About BE-WISE

Cristina Savian: helping the built environment decide what comes next

Engineer, technologist, strategist and educator. Advising the built environment since 1998, and working on what it becomes next.

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Cristina Savian

Founder and CEO, BE-WISE

Cristina Savian is the Founder and CEO of BE-WISE. She works where the physical world of buildings and infrastructure meets technology, strategy and commercial value.

She started as a building and land surveyor in Italy in 1998. Her career took her through transport and major events, including the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and into global technical and commercial leadership roles at a multinational technology company. She founded BE-WISE in 2018.

Today she helps leaders see which innovations will actually bring value, and turn them into strategy, new services, new products and new markets. Her clients range from global engineering firms and asset owners to construction technology companies, across the Middle East, the UK and Europe, North America and China.

She has taught at the University of Hong Kong, in the UK and in Australia, and co-authored the IET and RICS papers on digital twins, whose thinking has informed national frameworks in India, Australia, the UK and Scotland. Her book, Built for Value, asks one question of every innovation: does it bring value?

We do not sell software. We help the built environment decide what comes next, and make it pay.

Qualifications

Executive MBA
Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
- Dissertation: Tackling Gender Diversity in the Construction Industry
- Primavera Prize winner
- Lifetime member, Emmanuel College
- Lifetime member, Cambridge Union
MSc Transport and Business Management
Imperial College London and UCL, joint degree
- Dissertation: London-wide transport GIS
Economics and Commerce, environmental specialisation
University of Turin, Italy
- 110/110 summa cum laude (first class)
- Dissertation: Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Mobility, the Greenwich Peninsula in London
- Premio Optime winner, 2008
- Leonardo da Vinci bursary winner, 2006
Licensed Building and Land Surveyor
Collegio dei Geometri di Torino, Italy
- Land surveying, ITG Castellamonte, 1998
- Where her career began

Certifications

Professional Executive Coach
Institute of Coaching, McLean, Harvard Medical School affiliate
Human-Centred Design practitioner
LUMA Institute
PRINCE2 Practitioner
Programme and project management
Information Management Practitioner, BIM ISO 19650
Operam Academy
Blockchain Technology
University of California, Berkeley
Kanban System Design
Kanban University
Generative AI for Everyone, AI Prompting for Everyone and Agentic AI
DeepLearning.AI
AI Fluency, AI Capabilities and Limitations, and Building Effective Human Agent Teams
Claude Academy, Anthropic

Memberships, boards and working groups

Digital Twin Lead, Built Environment PanelInstitution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK2018 to 2021
Asset Management Technical Working GroupAustralasian BIM Advisory Board, Australia2019 to 2021
International Ambassadornima (formerly UK BIM Alliance)2022 to 2024
Digital Twins International Working GroupDUET and CRUNCH, Centre for Digital Built Britain and IET2020
MemberDigital Twin Consortium, US2020 to 2021
National Workgroup for the Digital Built and Legal EnvironmentAustralia2019 to 2020
Business Case LeadUK BIM Alliance2018
Executive BoardGlobal Women in Tech2017 to 2019
Technical CommitteeGeoBusiness Exhibition and Conference, UK2014 to 2017
Member and MentorChartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, UK2007 to 2017

Speaking, chairing and judging

Cristina Savian is a globally sought-after voice in the built environment sector.

She is available for keynote speaking, panel chairing, moderating and presenting at international conferences. Cristina is also available as a judge for leading industry awards.

Thought leadership portfolio Book Cristina as a speaker

Property Technology Festival, Dubai, 2023

Cristina brings a rare blend of strategic insight, technical expertise, and the ability to turn complex ideas into practical, high-impact solutions. She is collaborative, forward-thinking, and consistently inspires the teams and organisations she works with.

Sara GuinandDigital Engineering and Construction

I’ve known Cristina for a decade and she continually impresses with her passion for the built environment and technology’s role in efficiency and sustainability. A trusted thought leader in digital twins, she combines deep industry insight with practical, results-driven vision.