The ATS’s Diversity in Tunnelling team were thrilled with the support of the industry for their event to mark International Women’s Day last week. The audience was diverse with an equal mix of genders, ages and many different cultures represented.

In his opening address, Derek Pennington from the ATS Diversity in Tunnelling sub-group, said it was great to see such a varied mix of professionals in attendance and particularly to see so many early career women represented.

The evening’s speakers were both women working in senior roles in the tunnelling industry with a combined 40 years’ experience between them. Nina Kilpinen is the Managing Director at Seed Engineering Australia and Iris Yim is a Lead Engineering Geologist at Aurecon.

Nadine Makin, Chair of Diversity in Tunnelling, says their talks were excellent and highlighted the diverse routes they had taken in their careers, as well as some of the barriers they had faced as women working in this male dominated industry.

Nina, for example, had worked extensively in Australia growing a solid network to find different opportunities; while Iris spoke more about her passion for the technical side of things and how she loved to dive deeply into technical pursuits. Iris also brought an international perspective, having started her career in Hong Kong and then New Zealand before moving to Sydney.

“What was wonderful to hear was that both Iris and Nina spoke to the amount of positive change, in terms of diversity, they’d seen over the course of their careers,” says Nadine.

Andrew Ridout is the National Project Manager at the ATS and agrees that the event was a huge success. “It was great to hear Iris and Nina talk about their achievements and how they had approached their careers. The Q&A session and networking opportunity afterwards was lively, engaging and very valuable too,” he says.

“My main takeaway was that while there has been excellent progress, there is still plenty of work to be done and that’s why I’m so happy that ATS has such a thriving Diversity sub group focused specifically on the topic.”

One of the most exciting programs currently underway is the Diversity in Tunnelling Mentoring Program which has generated a real buzz and level of interest that Nadine says have exceeded her expectations. More news coming on this soon, so watch this space!

Story published 16 March 2023