The pair received the ‘Mike Nichols Award for Inspiration’ at the Association for Project Management awards in London.

Other winners at the ceremony included Amey’s senior project manager Troy Lancaster, Sir Amyas Morse, Arup and Heathrow Airport.

Loraine Martins is Network Rail’s diversity director and was said by judges to have shown courage and vision throughout her career to transform working cultures, values and behaviours.

Michèle Dix is Crossrail 2’s managing director and was said to be an empowering female with a passionate belief in the power of engineering and urban planning to transform society.

Amey’s senior project manager Troy Lancaster of the University of Warwick won the ‘Geoffrey Trimble Award’ for the best Masters’ post graduate dissertation; and former National Audit Office chief executive Sir Amyas Morse won the ‘Sir Monty Finniston Award’ for his lifetime contribution to the profession.

Arup won two awards on the night: one for its contribution to the profession as a consultant and a second covering health, safety, security and the environment for its ‘Healthy by Design Programme’ on High Speed 2 Phase 2b.

Heathrow Airport scooped the Technology Project of the Year award for its integrated airport operations plan and demand capacity balancing tool.

(Photograph: The Nichols Group)