Leader in Public Affairs: Sophie Timms, Corporate Affairs Director, Kier Group, “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe”

Mace | 27th August 2026 | In-House Public Affairs, Westminster Index
sophie timms

Sophie has been passionate about politics since her teenage years. Now, she works at the intersection of policy, delivery and public accountability.

“Politics became my passion at 17,” says Sophie Timms. That early interest took her to university and then to Strasbourg, “at the heart of EU politics,” before a first role at a business trade body where she was “thrown in the deep end” across policy ranging from employment and tax to regulation and Europe. It was, she says, a broad and demanding start — and one that set her on a path she has stayed on ever since.

She moved in-house soon after and has built a career spanning financial services and infrastructure — sectors where policy is both complex and consequential. “I relish the chance to tell a company’s story first-hand,” she says, describing the appeal of being embedded within an organisation rather than “one step removed.”

At Kier Group, that story sits firmly within the UK’s infrastructure and construction landscape. Kier is one of the country’s leading construction, infrastructure and services businesses, delivering major public and private sector projects across transport, education, healthcare and housing. With a significant pipeline of government-backed work, the company operates at the intersection of policy, delivery and public accountability.

That context shapes her priorities. “In infrastructure, it’s building safety,” she says. “Nothing is more important than keeping people safe.” The legacy of Grenfell looms large. “Some hard and tragic lessons were learned,…

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