Roads Australia has officially unveiled its latest president to lead the organisation forward
Aneetha de Silva has been elected as president of Roads Australia (RA) at the organisation’s AGM in Sydney last week and will lead the next phase of RA’s modernisation.
De Silva is currently managing director of government Australia & New Zealand at Aurecon and has served as an RA board director for five years, including the past two years as vice president.
RA says she is a respected infrastructure executive with more than 25 years’ experience in both the government and private sectors in Australia, South Africa and the Asia Pacific.
As she assumes the presidency, de Silva is committed to ensuring RA plays a proactive leadership role driving the transport infrastructure sector’s move to decarbonise and in addressing workforce culture issues and stereotypes that currently impede its ability to attract a larger, more diverse talent pool.
“As Roads Australia’s first woman president, I’m excited about the opportunity to lift collaboration to address the local and global challenges we face, and increase the diversity of our sector,” de Silva says.
“Roads matter, and not just because they contribute more than $230 billion annually to Australia’s economy and employ 1.4 million people. The sector is integral to Australia’s productivity and connectivity.”
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“Roads Australia can play a powerful role in bringing people from different disciplines together to build the resilience of our sector and enable our economy and future generations to thrive and protect our precious Australian quality of life.”
“Through our membership, we have the opportunity to accelerate decarbonisation of the sector and become modern employers and workplaces of choice.”
“We need to be collaborative, to put users at the centre of the transport system and adopt a more diverse and inclusive approach to achieve these outcomes.”
RA has also elected its two vice presidents for the year ahead – Scott Olsen, CEO of Fredon and Silje Troseth, vice president APAC & general manager Australia, Q-Free ASA.