Steve Lennon

Business Strategist

Steve is an experienced business leader with a background that spans investment banking, technology, management consulting, cultural change and executive leadership roles in Australia, the US and Europe. He brings a powerful combination of energy, insight, financial acumen and creativity to bear in his consulting and leadership approach.

Steve delivers Arup's strategic & commercial consulting services to key infrastructure investors, delivery agencies and financial services providers.

Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. Through their work, they make a positive difference in the world. Founded in 1946 with an initial focus on structural engineering, Arup first came to the world's attention with the structural design of the Sydney Opera House, followed by its work on the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Arup has since grown into a truly multidisciplinary organisation. Most recently, its work for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing has reaffirmed its reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs that reinvent the built environment.

Steve has a breadth of international consulting experience across large capital projects in transport, telecommunications, housing, commercial property and financial services. He is adept at strategy formulation and has consulted to and coached senior private and public sector executives for the past 15 years.

Steve provides strategic insights and then makes tangible connections that lead to bottom-line results. His key clients have included NSW Government, Transport Construction Authority, Barclays Bank, National Australia Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Laing O'Rourke, Qantas and NRMA Insurance.

Steve has led the development of new businesses in financial services, consulting and technology. He has also led, experienced or advised on more than 15 M&A transactions.

Steve brings a deep appreciation from this first hand experience of the challenges involved in aligning teams around a common goal, and how to successfully address the strategic, leadership, cultural and implementation challenges involved.

Steve is Sydney-born and bred, and started his career as a Chartered Accountant, before moving into investment banking with Lehman Brothers in New York. After a spell in commercial banking, he moved into management consulting, spending two years with CSC Index, the firm that co-authored 'Reengineering the Corporation' and pioneered the application of the book's radical ideas in business during the 90's. He then spent several years in the technology arena as a senior executive, including roles with Logica and SMS Management and Technology. Steve then had the opportunity to lead the world-renowned creative agency, Imagination, in Australia for 5 years, before moving into the infrastructure sector, with APP Corporation and now Arup.

He enjoys adventure travel - some of his past exploits include trekking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and twice completing the 800km pilgrim walk across Spain from France, known as the Camino de Santiago.