Melissa Mellen, a chartered professional engineer who is the owner and sole director of Murray F. Young & Associates (MFY) has been named the 2010 Telstra South Australian Business Woman of the Year.
Melissa Mellen, has taken her company Murray F. Young & Associates from its Fullarton home and expanded it to provide leadership and professional traffic, transport and parking advice to private and government clients throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Previously a project and traffic engineer with Mitcham City Council, Ms Mellen worked for MFY for almost a decade before purchasing the business in 2003 when the previous director retired.
MFY provides advice on about 400 projects a year and its professional engineers and technical officers are supported by about 50 casual staff in collecting traffic survey data.
Ms Mellen, who has been a guest lecturer at the Transport Systems Centre of the University of SA, also won the Commonwealth Bank Business Owners Award at the sixteenth Telstra South Australian Business Women’s Awards.
Other winners were Jill Coombe of Bridge Clinic, Murray Bridge; Professor Tanya Monro of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing in Adelaide; Kris Lloyd of Woodside Cheese Wrights, Myrtle Bank; and Peta Mantzarapis of Maloney Field Services, Trinity Gardens.
Telstra Chief Marketing Officer and Telstra Business Women’s Awards Ambassador Kate McKenzie said the winners of the South Australian Awards were successful business women whose leadership qualities and achievements would provide inspiration for women across the State.
“The judges said Melissa Mellen’s strategic planning skills were evident in her business success. Melissa is a leader who transformed the engineering business by introducing computer-based systems to manage the business and to provide customer services,” Ms McKenzie said.
“She is highly regarded for her integrity, strong technical skills and the collegial culture of her business. The capacity of the business is substantially filled by repeat business from satisfied customers.”