- One word to describe yourself: Mindfulness
- Alma Mater: University of Windsor, Bachelor of Science (Honours) – B.SC. (Hons.) – Engineering, Windsor Ontario Canada
- Favorite book: “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” by Dr. Joseph Murphy
- Favorite TV show: She loves all shows on the HGTV network and if she had to pick one it would have to be “House Hunters International” as she has learned so much about other countries from watching the show
- Favorite movie: “The NeverEnding Story” Part 1
- Favorite hobby(ies): She loves going to concerts with her husband and when the concerts are out of town, making it a weekend getaway. In the past two years, they have seen the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, Rush, Deftones but her favorite to date would have been August 23, 2014, Rihanna and Eminem’s Monster Tour at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan
- Fun fact about yourself: She and her husband sponsor children in Brazil through World Vision. They also love animals and donate a lot of money to local Canadian animal sanctuaries.
- What is your favorite transit system (outside of the one you work for or have worked for!) and why?: This question was tough for Verellen as she has been involved with almost all of the transit systems in Canada. The one she personally hasn’t been involved with would be Lokaltrafik, Stockholm Sweden’s public transport system. In 2016 she was invited to a WSP leadership Conference in Stockholm and spent an extra few days on vacation with her husband and they got around the entire city using the transit system. She loved that the transit system blended with the environment, it was on time, reliable and very clean. “The Swedish culture is that Swedes truly care about nature and the impact they have on their environment and more people have bicycles than cars because it’s easier to get around without a car.”
Verellen has 14 years of experience working on international rail systems projects in both the public and private sector and in her career, she has contributed to a number of rail transportation projects, including the Kuala Lumpur Kelanya Jaya Line — Istanbul Metro, Dubai Metro Red Line and Green Line and Singapore Metro. Her job allows her to meet a lot of interesting people and visit places she normally would not visit, including Dubai, Singapore, Istanbul, Stockholm and as she said, “even Grain Valley, Missouri, USA.”
She has relentlessly applied her international rail experience and acumen to help WSP Canada realize the vision to be a world-class rail systems engineering team. She was given a huge opportunity by WSP’s transportation leaders, to build the rail systems engineering team and she has grown the team from employee one (herself) to more than 60 rail systems engineers and specialists by winning rail systems projects throughout Canada.
Under Verellen’s guidance and leadership, WSP’s rail group across Canada now has a five-faceted structure: Systems Engineering; Signals Engineering, Data Communications Engineering, Electrification, and Rail Systems Quality Assurance & Quality Control. The structure reflects her strategic understanding of the importance of team building and creating synergies and alignment across all areas of rail expertise.
Rail systems engineering is tough, but being a consultant in rail systems engineering is even tougher, she said. The people on the team are exceptional at what they do and they have the skillsets that compliments everyone else’s skills.
Verellen stated with many transit agencies embracing new technologies and new business models to identify opportunities that benefit the customers, public transit agencies and the technology providers, it requires people with various education and skills because it takes many unique skillsets to deploy a transit project.
WSP’s Rail Systems Engineering team in Canada and the team Verellen has developed and directs, has been acknowledged by the company as a Centre of Excellence — and one that is leading the way for WSP’s global practice to evolve, change and advance best practices in rail management.
Verellen shares her knowledge through various speaking and presenting opportunities. She has presented to the transportation engineering students at the University of Toronto on Rail Systems Engineering; she presented at the third annual Canadian Institute for Delivering Urban Transit Infrastructure; and she gave a presentation on electrification at the annual General Meeting for Transport Action Ontario. She is scheduled to present again in the fall 2017 to both the University of Toronto and Queen’s University.
Verellen is a licensed professional engineer in three Canadian provinces: Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
“There isn’t one specific experience that led me to where I am today but what I have learned is to move on from failure and by moving on is what has led me to where I am today. Failure is a great life teacher. It teaches us humility and how to correct our course of action. One of my favorite quotes by Winston Churchhill is, ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’”
“I wear a lot of different hats. I spend a lot of time on strategizing and developing new business, working on tenders and managing existing projects. When times get busy, it can be a real balancing act keeping everyone happy and engaged.”
“The most challenging thing about my job is making time for self-initiated projects. You can get so busy with client work that often those personal projects that can become a turning point in practice are pushed to the side. There are long days and long nights, but I love it and I wouldn't have it any other way.”
“[An accomplishment I'm most proud of is ] watching a junior engineer-in-training achieving his/her Professional Engineering License because he/she gained the experience and the mentorship from our senior engineers.”
“One piece of advice I give to each of my team members: never jump into something without evaluating all of the options.”
