THE Australasian Railway Association has appointed four new members to its Young Leaders Advisory Board and two reserve members. The new appointees are:

  • Jane Gillespie, senior consultant of Arup
  • Josh Steed, team lead of SNC Lavalin
  • Melanie Bowden, area manager of CPB Contractors
  • Alexander Davies, project manager of the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Two reserve members have been appointed:  Tahni Littlejohn, systems analyst manager of Transport Canberra and City Services and Karthik Krishna Kumar, project manager of Bombardier.

The new appointments join the following four continuing Y-LAB members:

  • Liam O’Shannessy, general manager commercial, Major Projects of Downer
  • Jessica Ghaleb, engineer – track and civil of Jacobs
  • Neysa Arland, control communications manager of Transdev
  • Abdul Jamal, interface manager, Waterloo Station of John Holland.

The eight person Y-LAB provides advice and proposals to the ARA board to better harness the ideas of young workers, provide a voice for and champion the industry’s younger demographic.

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“I’m delighted to see the second generation of Y-LAB appointed,” said ARA chair and acting CEO Danny Broad.

“The Inaugural Y-LAB made a big impact last year, giving us some clear direction on how to attract a younger workforce, participating in the ARA Board’s Strategy Day to develop our 2019-24 strategic plan and many other key contributions.”

The first meeting of Y-LAB for 2020 is to take place on 3 March in Sydney, hosted by Arup. Y-LAB is supported by ARA Board members; Julian Sharp of CPB Contractors, Anna Squire of Arup and Leah Waymark of Metro Trains Australia.