Lindsay Gerding, P.E.
Jacobs
For consistent and caring leadership that spurs global team productivity; for demonstrating empathy and cultural awareness that sparks the same in others; and for staunch advocacy of women in STEM.
Lindsay Gerding, P.E., is vice president and general manager for Jacobs’s global life sciences operations in Cincinnati, Ohio. In this role, she assembles world-class teams from across Jacobs to design and build leading-edge manufacturing facilities for pharmaceutical clients worldwide. Her team’s solutions advance transformative treatments and therapies that improve people’s lives.
Accountable for delivering roughly $800 million in annual revenue, Gerding leads and inspires large, cross-functional global teams that transform pharmaceutical clients’ visions, objectives, and constraints into successful solutions. Her current project portfolio involves hundreds of domestic and international engineering, procurement, and construction management professionals, who report directly to her organization. She has increased global utilization fourfold in her current role.
In addition to being accountable for fiscal performance and client satisfaction, Gerding recruits talent, promotes inclusion and diversity through numerous initiatives, and personifies Jacobs’s “culture of caring” as a trained positive mental health champion.
With more than 17 years of project delivery experience (seven of them in a global leadership role), Gerding has held a variety of positions with progressively greater responsibilities, including process engineer, field engineer, project manager, and program manager.
Gerding’s leadership, strategic thinking, and influence were key to her success as global communication co-chair for the Jacobs Women’s Network, where she served from 2016 to 2019. She conveyed clear messaging to thousands of members in more than 100 locations around the world. She positively contributed to transforming Jacobs’s culture during her tenure by pitching fresh ideas and presenting inspiring content on behalf of the network’s vision, mission, and values.
Gerding is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers South Ohio Section. She most recently helped organize a panel and networking event co-sponsored by SWE and the National Society of Black Engineers titled “Women of Color in STEM: Increasing Representation and Creating an Inclusive Environment.” As section secretary from 2016 to 2018, she led the chapter in winning three SWE Mission awards at WE17: professional section (bronze); best practice, communication; and best practice, outreach.
She currently leads the advisory board of iSPACE Girls in STEM, whose mission is to ignite girls’ enthusiasm for STEM and prepare them to thrive in tomorrow’s world. To accomplish this, the board hosts several all-girl STEM experiences, provides girls with opportunities to interact with women STEM role models, and gives families and educators the resources to support children’s interest in STEM. She has served as a mentor to many STEM students and professionals in the region.
Gerding earned a B.S. in chemical engineering at Ohio University. She is a licensed professional engineer in Kentucky and a certified project management professional.
Gerding is the first in her family to graduate college. Growing up in a rural community and a single-parent household, she seized education as her passport out of poverty, which informs her drive to share the power of STEM careers with others. Gerding lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband, Chris, and their 4-year-old daughter.