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PEOPLE
Kate Kenny, senior vice president and general manager, People & Places Solutions Europe, Jacobs, has been named Inspirational Woman of the Year at the recent Women in Rail Awards. She shares her story
Inspirational woman of the year K
ate Kenny was given two options when it came to a career after studying Pure Maths at Royal Holloway, University of London: a teacher or an accountant. Neither appealed and after a short while spent working in bars and clubs in Brighton, she had an opportunity as a transport consultant, something that met the aspirations for what she wanted to achieve. “I wanted a job that could have a tangible impact on the world,” she said. “Working in bars and clubs wasn’t an obvious initial career step for a mathematician, but
it was great fun as I enjoyed being customer-facing, and it gave me a great grounding in working with diverse people and handling difficult situations.” Kate was invited to interview for a large engineering firm and accepted a job as a graduate transport consultant. There, she worked on all kinds of projects including analysis of the implementation of London’s congestion charging scheme, European cross-border traffic data exchange, modelling travel to airports and reviewing the impact of the government’s 10-year plan for transport.
“AECOM, or FaberMaunsell as it was known at the time, was looking for someone numerate to do transport modelling, examining demand and choice models of how people choose to travel and that covered various rail systems and planning for the future of rail,” she said. “Although I rather fell into the transport industry, I was always really focused on the kinds of outcomes I wanted to deliver through my work, and it is certainly something that transportation and the rail industry offers.
August 2023
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