Debra Goostrey relishes the daily challenges of her professional life, and wants to help other women build their careers.
DEBRA Goostrey has made a career out of being 'the only woman in the room' in some very male-dominated areas of business.
Not that she cares to make a big deal of it, as she seems more focused on achieving results than dwelling on gender issues.
"I don't notice it because I've been female all my life," Ms Goostrey told WA Business News.
"Everybody brings something to the table, yes I'm different in some ways because I am female and often I am the only female in the room, particularly in the transport industry that was the case.
"But males bring in their own dimensions, and whether they're tall, or short, or look different, everyone brings something distinctive in.
"I bring in, from a personality side of things, probably a different approach from other people, in that I do bring in a range of ideas and I'm very solutions driven.
"I think that overrides whether I'm male or female."
Ms Goostrey made her mark in Western Australia as head of transport industry group Transport Forum, and is now WA chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia.
Leadership roles have come naturally for Ms Goostrey, who began her path to executive success in her early 20s with senior roles in local government in South Australia.
She took up the role of chief executive at Transport Forum in 2001, and says her objective was to improve the transport industry for the benefit of the community.
"All of the organisations I have worked for are critically important in the fabric of our society," she says.
"People look at the trucking industry and they might grumble about the trucks on the road but they still need their cereal to be at the supermarket in the morning, and they underestimate the silent wheels that operate in industry that keep people functioning in their personal lives.
"Every day for me is interesting and challenging and rewarding because every day we are improving the fabric of our society."
When she was appointed WA chief executive of the UDIA in May 2007, Ms Goostrey says she was able to use her lack of knowledge regarding the development industry to the association's benefit.
"One of the advantages I have in actually not having a development background is I knew what I didn't know when I started the job," she says.
"My knowledge at that point in time really was indicative of the general public's knowledge.
"Part of what I want to do is to take my understanding of the gap in the general public's knowledge and start filling that in, so that they can make more informed choices and better understand what we're talking about when we talk about cost of delays and additional burdens on first homeowners."
Hesitant to dwell too long her achievements, the affable Ms Goostrey says sharing the experience of others has helped her climb the corporate ladder.
"Working in industry associations you find that, from a very young age, you get access to very experienced, well informed, successful people, and they want nothing more than for you to be successful, because it's meeting their goals," Ms Goostrey says.
"They're happy to guide and steer you forward in what you're trying to achieve, because if I'm successful, usually the organisation's successful."
And in that same vein, Ms Goostrey has dedicated herself to helping other women build success, by sharing her experiences.
"It's really easy to look at people who have a public profile or are successful and just assume that they're different," she says.
"When you start unpacking how they got there, their experiences, how they've got the work/life balance and how they've managed their growth, you start to see that it is possible, that it's step by step, not this giant leap, and it makes it accessible to other people.
"Whether they're going to go on and be senior people in their chosen field or not, everybody can pick up a tip, a hint, or something that they can take forward to help them cope in their everyday lives."
