Lisa Ames-Hall: Project Manager to the Palaces
New Tracks | Episode 7 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth
Lisa Ames-Hall is a project manager at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court and more. She is also an architect by training, a farm kid by upbringing, and someone who has quietly pivoted her career twice and landed somewhere that genuinely feels like a fit.
Her route here was not obvious. She failed vet school spectacularly, opened a UCAS list from the top, and stumbled into architecture somewhere between astrophysics and aeronautics. Then, years later, she saw a job advert for a project manager at Historic Royal Palaces, told herself she wasn’t qualified, applied anyway, and got it.
What makes Lisa’s episode so warm is how honest she is about what she was looking for and how long it took to find it. She talks about the difference between pushing at a door that will open and pushing at one that never will. About leading with empathy in an organisation where some of her colleagues have worked for 40 years. About what success actually looks like when you stop measuring it the way you were taught to.
She also has some thoughts on keeping your weird. They are worth hearing.
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This series is proudly supported by JAC Project Management.