of the BE Inspired Podcast, Industry Leaders Series, she tells host Seton Walsh-Rose that she stayed for a simple reason: the firm kept growing and changing, and it kept making room for her as she changed too.

The conversation moves from the personal to the structural — how Hayball turned a supportive instinct into actual machinery. Champions of Change, Parlour, WGEA reporting, the Property Council’s 500 Women in Property program and an internal mentoring program called Grow all sit alongside an employee share scheme, introduced more than ten years ago, that now counts nearly 40 owners of the business. Sarah and Seton also dig into what a one-Hayball hybrid model does for a practice riding very different East Coast markets, what graduates should actually put in an application, where AI sits in a practice that is still deliberately in its testing phase, and why the firm frames sustainability, wellbeing and community benefit under a single umbrella it calls social value.

Episode Chapters

• 00:11 Episode introduction
• 00:39 Meet Sarah Buckeridge
• 00:55 Hayball at 43 years
• 01:05 The project pillars
• 01:47 A career that started elsewhere
• 02:13 Graduating into a recession
• 02:40 Two and a half years in Singapore
• 03:54 Coming home to Hayball
• 04:20 Why she stayed
• 04:58 Culture as reputation
• 05:14 Three children, one firm
• 06:09 Female representation, then and now
• 06:26 Promoted on maternity leave
• 07:13 The data nobody expects
• 08:31 Champions of Change and Parlour
• 09:15 WGEA reporting as a discipline
• 09:49 500 Women in Property
• 10:13 The Grow mentoring program
• 10:41 Careers are not linear
• 11:17 Being vocal about what you want
• 11:48 Non-traditional pathways
• 12:44 Building a team like a puzzle
• 13:53 Losing people mid-career
• 14:54 Passion projects pay back
• 16:28 Live and learn — cross-pollination
• 17:25 Specialists are welcome too
• 17:45 The employee share scheme
• 19:04 Targets and gender equity
• 19:42 Why shares beat bonuses
• 20:28 Value beyond business development
• 21:05 Ownership beyond the architects
• 21:39 Three markets, one country
• 22:29 The one-Hayball model
• 24:10 Exporting sector expertise
• 25:21 Remote-first, cost and caliber
• 26:57 When clients want people in the room
• 28:44 The generation that has not seen a downturn
• 30:32 Structured graduate mentoring
• 31:38 How to frame an application
• 33:11 Where is this all heading?
• 33:32 AI: still in the testing phase
• 34:28 Front-loading the data work
• 35:16 A version-one AI policy
• 35:45 Materials, climate and place
• 36:39 Top-down and ground-up
• 38:00 Social value as an umbrella
• 39:17 Client buy-in
• 41:08 Why it attracts talent
• 41:37 A lesson from the UK
• 42:33 Recommendation: Parlour

Key Takeaways

• People stay where the organisation keeps changing
• Career breaks redefine a path rather than end it.
• Promote people while they are on leave.
• If you do not measure it, you cannot understand it.
• Non-linear is not lesser.
• Keep connection points open during leave.
• Build pathways, not boxes
• Ownership beats a one-off bonus.
• Hybrid national teams smooth out local markets.
• Curiosity is what practices are actually hiring for.
• Get the data house in order before chasing AI efficiency.
• Social value is the umbrella, not a bolt-on.

Sound Bites / Quotes:
“If it hadn’t been a place that was growing and changing, then I don’t think I would still be here.”
— Sarah Buckeridge, ~04:20

“I’ve had three children in my time at Hayball, and so in a way that has also punctuated my career journey.”
— Sarah Buckeridge, ~05:00

References & Resources

• Gray Puksand — Australian architecture and design practice: https://www.graypuksand.com.au/
• Champions of Change Coalition — Architects group: https://championsofchangecoalition.org/groups/champions-of-change-architects/
• Parlour — gender, equity, architecture: https://archiparlour.org/
• Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reporting: https://www.wgea.gov.au/
• Property Council of Australia — 500 Women in Property program: https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/events-learning/events-learning-overview/programs/500-women-in-property
• NAWIC — National Association of Women in Construction (Australia); CEO Cathryn Greville, referenced by Seton: https://www.nawic.com.au/
• Cathryn Greville, CEO, NAWIC (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathryngreville/
• Australian Institute of Architects — “the institute”, referenced re industry engagement: https://www.architecture.com.au/
• Kerry Hill Architects — the design ilk of Sarah’s Singapore years: https://architectureau.com/organisations/kerry-hill-architects/
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — referenced by Seton on self-actualisation for creatives: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
• Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice — Sarah’s recommendation for the whole industry: https://parlour.org.au/parlour-guides/