The annual awards celebrate women shaping the UK built environment.
Star Refrigeration announced that Astrid Prado, head of Marketing, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Top 100 Most Influential Women in Construction Awards 2025, hosted by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
The annual awards ceremony recognizes and celebrates the achievements of women shaping the future of the built environment across the UK. This year’s winners will be unveiled at the official awards ceremony on September 18, 2025 at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester.
Astrid Prado, a Chartered Marketer and long-serving member of the Institute of Refrigeration (IOR), has been with Star Refrigeration since 2005. Over the past two decades, she has worked to shape the company’s communications strategy and has led transformative marketing initiatives across Star Refrigeration and its educational division, Star Learning Solutions. As part of her role, she focuses on raising awareness of the importance of sustainable cooling and heating solutions, as well as promoting greater inclusivity within the engineering sector.
Ms Prado has also been a vocal champion of progressive workplace policies, supporting the implementation of flexible working, enhanced parental leave, and shared caregiving responsibilities, through continued advocacy of their benefits to industry
She has also prioritized the promotion of educational and outreach programs, including the Little Stars STEM initiative, which engages primary school pupils with engineering concepts. These programs additionally help to inspire more girls into STEM, and Prado continues her strong advocacy for gender equality through co-chairing the IOR Women in RACHP (Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pumps) group and serving on the board of the International Network of Women in Cooling (INWIC).
Ms Prado’s commitment to diversity was recognized in 2019 when she was nominated for the Diversity Impact Award at the RAC Cooling Industry Awards, following her work on the industry’s first gender parity survey. The research found systemic barriers facing women in the sector and proposed actionable steps to create a more inclusive workplace.
Everyone at Star Refrigeration congratulates Astrid on this meaningful recognition and looks forward to celebrating with her and fellow nominees at the awards ceremony in September.
For more information, visit star-ref.co.uk.
