Development Diaries – Episode 8 – Baerbel Schuett (Founding Director of be.haus)

Baerbel Schuett’s career is quite the rollercoaster.

She set out for a career in a trade in Germany, ended up training as an architect instead, then took a leap to South Africa as a site architect – where a stalled project, a few sliding doors moments, and a fair bit of grit led her into construction management.

She was often the only woman on site, managing teams of men twice her size, and won them over not by shouting louder, but by treating people with respect. That instinct never left her. A move to the UK for love (not a job) saw her drift into project management almost by accident, before residential development found her – and she never looked back.

Thirteen years at London & Newcastle followed, joining right before the global financial crisis and helping rebuild the business from the ground up, working with everyone from pension funds to housing associations. What really comes through in this chat is that Baerbel doesn’t measure her career in buildings – she measures it in people. The proudest moments she shares aren’t planning consents or completed schemes, they’re the messages from people years later telling her she changed the course of their career.

She’s refreshingly honest about hesitation too – admitting there were times in her personal life and in starting her own business where she knew something wasn’t right and stayed anyway. Baerbel shines a light on what actually makes someone exceptional in development, how to position yourself for a board seat, and where she thinks the next big opportunities lie. A brilliant, honest conversation with someone who’s built a career – and a reputation – on backing people.

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