The Hub

Listen in as Roads Australia’s 2023 PPP Award Winner, Fiona McDonald, discusses findings from her research report “Innovation: An Emerging Leader’s Perspective”.In 2023, Fiona was awarded the PPP Award, which recognises an emerging leader who displays the values of promise, passion, and pursuit.In this podcast, she is joined by Alex Berry from McConnell Dowell and Craig Hugo of GHD, who both participated in her research to support the development of the final report.Fiona works for Transport for NSW in the role of Senior Manager Industry Affairs & Partnerships, Industry Engagement & Development, Infrastructure & Place.

Listen in for the second episode of our two-part series focusing on the economic empowerment of women in the transport sector in the lead-up to International Women’s Day.In this episode, you’ll hear from Tricia Malowney OAM  – Chief Accessibility Advocate at Victoria's Department of Transport and Planning, among many other roles. Tricia shares incredible insights from a lifetime of advocacy and the importance of creating transport networks that are accessible for individuals with a disability and representative of the society in which they operate.

Listen in for the first of a two-part series focusing on the economic empowerment of women in the transport sector in the lead-up to International Women’s Day.In this episode, you’ll hear from Heather Jones – Founder of Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls Group. Heather is living this year’s IWD theme of economic empowerment every day, providing incredible opportunities for women in the transport sector and drawing on her incredible story to support women grasp new opportunities.

In this episode of The Hub hear from Peter Dourlein Global Asset Management Director, Arcadis, as he discusses all things asset management with Verity Turner, Environment and Planning Director, Transurban and Deputy Chair of RA's Future Leaders Committee.Peter's passion for a more sustainable transport future shines through as he outlines how our industry can do more with less in a tough economic environment.

November 9 marked Road Worker Day of Remembrance, an opportunity to reflect on and pay tribute to those who have lost their lives while working on our road network.Roads Australia is proud to support this initiative, as a principal partner of the Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) Group and we remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting measures that lead to improved safety outcomes for road workers.With this recent date in mind and the launch of the Australian Work Zone Memorial by the Traffic Management Association of Australia, now is a timely opportunity to share some snippets from our panel discussion on road safety at our Transport Summit held in Sydney earlier this year.The panel discussion was moderated by James Pennings, Chief Commercial Officer at Altus.You’ll also hear from:-          Matthew Bereni, CEO, Traffic Management Association of Australia-          Lee Vossen, Traffic Manager – Sydney Gateway Project, Seymour Whyte -          Jane Rotsey, General Manager – Health Safety and Environment, Transurban

Listen in to this exciting new episode of The Hub and hear from Jose Luis Blasco – Global CEO, ACCIONA Carbon Technologies.Following the recent launch of the Infrastructure Net Zero Initiative, Independent Chair, Nicole Lockwood, sat down with Jose Luis when he was in Australia recently to discuss all things infrastructure decarbonisation, from carbon pricing, lessons from across Europe and the opportunities to shape a more sustainable transport future.This is a great chance to hear firsthand from a global sustainability leader with extensive experience driving decarbonisation across the world.

Decarbonising transport is a crucial part of Australia's journey to a zero-emission future. In this episode hear from GHD Queensland Market Leader Mia Barnard about the opportunities and solutions available to work towards this goal in the future.Alongside Mia, GHD Fleet Decarbonisation Lead, Rippan Bhattacharjee, discusses the challenges faced with the decarbonisation of heavy vehicles and GHD's fleet decarbonisation efforts in Canada.

In December 2022, RA released the Procurement Reform Report Update: Momentum for a sustainable transport sectorThis summary of a panel discussion at RA's 2023 Transport Summit includes perspectives from both government and industry that highlight progress on procurement reform to date. Panellists discussed the current economic climate and how governments, industry and the community can get the best possible return from transport infrastructure projects.Speakers in this episode:- Scott Olson, CEO, Fredon- Kay Salvair Smith, Managing Director, Fusion Advisory- Don Johnson, Chief Operating Officer and Executive General Manager – NSW Civil and Rail / Tunnelling / Major Projects, CPB Contractors- Camilla Drover, Deputy Secretary – Infrastructure and Place, Transport for NSW

We’re excited to bring you this podcast featuring RA's inspiring 2022 and 2023 Emerging Leader PPP winners. This annual award is presented to a leader who displays the values of Promise, Passion and Pursuit within the transport industry.In this episode you'll hear from:- 2022 PPP Award Winner: John Hallam, Associate Director - Infrastructure Advisory Group- 2023 PPP Award Winner: Fiona McDonald, Senior Manager Inter Government Relations, Industry Engagement & Development, Infrastructure & Place - Transport for NSWThe recipient of the PPP award, generously sponsored by CPB Contractors, has the opportunity to engage in a 12-month industry ambassador experience, observing and understanding how leaders interact and make decisions while playing an integral role in the growth and development of the Emerging Leaders Program, crucial in highlighting the amazing opportunities across the transport sector and promoting the industry as a career of choice. 

