She can build it, yes she can
Cindy Oliver, the winner of the 2024 UDIA SA Women in Leadership award, says women are inherently good at urban development because “it is about making communities”.
GREENHILL principal engineer Cindy Oliver has spent the last 20 years contributing to the improvement and creation of communities across Adelaide, while also helping to change the face of engineering in the state.
The UDIA SA Women in Leadership Award, sponsored by Finlaysons Lawyers, recognises women working in mid to senior roles within the South Australian urban development sector and associated industry.
The judges recognised Oliver as a “confident, intelligent and articulate professional, who contributes immensely to her team and [the] industry”.
Both a witting and unwitting role model, she has spent the majority of her career as the only woman in the room.
“Being a female in the male dominated [engineering] industry has definitely been a challenge … it’s been hard to break that barrier,” Oliver said and added that sometimes there were perceptions that her technical abilities were limited by her gender.
“I’ve had to speak out, be more assertive and more direct – and those are not my natural qualities, so I had to learn all of that,” she said.
Oliver said she has been “very fortunate to have the unwavering support” of GREENHILL director Monish Bhindi throughout her career, having joined him as the company’s first employee in 2004.
“I’ve had a great experience, being part of something that’s grown from nothing into something quite significant.”
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Today, around half of the engineering team at GREENHILL are women.
“We are certainly bucking the trend … it’s fantastic and I like to think I have helped with that,” Oliver said.
She has mentored “a lot” of her company’s graduate engineers over the last 20 years, including many who migrated to Australia to work in the field.
“The mentoring you receive and give is very important – so for those who have been in the industry for a while, the mentoring you afford to others is really valuable,” she said.
With the engineering profession, and STEM professions in general, suffering from a ‘leaky pipeline’, Oliver’s own mentors have all been men.
“We have a lot of people in our team at GREENHILL who have been in the industry for 40-plus years [and] have helped me along the way, as have connections I’ve made through the UDIA,” she said.
“They have graciously given their time to explain things to me, to help me, to listen to me, to support me, to develop my career in each area, whether it be technical or human resources or management.”
Outside of the industry, last year Oliver cofounded GLUT1 Deficiency Australia to provide education and support to families whose children who have the genetic condition that impairs brain metabolism.
Oliver’s 7-year-old son was diagnosed five years ago and her long-term goal is to take a great role in advocacy to support the community.
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“A lot of children go undiagnosed for a significant amount of time, which is detrimental as the earlier they’re diagnosed, the more beneficial treatment can be,” she said.
Motivated by the various technical challenges facing the urban development industry in South Australia, she also sits on UDIA SA’s infrastructure committee.
She is one of four women in the committee of 18 and said there needs to be more work done before girls leave school to boost the number of women in STEM careers.
“Explain to women what the career progression or opportunities are when you leave school … and, for lack of a better word, make these industries ‘sexy’,” she said.
“Nowadays, a lot of lawyers are female; TV shows have depicted women in those roles as very strong women and that has helped get girls to think about it as a career.”
Urban development has a higher proportion of women than engineering, and Oliver pointed to “great women leaders”, including Sharyn Chadwick, Helen Dyer, Anita Allen and Maria Palumbo, who are all previous recipients of the UDIA SA Women in Leadership award.
“I’ve known lots of other women, but I’m not working with them all the time or directly,” Oliver said.
“There’s not a lot of women in the field that I practice in daily, and even when I’m going to meetings or in contact with external organisations, there’s still not a lot of female representation.
“But I’ve noticed in the last couple of years that has had a significant shift [and] that’s really positive.”
Oliver believes women are naturally predisposed to working in urban development, because “it is about making communities”.
“We can bring all of those elements of urban development together into what makes a good community and supports family,” she said.
Her message for other women looking to have a career in engineering or urban development is they should recognise that there are no limitations to their abilities.
“Any limitations are set by others, so women should be brave and take that step forward.”
Oliver is now eligible to be recognised among her peers across Australia as she is shortlisted for the 2025 UDIA National Awards for Excellence to be held in Brisbane in March 2025.
See the full list of the 2024 UDIA SA Awards for Excellence winners here.
