Jillian Formentin has used her degree to help forge transformative change for the better. While an engineering career has taken her elsewhere in the world, Tasmania is still a special place.
Read about Jillian’s journey ahead of her upcoming visit to the island State where she will share advice, meet with students, educators, community and industry and work to inspire people of all ages to consider a pathway towards a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
What inspired you to study engineering with the University of Tasmania and pursue a career in this field?
Tassie had everything I needed. I was interested in having a life where I could have choices about the way I lived. I grew up with my Mum who instilled an ‘anything is possible’ way of looking at life. She’s a very courageous woman and brought me and my two sisters up on her own. I also wanted a life that maximised my ability to make the difference, and I wanted to make it a life of adventure. I enjoyed maths and science – the puzzle of it and the certainty. So as I looked out at the world and thought, well, what do I want to do, it was a really logical choice for me, even though there weren't a lot of girls going in that direction.
Where in Tasmania do you originate from? Did you always live there, and do you still have a connection to the State?
I grew up in Huonville. Initially my parents lived in New Town and I was born at Calvary Hospital. We spent a year or so in Melbourne but then Mum came back to Tassie and we settled in the Huon Valley which was a fabulous place to grow up. My Mum and one sister still live in Huonville, my younger sister lives in Launceston, and most of my mum’s siblings are in Tasmania. If I don't get to Tasmania at least once a year, I go stir crazy. You’ve got to breathe that clean, cool air. And I’ve got lots of school friends here, people that I studied with, so Tasmania is a very important part of my life.
Where has your degree taken you over the years since graduating?
It certainly provided the choices and the adventures that I was after. I worked in Hobart and then Launceston for the Gas Corporation of Tasmania which became Boral Gas, Boral Energy and then Origin Energy. I ran the conversion project that converted the Launceston gas facilities to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), which was a real joy. Then I moved across to Western Australia. I've had different roles over here in the public sector and the private sector, working on lots of different projects. I even ventured across to Doha for a little while, working on the safety program for the underground railway there. In my current role at Wood, I’m leading teams of engineers comprising more than 450 staff predominantly in the oil and gas sector. I'm accountable for the West Australian and the Northern Territory projects and coordinating the workforce across WA, NT and from parts of India and the Philippines.
What achievements are you most proud of which have been enabled through your education and career?
The Gorgon project incident and injury free initiative. I'm very proud of this because that was really people-based. I was accountable for Gorgon Upstream’s delivery of the commitment to incident and injury free operations on construction. We worked with thousands of people to coach, train and really deal with all those interfaces for the construction of the Gorgon project which is a big LNG facility up on Barrow Island in WA with very delicate environmental issues. I think about 40,000 people came through that project and the commitment to do it without harming any one person or anything was a huge one. We won an award for making the impossible possible on that project.
In the most recent part of my career, working with two different companies - Clough (West Australian-based engineering company) and now Wood (based in Scotland with offices in Australia) - I’ve had an enormous amount of satisfaction helping people fulfil their potential as an engineer while being able to maximise their lives.
Our company has an important role supporting major oil and gas clients. It's a time in history where those clients have got an incredibly important role in the energy transition. They've got billions of dollars worth of assets that have been invested and our role is to support them in running those assets ethically, safely and profitably until the end of the assets’ life cycle. It's a thrill to be doing something that's providing such an important service to people.
What advice can you offer anyone who might be considering studying engineering, any of the other STEM disciplines or higher education generally?
Definitely stay in school. I do lot of programs to support people in making decisions to go to university. If you’ve got even an inkling that you have got what it takes or can do it, just organise your life, block out that four years, fully experience university life and get that degree, you will never regret it – it's the best decision I ever made. People have lots of different things that they could choose from. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say ‘wow, I really regret doing that’. If you’ve got any interest in that area, and even if you're not quite sure, explore where your path could be, and get that degree under your belt.
Tell us about the process of becoming Engineer of the Year, and what does it involve?
Engineers Australia choose a professional engineer in each region every year. I was the professional engineer for WA and that put me in the finals for the national award. You're nominated, and then all the different nominations are assessed by a judging panel. You're interviewed and what they're looking for is people who are outstanding engineers. There are four different criteria that covered, all to do with engineering excellence, participating in projects that make a difference to the world, and the way you’re an engineer ethically. I think part of me receiving the award was definitely because of my skills and abilities in leadership and communication, leading big teams through difficult times and leading transformative projects that make a difference in the world.
You’re part of a vibrant program of events while you’re here in Tasmania. What are you hoping people can take away and learn from connecting with you and hearing about your journey?
New possibilities. Growing up in Tasmania, I sometimes felt that there was an extra barrier between me and the world because while you’re in this beautiful place (and I love Tasmania), it can feel like you're a long way away from the heartbeat of the world. I hope people hear about an actionable pathway that they can follow for themselves and get some of their questions answered. I hope they can connect with people that can be part of their journey to support the possibilities and the opportunities that they see. I’ll be meeting with educators and business people as well, and I want to leave people with a picture of how much the skillsets that come with engineering are desperately needed. People often ask me, 'how often do you really use those skills'? Every day. Doing a degree in engineering or something like that, your mind is shaped to be able to deal with the often, intractable issues that we're dealing with in the world, and we need people from all backgrounds and aspects to be able to deal with those as a community.
There's still a stereotype around what and who an engineer is. Engineering is the ultimate team sport and the profession needs people who've got a passion for people and bringing practical science to decisions in the world. I'm hoping there are some people who could play in this arena – who may think that they don't fit, but that they see in me an opportunity to fit, live their best life and make a big difference. When I graduated, the number of female professional engineers in Australia was hovering around 12%. It’s now nearly 35 years later and is 16%. Of that 16% of women who are professional engineers in Australia, only 25% of those are Australian-born. We've not yet built a pathway for Australian-born women to confidently pursue a career in engineering, so it's really important that we reach communities where there are still people growing up thinking that it's a domain that's not for them. It's still unusual for someone like me, who grew up in the Huon Valley, to have even found a pathway into engineering, so I'm hoping we can swiftly make a difference with that. If I can do it, anyone can.
