What is your role on the board?
Past President

How long have you been involved with Women in Transport?
Thirteen Years

Why did you join Women in Transport?
I was senior manager grade and I knew that I wanted to progress in my career but didn't know 'how.' I was lucky enough to have a brilliant sponsor and manager at the time with my previous employer Mace. He suggested that I connected with, what was then, WTS International London Chapter. I went along to my first meeting (heavily pregnant!). It was a stroke of genius as it gave me the opportunity to connect with a group of very bright people who collectively has a lot of experience navigating the world of early years parenting and working at the same time. The voluntary work was a perfect way to bridge the gap between maternity leave and the working world. 13 years later many of these brilliant people are still very much with me on that journey and lifelong friends having been there at such a formative stage of the parenting journey.

What do you enjoy most about being part of Women in Transport?
There are so many things that I enjoy about Women in Transport.. so I have picked my top 3! I have made life long friends with a common interest. I love knowing that I can go to work related events and have friendly faces there already to give me confidence and a spring board to meet more! I know I am contributing to a better world for the next generation; more women in transport means more inclusive transport networks and choices. I can boost my career doing something fun.. My company Turner & Townsend and my previous employers have been hugely supportive of my women in transport journey so why not ask if yours can do the same?

Current job title
Surface Mobility Lead - Turner & Townsend

What does your current job involve?
I work for the Global Professional Services Company, Turner & Townsend. My role as UK Surface Mobility Lead means driving the strategy for UK Road and Rail Opportunities for the business in the UK. It also means proving Transport related insight to our teams and clients from knowledge gained on all our brilliant project and programmes. On a day to day basis that translates into a a wide range of interesting projects from identifying opportunities to working with clients to deliver better social value outcomes across the sector to helping to the set the future look of Surface Transport for the company, winning work and continuously improving performance.

What's the best thing about your job?
Being a UK role I get to travel around a lot, meeting lots of different clients to understand their challenges and insights about the Industry. I also look after a huge community of road and rail professionals and my role involves helping them to collaborate and share their insight and knowledge. The one thing we all have in common is our passion for better integrated Transport and nothing quite beats a good old chat about how we can do that better or sharing our holiday train pictures with each other!

How did you become involved in the transport industry?
As, unfortunately, so many say.. it was by accident. With a business degree in my bag I had come out to the job market looking for a role in banking or insurance. I worked in both for a while.. not really finding my pace. Then I packed my bags with a friend and travelled a bit. To pay for my escapades I got an agency job working for Infraco JNP.. I loved it! When I came back I secured a perm role with Network Rail, where I had a brilliant role spending five years in the business improvement community that gave me a whistle stop tour across the whole design, build and operate lifecycle of the train network. I never left Transport and it is now my personal mission to make sure that it is not a career that you get into by 'accident.' It is fulfilling and rewarding and should absolutely be at the top of the list for any business graduate looking to deploy their skill set.

What do you like about working in transport?
I find this question so interesting, for years this has been a real challenge for me to answer and something that over the next few years as an Industry whole we need to get much better at articulating. I used to say.. it's the people.. I love the people.. which is very true. However, I can't imagine there are any Industries that are full of people that aren't nice! So it must be more than that.. growing up in South East London, I have been lucky enough to witness the transformation to he environment and economy that well connected Transport can bring and my role allows me to make a huge contribution to making sure that the capabilities, skills and knowledge from that transformation are shared right across the UK and beyond.

What are you most proud of?
It goes without saying that I am unbelievably proud of my entire family.. they all make me smile every day and there have been lots of amazing milestones along the journey so far working on some really iconic schemes and especially becoming president of this amazing organisation.. but the thing that I am most proud of is just keeping going, coming this far and being kind to myself a long the way. That can be really challenging in a world that continually dials up the delivery of perfection as a basic expectation - especially the impact that has on women.

Annual membership of Women in Transport is £60 per year providing access to professional development and networking opportunities. We very much welcome guest blogs from our members - a great way to share the incredible diversity of opportunity in transport, raise your profile and connect with our community. Join us today.

Follow us @transportwm on Twitter, on Linkedin at Women in Transport and at @transportwmn on Instagram for events, news and updates.