It comes as Julie was also among the finalists at this year’s Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) Top 100 Women In Construction awards, in the Most Influential SME/Trade Leader category.
Julie helped to lay the foundations for the creation of Build UK in 2015, and she has consistently publicly championed a collaborative approach to skills and apprenticeships in construction – to the point where Build UK’s Open Doors programme, which takes young people on tours of construction workplaces, saw a record 7,000 visitors in 2025.
Julie was also the first woman to be appointed as Chairman for The Drilling and Sawing Association, and during her six years there between 2019 and 2025 Julie put skills and training at the heart of her work, including more than 250 Level Two apprentices being trained through the association.
Her position at Build UK – and as a female leader of a growing SME business – saw her advising the Prime Minister’s Business Council (2022–23) and Small Business Council (2024). She is also currently on the Small Business Forum and is now part of the recently formed Construction Skills Mission Board to help the industry train 100,000 additional workers a year.
Julie completed a management buy-out of D-Drill & Sawing from her father, Peter White, in 2008, which has offices across the UK, and like herself, 85 per cent of her workforce have undergone an apprenticeship with the company.
She said: “Being part of Build UK has been my way of giving back to an industry that has given me so much over the years, in what has been an important decade of progress for the industry.
“I caught the construction bug ever since visiting a construction site with my father as a child due to sheer diverse range of job roles, which is why I am so passionate about shouting about this to the next generation.
“We’ve made a positive start on recruiting the next generation – particularly with the Open Doors initiative – and while I may be leaving the Build UK board, I feel like my work is not yet done, as I will be sitting on the Construction Skills Mission Board to ensure the links between industry and the academic world continue to grow stronger at a time when demand for skills has never been higher.
“The construction industry has also come along way over the past decade in terms of helping the supply chain to grow – and the creation of a common assessment standard to make procurement processes much more efficient is also one I am proud to have been involved with.
“You can’t achieve anything without teamwork, and I’d like to thank my colleagues at Build UK and those I have worked with in the wider industry, for their help and support over the years.”
Suzannah Nichol OBE, Chief Executive of Build UK, added: “As the first female Chair of Build UK, Julie has brought energy and determination to the organisation at a time of significant change for the industry.
“We are grateful for her outstanding contribution over the last decade and look forward to working alongside her in the future as part of her role on the Construction Skills Mission Board.”
