Panel Discussion: Women in Transportation

Emily Bobis, Co-Founder, Compass IoT 

Emily is a co-founder of Compass IoT, a multi-award-winning Road Intelligence company that uses Connected Vehicle data to build better, safer transport and city infrastructure. She has many years of experience operating tech-enabled mobility startups with a focus on vehicle-generated data and CAV-led innovation. Emily was also a finalist for NSW Young Women of the Year 2022 and winner of Women in Digital's Innovator of the year 2022. 

Kara Cheung, National Chair of WiLAT Australia 

Kara is a Chartered Fellow of CILTA and a Certified Professional Logistician with deep expertise in Asia-Pacific trade. Holding multiple professional qualifications, including a postgraduate certificate from the University of Sydney, she brings extensive experience in international logistics, supply chain management, and omni-channel solutions. A committed advocate for women's leadership, Kara actively nurtures emerging talent across the logistics, transport, and supply chain sectors. Through her collaboration with WiLAT and CILT, she works to drive meaningful impact for members, strengthen the industry, and support the communities it serves. 

Julie Gee, Expert, Transport Strategy, Planning, Policy and Research 

Julie has over 30 years' experience in the transport sector gained through a variety of planning, policy, advocacy and research roles across state and local government, consultancies, universities and the community sector. She has expertise in transport and land use planning and a strong personal interest in transport disadvantage. Until recently Julie led the Transport Strategy team in Transport for NSW whose accountabilities included setting the long-term vision for an integrated, user-centric transport system for NSW, creating guidelines and practical tools to support the implementation of this vision (including Movement & place), and place-based multimodal network strategies across NSW. She is now an independent consultant.

Sara Haider, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies

Sara is a PhD candidate at ITLS with a passion for efficient, sustainable, and equitable transport. As a Civil Engineer at Transport for NSW, she has contributed to several transport infrastructure projects across planning, design, and construction phases. At ITLS, Sara draws on her enthusiasm for research, engineering, and sustainability to develop behaviour- driven solutions for active transport infrastructure.