Women in Transport President, Jo Field, talks about her involvement with Women in Transport, setting up her own public affairs and stakeholder engagement consultancy and career within transport sector.
Jo Field
What is your role on the board?
President
How long have you been involved with Women in Transport?
I first joined the Board in 2015, when I was elected as External Relations Chair. After working with parliamentarians to start the first ever all-party parliamentary group for Women in Transport in 2016, I became the APPG lead. I was elected President in May 2021.
Why did you join Women in Transport?
I joined when I went back to work after having my two children. Sleep deprived with a baby and a young toddler I was looking for peers and role models I could turn to for support. I noticed the lack of gender balance in the transport sector and wanted to do something to tackle it. This sparked the campaigner in me and I used my public affairs expertise to drive forward the women in transport agenda and reach out to inspire young women to choose transport careers.
What do you enjoy most about being part of Women in Transport?
I love that I have helped us grow from a small network into a powerful movement for change.
But what I enjoy the most remains the same as the reason I joined Women in Transport almost 10 years ago, and that was to have the opportunity to build a network of women in a male-dominated sector.
Having that network and having those peers and role models you can turn to for support at any time is really important.
Current job title
Founder and Chief Executive of JFG Comms
What does your current job involve?
I'm the founder and chief executive of JFG Communications, a public affairs and stakeholder engagement consultancy that is helping the transport industry to decarbonise and diversify its workforce. We're a small team which means my job varies greatly from day to day. My role spans everything from providing strategic advice to our transport clients, to developing the business and leading our team.
What's the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is that I'm leading a business that I've created. It has a purpose that aligns with my own values and ethos, which is very important to me personally. I've built a culture of wellbeing and flexibility for our team and I enjoy mentoring and developing our people. Because we have a clear purpose, we are working on projects that I am passionate about which means I love every day of what I do.
How did you become involved in the transport industry?
By accident really. You can do public affairs roles in any sector but transport policy and public affairs is niche and specialist, so many of us public affairs professionals stay in the transport industry once we arrive here. I decided to specialise in transport after moving from the voluntary youth sector in 2007. Moving from the charity sector into transport wasn’t an obvious choice but I’m glad I made the move. I started my transport public affairs career with Transport for London (TfL), spending nearly a decade building and leading TfL's stakeholder engagement team and securing stakeholder support for London's transport infrastructure and the funding to deliver it. I started JFG in 2016 with a purpose to help the transport industry decarbonise and diversify its workforce.
What do you like about working in transport?
I love transport because it's about people. I studied social sciences because I was interested in people so I think I've landed in the right place. Transport connects people to jobs, opportunities, leisure activities, homes and communities. New transport infrastructure creates jobs and social benefits for communities. And I’m proud to be able to say I’m involved in making these projects happen. Public affairs professionals help to connect people and policymakers to shape better transport policy, and without effective public engagement and stakeholder advocacy, many new schemes would not go ahead.
What are you most proud of?
From a Women in Transport perspective it has to be working with parliamentarians to secure cross-party support to tackle the lack of gender balance in the transport workforce. This led to the formation of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Women in Transport.
However, from a general career perspective, I am massively proud of starting my own business. Public affairs is another male-dominated industry, so starting a transport public affairs agency means having to succeed in two male-dominated industries, not to mention the lack of female business founders in general. So I'm proud to have started and grown a successful consultancy over the past 7 years.
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