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Having achieved social media prominence as a crane operator over the past eight years, Katie Kelleher is changing tracks and going back to an office.
Since graduating with an English degree 20 years ago, she spent the first half of her career in sales and recruitment. Then in 2014 she took a 90-degree turn and joined Select Plant as an apprentice crawler crane operator and, working on high profit projects such as Crossrail and Thames Tideway, soon became a figurehead not just for women in construction but – as Katie Cranes – for crane operators everywhere, with 4,600 followers on Instagram and 25,000 on LinkedIn.
Now, she has resigned her post from Select and joined the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) in the newly created role of technical and development officer.
In her new role, Katie Kelleher will provide CPA members with guidance and advice on technical, training and safety subjects, as well as help produce safety and technical publications.
Of her new job, she said: “I truly believe I can be of value to the CPA and its members. I am looking forward to making a noticeable difference within the sector and helping take the association to the next level.”
On leaving cranes behind, she said: “The past eight and a half years have flown by in a flurry and a blink. I am so grateful of the opportunity that was given to me to change my life around, I really do believe my life as I know it started the moment I took the decision to change career and become an apprentice. It was honestly the day everything changed for the better.
“Each year has gone from strength to strength, I have been involved in so many things I would never have dreamed of due to that first step. I really can’t thank Select enough for all they have given me, the doors that have been opened, the network I have built and the friends I have made.”
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