Mentoring women in Defence

Three people from Beca's Advisory group have been selected to join the award-winning 'The Future Through Collaboration' (TFTC) 2019 mentoring program, giving women across engineering, program management and technical areas the opportunity to connect with each other and work towards a collective goal of growing and enhancing capability in the defence industry.

Beca’s Hena Rana, Business Director – Advisory, and Sue Melotte, Senior Associate – Project Management, have been assigned as mentors for the program while Bek Kunda, a Project Manager in our Defence and National Security team, is a mentee.

Sue, who was a 2018 mentor and recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan, says the program was invaluable last year:

"Connecting with my mentee and guiding them through some significant life-changing decisions was a wonderful experience, knowing you have helped them. Afghanistan was a terrific opportunity. It reaffirmed the need for leaders to be visible and contribute their time in order to drive the full potential of a diverse workforce,” she says.

Hena is also looking forward to her experience as a mentor:

“Mentoring plays such a crucial role for everyone in their careers. Helping to empower and support people to find their strengths, beliefs and attributes – to follow their true north – is personally very rewarding,” she says.

TFTC matches mentors and mentees based on their goals, objectives and professional background. Over the 12-month program, participants meet monthly to discuss and plan how to carry out their goals. They’re provided with an induction training session and supported throughout the year with quarterly facilitated group sessions.

Since its launch in 2015, TFTC has given 144 women from defence and the defence industry an opportunity for mentorship they wouldn’t have likely had otherwise. In 2017, the program won the Essington Lewis award for Support/Services and has been recognised by the Australian Defence Magazine and Department of Defence for its efforts in promoting diversity in the defence community.

Learn more about Beca’s Advisory and Defence services. 

Left to right: Hena Rana, Bek Kunda and Sue Melotte