Madeleine McManus OAM
Chief Executive Officer | Centre for Professional Engineering Education and Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE)
"If you have the passion, smarts and drive to do something, your gender or background should not be a barrier to achievement.”
Current Positions
- Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Professional Engineer Education and Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE)
- Global Director, Robogals
- Co-Chair, SPARC Hub Industry Advisory Board
- Director, Business Licensing Authority (BLA), Victoria
- Co-Chair, National Future Cities Taskforce
- Co-Chair Pavement Research Industry Advisory Board (SPARC)
- Industry Advisory Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI)
Previous Positions
- Director of Industry Engagement, Monash University
- Founding Director, Monash Industry Team Initiative (MITI), Monash University
- Chair, Engineers Australia, Victorian Division
- National Board Director, Engineers Australia
- Chair, Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics
- Member, Victorian Advanced Manufacturing Council
- Board Member, Monash University Engineering and IT Foundation
- Member, Swinburne University Engineering Course Advisory
- Member, Victorian Advanced Manufacturing Council
- Chair, College of Engineering Leadership & Management
- Member, Veski Postdoctoral Scholarship Committee
- Member, National Advisory Women in Science
- Member, Advisory for Office of Projects, Victoria
- Member, World Engineering Congress Committee for Australia
Career Snapshot
Madeleine McManus OAM is a leader in engineering and education and her work over the past 25+ years has significantly strengthened the Australian transport industry’s innovation culture. She is a role model, champions diversity and is a passionate promoter of careers within STEM.
Madeleine is committed to connecting industry and academia, giving students access to real world/real time projects and industry access to innovation hubs and the latest research.
Madeleine is CEO of the Centre for Professional Engineering Education and Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE), a nationally registered higher education learning and teaching provider offering post graduate qualifications in the fields of Pavement Engineering and Infrastructure Asset Management. She is Global Director of Robogals, Director of the Victorian Business Licensing Authority (BLA) - where she has oversight of the Victorian Professional Engineering Registration Scheme - and Co-Chair of the National Future Cities Taskforce.
Previously, Madeleine was Director of Industry Engagement and Founding Director of the multi award winning global program Monash Industry Team Initiative (MITI) for Monash University, the first female Chair of Engineers Australia (Victoria) and leader of their Black Saturday Bushfire response.
Madeleine’s career and contribution to industry includes serving as a National Director of Engineers Australia, the youngest Chair of Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics, a Member of the Victorian Advanced Manufacturing Council, Project Director for building the world’s largest Lego suspension bridge for the World Engineering Convention with MITI teams, and a Board member of the Monash University Engineering and IT Foundation.
Throughout her career Madeleine has had a strong involvement with roads, transport, infrastructure, and assets working across industry, government and academia consistently applying a strong focus on innovation adoption, diversity and building skills to ensure sustainability for the sector. She is committed to continuous innovation in transport to improve the prosperity, health, and well-being of communities.
In 2017, Madeleine was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to engineering and education.
In her own words
A career highlight is the creation and implementation of the Monash Industry Team Initiative (MITI) - an innovation program connecting industry, students, and academia over summer to solve real industry programs.
Amazing work has been done since MITI launched in the summer of 2013-14, when a team working with NAB built an app for children to manage their money more responsibly.
Since launch, more than 300 teams have been a part of MITI and incredible outcomes realised.
The range of MITI industry partners and student projects is very diverse, ranging from autonomous helicopters for bushfire response, reducing the statistics of older drivers in accidents, digital platforms for multimodal transport, global innovations for generation Z with a MITI team located in Silicon Valley, autonomous multimodal solutions for our aged, an immersive AI retail experience for millennials, optimising the genetic outcomes of the Australian dairy herd, 3D printing of teeth, through to reducing the impact of trachoma in Indigenous children, optimisation of the Sydney light rail system to name just a few. Transurban has been a foundation partner for MITI and has hosted more than 20 teams with two of the teams creating the Linkt app.
MITI demonstrates the far-reaching community contribution and impact of multidiscipline innovation across a broad suite of organisations and demonstrates what is possible when ingenuity and creativity is empowered when diverse groups collaborate.
Inspiring the next generation
I am passionate about working with engineers of the future - particularly young women - and am so honoured to serve as a Global Director of Robogals, a student run global organisation founded in 2008 to inspire girls to pursue engineering through engaging workshops. Its outreach is extraordinary and has directly impacted more than 130,000 girls around the world. As Chair of Robogals Board’s Partnerships Committee it was a super exciting moment when we won our first ever grant – WISE – Women in STEM & Entrepreneurship in 2021.
Across all educational settings and development offerings, I appreciate that different learning pathways suit and motivate people differently. We have to offer a range of options and be quite dynamic to respond to the next generation of students and industry needs, across both short courses and high degree programs.
Engineering for life
Engineering is a fantastic career which can improve the quality of life across communities, including transport, infrastructure, resilience, health, and well-being. Working with Rotary Melbourne, I led the MITI teams to address trachoma in Indigenous children. The teams designed, developed, and built a gamified water trailer that encourages water play and cleans children’s eyes through the water sprays. The trailer is portable and used at community and sporting events and is making a measurable impact that is improving health outcomes. Ingenious and life changing!
Most recently during COVID I worked with engineering, medical and hospital teams in Melbourne to expand the operation of a ventilator from one-to-one usage, to one ventilator serving two to three patients by designing a 3D printed manifold.
For me, being an engineer means I have a lifetime passion and commitment to curiosity, continual learning, innovation, and education and in my work, I strive to make positive and sustainable impacts for the benefit of the community.
My vision for the next five years is...
…a globally recognised multimodal, sustainable and accessible roads and transport industry where diversity is valued and celebrated, and collaboration delivers excellent outcomes for communities.