Leading WSP’s Rail, Maritime and Freight team in New South Wales, Stuart is passionate about ensuring an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace by being an informed and supportive leader. He is focused on reducing his own bias in recruitment and in developing the career pathways and progressions across his team.
Stuart is leading a group within WSP called Men Advocating Real Change (MARC) that is bringing awareness and challenging diversity of thought in men in helping them to promote inclusion, diversity and equality in their teams and at WSP. Last month the group talked about supporting team members returning from parental leave.
“We shared ideas about how as managers, we can help make the transition smoother and gentler for working parents. It is a stressful period with lots of juggling, and we have a responsibility to support our people in balancing work and life. It's conversations like that which, little by little can move the needle, creating more supportive environments and teams.” he says.
Having left school at 16 to become a technician, he spent time backpacking around Australia, before returning to the UK to start a career in Rail Engineering. It was a career path that he deeply enjoyed, and it’s eventually what brought his family back to Australia from the UK, where he worked with Sydney Trains, as they were known then.
As Stuart was working his way up the ranks of rail engineering, eventually moving into design management, he noticed his wife facing challenges in her career that he didn’t. He noted, “My wife seemed to overcome more hurdles than me in her career, whereas for me, it more often ‘just happened’. She’s had things said to her that wouldn't be said to me. She's much more capable than I am as an engineer, and she's got to where she's got to with real determination, but she had to persevere through it in a way I never did.”
Being with WSP in Australia for over 15 years, he’s primarily worked on projects with Sydney Metro and progressed into leadership roles.
“Sam McWilliam, Director of Rail, Maritime & Freight is an incredible woman in our industry and my long-time manager. She has been a sponsor of mine and has always been the one to push me further in my career, which has helped me enormously. I try to do that with my team whenever I can. If I've got a graduate in my team who wants to take their career in a specific direction, I’ll do what I can to make that happen and see them grow” says Stuart.
A critical part of creating more inclusion, diversity and equality in engineering is women in leadership. “People need to see that there is a path to leadership and see people like them in positions they might aspire to. In Rail, we are incredibly lucky to have Sam McWilliam as the national director for Australia. Sam is a mentor to me in my career, and someone I look up to as well.”
