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A new chapter for Heriot-Watt University
We welcome our new Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nola Hewitt-Dundas
WRONG TEXT ON THIS PAGE: With Jenna Robertson, engineer, opera singer, and regenerative leader
Scottish-born alum, Jenna Robertson, has had a fascinating global career encompassing a trajectory from engineering project management and leadership in the energy sector to internationally award-winning singing, writing, directing and filmmaking. For seventeen years she worked as an arts and culture executive in Australia before founding her own leadership and culture development business, Gaia's Evolution.
Our Q&A explores how Jenna forged this remarkable career pathway and successfully merged her creative and scientific sensibilities. We also find out how she became a powerlifter and recently pulled a 12-tonne truck!
There can’t be many Chartered Chemical Engineers who become opera singers: can you tell us a little about these dual interests and how you transitioned from one to the other?
“When I was studying my MEng in Chemical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University I had received a singing scholarship for the duration of my studies, which provided tuition and performance opportunities. When I first began singing classically, I was a concert performer. I didn’t see an opera till my early twenties, when I was already working as an engineer, and I was blown away by the electrifying combination of theatre and music. My endless curiosity about it eventually turned into a career move.
I worked internationally in oil and gas for 10 years as a Chartered Chemical Engineer – in Russia, UK, Australia, Netherlands, and USA for multinationals Chevron and Shell – and had world-class leadership and project management experience during that time. When I left engineering to take the plunge as a full time soprano and arts executive, I had already performed ten major roles, won the Australian Concerto and Vocal competition, and had been running an opera company for four years.”
Your career has many spokes to it: are you able to give us a quick summary?
“My 20+ year career has spanned engineering innovation leadership, executive leadership in arts and culture, founding and growing an arts not-for-profit, doctoral research in regenerative leadership, and award-winning artistic practice which encompassed over three decades on stage and creation of many new works, including shows with planetariums merging science and the arts.
After training in coaching and running a regenerative leadership and creativity coaching business for five years, the natural next step was launching my leadership and culture development business, Gaia’s Evolution.”
Can you tell us more about how your business, Gaia’s Evolution, has brought together all the different strands of your career?
“I feel that every chapter of my diverse path has given me an ingredient for what I am now doing. I began in chemical engineering designing and optimising conditions for material transformation, managing complex systems, leading innovation and translating theory into real-world practical applications. Then in the arts, I learned another art of transformation through the creative process, where I focused on both creating the conditions for this to happen for others and embodying it myself. These two career paths led to an integration of art and science in my mind, body and work.
Now, I apply this integrated transformation practice and systems thinking to human transformation. I’ve worked with leaders – especially founders, CEOs and executives – in Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, UK, Nigeria and USA. The work takes many forms: one-to-one leadership coaching, leadership programmes, circles and workshops, keynotes, creative facilitation, and team and culture transformation projects.
Underpinning it all is a knowing that we need a new understanding of how business operates; a shift beyond an economic lens to an approach that includes human health, community impact, social and cultural regeneration, and the health of the natural world. Evolving a new kind of business case is hard. Leading ethically into the future requires a different awareness of self and systems and that involves a courageous leap. Gaia’s Evolution supports leaders and their organisations to make that leap.”
Meeting staff at Heriot-Watt University.
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In 2025 you began powerlifting, and earlier this year, you pulled a 12-tonne truck: could you tell us a little about this extraordinary strength journey?
“I wouldn't feel authentic encouraging my clients to be courageous and step into their highest potential if I didn't also do the same. While I have navigated many challenges in my career, getting into powerlifting was about challenging my perceptions of my physical body, and my mindset, about what I could achieve. I started on my strength journey after a period of not feeling great physically and mentally. I’ve loved the combination of the physical challenge, the performative aspect of competitions, and the community connection of strength sports—and it links me back to the physical strength of my Scottish ancestors. The truck pull was something I thought I wasn’t strong enough to do, but I could.”
Could you tell us a little about the impact of the global dimension of your career?
“I have lived and worked all over the world over the last 20 years and continue to work with clients in multiple different continents. Most memorable and impactful for me has been the time I have spent with Aboriginal Elders on several different lands around the Australian continent. The generosity of these cultural leaders has enabled a lot of the powerful skills that I hold now in my current work. My company, Gaia’s Evolution, is named after the creative life force of the planet: Gaia is a word for the Earth that merges science and arts, which reflects the way that I work and see things through my global cultural experiences.”
What was important and memorable for you as a student at Heriot-Watt, and why stay connected??
“I loved how I could be intensely engaged in both engineering studies and in music. I am proud of my academic and music achievements from my time at Heriot-Watt. As a chemical engineering graduate, I won the Salters Graduate Prize – a national leadership award for Chemical Engineering graduate, while on the music side I developed my arts practice beyond singing into composing as well. I was invited by Steve King, former Head of Music at Heriot-Watt to compose a choral work for the Heriot-Watt Chorale Excelsior in 2003; they recently performed it again, twice, in 2025, which was wonderful. After living abroad and being a migrant for so many years, it feels nourishing to stay connected with Heriot-Watt in a long-term relationship and it’s on Scottish lands.”
You shared some of your experience and regenerative thinking with our alumni network in 2025. What was that like for you?
“I was delighted to speak and bring a regenerative leadership lens to the Future Ready series for the University’s alumni network, which is co-curated by the Careers and Alumni teams. The session focused on Impostor Phenomenon and strategies for career confidence. It was wonderful to collaborate with Associate Professor Dr Lucy Bolton, an organisational psychologist based at Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus, on the development of the content and experience, and quite special to reconnect with the University that I had graduated from almost twenty years earlier.”
Sharing your story can be powerful and inspiring for our global Heriot-Watt community.
Could you tell us about your journey since graduating? Please get in touch: watt.club@hw.ac.uk
Learn more about Jenna and her career: www.gaiasevolution.com www.jennarobertson.com