This episode is the second in our series of panel discussion summaries from RA’s Transport Summit held earlier in the year.This episode is focused on sustainability and the opportunities that exist to utilise circular economy principles across the transport and infrastructure sectors, while also considering potential policy shifts to continue supporting the decarbonisation journey of the industry.Speakers:- Nicole Neal, Chief Executive – Australia, Tonkin + Taylor- Alexandra Monson, Group Manager – Sustainability, Ventia- Bede Noonan, Chief Executive Officer, ACCIONA Australia- Joan Ko, Principal | Climate & Sustainability Leader – Australasia, Arup

As part of RA’s Transport Summit five panel discussions were held on some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the transport industry.We are excited to share snippets of these informative discussions, with leaders in their respective fields bouncing ideas off one another, sharing innovative ideas and highlighting the opportunities that exist across the transport sector.In his episode, we’ll bring you some of the perspectives that were shared in the first of these panel discussions, “Convergence: How decarbonisation drives transport productivity," made possible thanks to the support of Arup.Speakers:- Alex Borg, Principal & Highways Leader Australasia, Arup- Silje Troseth, Vice President APAC & General Manager – Australia , Q-Free ASA- Simon Swan, Global Solutions Director – New Mobility, Arcadis- Rita Excell, Head of Transport ANZ, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Data offers a world of opportunity to underpin the delivery of transport services that are more aligned with customer experiences. When it comes to the management of transport infrastructure and assets, data is a powerful tool that lets us plan and deliver those activities more effectively. However, all of this relies on interoperability. If systems can’t ‘talk’ to each other, we will miss out on productivity, safety and customer experience benefits.And that’s where data standards come in.To talk about why they matter, how they can help and some of the work Austroads has been doing to prepare and now implement a data standard for the national road network, RA is joined by Dr Sarah Jones, who is Project Director for the implementation of Austroads’ Road Asset Data Standard (RADS).You can learn more about RADS and its associated knowledge sharing platform hereAnd if you missed Dr. Sarah Jones' recent article in RA Insider, it's also available on our website

Decarbonisation is at the forefront of plenty of design conversations in the transport sector today. But there are still some industry participants unsure of where and how to get started, because they don't feel they have the right tools to start driving change in the way they do business.  Following on from his recent article in RA Insider, we're joined by Ken Lunty, Technical Director, Arcadis Australia and his colleague Nicole Liang to explore implementing a holistic approach to embedding decarbonisation into the design process. 

Recently, RA held a series of networking events in all state capitals in support of International Women's Day 2023 and its theme, embrace equity.In this episode, we're bringing you some of the perspectives that were shared by our keynote speakers and panel members at those events.This is not an exhaustive representation of everything that was said by every speaker at every event. Rather, we're hoping to provide listeners with a snapshot of some different views and ideas put forward about what industry can do to better support women and create a more welcoming workforce environment. 

RA sits down for a conversation with Belinda Virant, Managing Director – Transportation, Arcadis Australia.Belinda discusses how her own career journey and perspectives are fueling her passion for creating a more sustainable transport sector and enhancing workforce culture.You can also listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

This episode spotlights a case competition hosted by RA member SYSTRA ANZ for University of NSW students, in partnership with the UNSW Women in Engineering Society.Meet some of those involved in this year's competition - as competitors, as organisers and as judges. Learn how taking part in the competition has provided students with mentoring opportunities that have helped them as they embark on their own careers in engineering. You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

We chat with our two most recent PPP Award winners about their career backgrounds, the importance of mentoring and their priorities for change in the industry.Rezarta Rushitaj, Principal Highways Engineer and ANZ Technical Practice Leader – Highways, AECOM and John Hallam, Business Development Lead, Laing O’Rourke joined us to discuss what motivates them in their roles, how they have leaned on mentors to help them navigate challenges over the course of their careers and explore ways our industry needs to change in order to be more welcoming to those from more diverse backgrounds and life experiences.

Attracting and retaining the best pool of talent relies on our industry supporting its workforce and empowering people to be the best they can be in all facets of their life. Encouraging flexible work practices is an essential element of this - and directions around flexibility come from the top down. Seeing senior executives within an organisation ‘practice what they preach’ around flexible working is an important aspect of driving cultural change and providing assurance to teams that it’s ‘OK’ to avail themselves of these options.To explore these issues and set out how senior industry leaders can support flexible work practices, RA's Marlie Curtis sat down with Kelly Maslin, Vice President and Executive Director Operations – People and place Solutions, Delivery – New Zealand and South East Australia, Jacobs; Cathal O’Rourke, Managing Director, Laing O’Rourke and John Galvin, Executive Vice President – APAC, Clough. 

In late 2020, Roads Australia sat down with Camilla Drover, Head of Commercial, Performance and Strategy - Infrastructure & Place at Transport for NSW and Kay Salvair Smith, Capacity Policy Stream Deputy Chair, RA and Partner at MinterEllison Consulting, to talk through some of the significant procurement reform initiatives being undertaken in NSW. This is part of a continuing conversation that RA is leading nationally through our Procurement Reform Report about the changes we need to make to procurement practices that will allow industry to get the best use of its resources and its people, while also ensuring that the community derives maximum benefit from transport infrastructure projects. 

In the first of our Future Leaders podcasts aimed at the next generation of industry leaders, we ask two senior industry figures about the decision-making processes they went through when facing the inevitable question: when is a career move the right move?