Pioneering new solutions

Purpose driven

How could we, led by a clear sense of purpose honed over almost eight decades, ensure that we remain a firm that shapes cities to be the most exciting, affordable, liveable and productive places in the world? A firm that, in collaboration with others, helps to lead the global energy transition. A firm that enables the safe treatment, storage and supply of water for billions. The list goes on.  

This is a truly exciting time to be collaborating with our clients. We exist to shape a better world and, as that world changes rapidly around us, I am delighted to be leading our firm in a new role as Arup’s first CEO.

New governance

This new role is part of the governance arrangements that we introduced at the end of the financial year. During that year I led the firm as Arup Group Chair. I now lead the Executive Board. Working with the Arup Group Limited Board and the Arup Trustees, the combined skills and experience we have is helping us strengthen our relationship with existing clients and deliver into new markets. The changes we have put in place during the last year give us a robust and resilient foundation as we enter a new phase of ambition and growth. I and my fellow Executive Board members are focused on enabling Arup and its members to realise our full potential, and to maximise the value we create for our clients and the positive impact on the world.

Achieving a solid financial performance

The financial year ending 31 March 2025 marked a period of stabilisation and improvement for Arup, following a challenging period of high interest rates and inflation. We achieved a solid financial performance and maintained profitability. Our business, like many, continued to experience economic challenges, with some of the markets we work in seeing a slowdown in investment, some of those due to change in a year of elections. Some challenges persist, particularly around reduced infrastructure spending and a quieter global property market. The changes in capital flows have also led to growth in some new markets, and we are in a strong position to target these. ‘Arup Strategy 2025-30: The future we choose’ focuses on high-potential sectors such as renewable energy, water, and science, industry and technology, and through this we have set a clear direction for the future growth of the firm.

Delivering with purpose

Our performance has been underpinned by work of which we and our clients are especially proud. In Asia, Hong Kong’s 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium, designed as the ‘Pearl of the Orient’, opened in March 2025. It forms a centrepiece for the work that we have been involved in over two decades in the former home of the city’s iconic airport. It’s not often the opportunity arises to create an entire new district in a densely packed city like Hong Kong. But that’s what we’ve been doing here, helping to transform the area into a next-generation urban district.  

In Europe and Australia, we have helped to reshape Belfast and Sydney, each through a major transportation project. Belfast Grand Central Station brings rail and bus services in the city under one roof for the first time, creating the largest integrated transport facility on the island of Ireland. The Parramatta Light Rail is improving connectivity, supporting population growth and unlocking economic potential in Western Sydney.  

In North America, with traditional electrical infrastructure under strain from dynamic changes in industrial loads and consumer demand, we have supported Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in delivering the Grid Storage Launchpad in their Washington campus. Our design approach focused on safety and performance for this testing facility that brings every stage of battery development and deployment together in one place.  

Finally, closer to our global headquarters in the UK, our fast-growing water business has helped the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales to shape a long-term approach for managing flood risk, creating a vision for a flood resilient Wales in 2050. There are many other examples of our work which, I invite you to explore in the pages of this report. 

Connecting with communities

Our community engagement programme has continued to deliver remarkable work and results. In the last financial year, our focus remained skills-based pro bono activity. We worked on 139 significant pro bono community engagement projects, with over a thousand Arup members contributing more than 40,000 hours of pro bono community engagement activities. Our work aims to make a positive difference to the most marginalised and vulnerable communities – in the places where we work, where we live and further afield.

The future we choose

Everything we do as a firm, everything we do as business leaders, is a choice. It’s why we called our new five-year strategy “The future we choose”. Published in April 2025, and informed, shaped and refined with input from our global membership, it places collaboration at our core – collaboration with our clients, our partners and with each other.

Because Arup must not only be a great partner to work with – we must also be a place where every single one of our global members comes to work and takes part in an industry-leading employee experience. On my visits to Arup global offices during the year, I have been enormously impressed by both the quality of the work we are doing and the way we are doing it. Wherever we are, that same sense of purpose shines through as we deliver exceptional outcomes every time. 

I would like to thank our clients for giving us the opportunity to tackle the world’s greatest challenges and to work on the most impactful projects. Thank you also to our members who continue to deliver their best, every day. I am grateful for the continued dedication and support of our people across the firm. I am excited to lead a new chapter as Arup’s first CEO, helping us to realise the future we choose.