Emma Hooper, associate director and head of R&D at Bond Bryan Digital, is the deserving recipient of the Digital Construction Champion of the Year accolade, sponsored by Solibri, which she received at the Digital Construction Awards last night (12 July).
The Digital Construction Champion of the Year award recognises an individual who has played a key role championing digital transformation on a project, in an organisation, or an industry sector, during their career.
Emma Hooper, this year’s winner, has been championing the use of BIM and digital innovation across the built environment for many years. After graduating with an architecture degree, she joined fit-out specialist Styles & Wood, where her interest and involvement in digitalisation began to blossom.
From there, she took a role as BIM technologist at Metz Architects, before joining consultant Bond Bryan Digital, where she is now associate director and head of research and development.
Along the way, Hooper has become an active and authoritative member of the wider digital construction community. She is especially passionate about IFC – the standard for open BIM data exchange – and has been on a mission to get everyone speaking the same data language.
“Emma is at the forefront of the digital revolution, delivering better information management for her clients while simultaneously researching and developing strategies that will benefit the whole industry.”
She is a member of the BSI B/555 committee for BIM standards, part of the BuildingSMART UK & Ireland committee and an ambassador for the UK BIM Alliance. She is also one of only 10 people in the world certified as being proficient in COBie.
Her work has helped make construction projects more efficient by joining up the dots between people, process and technology to enable true collaboration with an emphasis on open linked data.
When reviewing the judges’ nominees for this category, there was one name at the top of everyone’s list. With her enthusiasm for the industry and the people working within it, not to mention her exceptional technical knowledge and expertise, Emma Hooper is our Digital Construction Champion of 2022.
On receiving the award, Hooper said: “When they said she championed open standards, I was, ‘oh my god’. I was really shocked – I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
