Shift Transit’s Female Leaders Continue to Excel in the Mobility Industry
At Shift Transit, diversity is crucial to our success. We believe that inclusion creates a stronger workforce and promotes innovative thinking. And in an industry where only 15% of the overall workforce is female, we are proud that 50% of our management team is composed of female leaders. At Shift, we mentor, grow and empower the women on our team to become tomorrow’s leaders of successful, sustainable mobility programs.
On International Women’s Day, we want to take this opportunity to highlight a few of our female team members and their invaluable contributions to our company’s success as we celebrate and elevate women’s voices today, this month, and all year round.
Maintaining Operational Excellence for Bike Share Toronto
Betul Canbolat joined our Bike Share Toronto team in April 2020 and has held various roles and responsibilities over the course of the last year. Betul started off by supporting the 2020 Bike Share Toronto expansion and was quickly recognized for her hard work and can-do attitude. A few months later, Betul was asked to join our dedicated team of field mechanics who conduct in-field safety checks on the entire bicycle fleet each and every month. Their main responsibility is to ensure that every single bike in our system – 6,850 to be exact – are safe, reliable, and available to use. Betul has continued to flourish in this position, performing as many as 300 individual bike safety checks on a daily basis. She has proven to be a valued, passionate member of the team and played a critical role in Bike Share Toronto’s 2020 record-breaking success.
According to Betul, “Shift Transit and Bike Share Toronto are near and dear to my heart. As a newcomer to Canada, it has afforded me the opportunity to improve my skills in a multitude of ways and more importantly allows me to interact with various communities around the city on a daily basis. This is something that has truly allowed me to enjoy the multicultural diversity of this beautiful city, which is priceless in its own right. Most importantly, as a former Forest conservation officer in my native Turkey, the entire premise of Bike Share Toronto, which is to give people an alternative emission-free mode of transportation, is something that is intrinsically rewarding to me. I feel fortunate to be part of such a positive program and look forward to continuing to do my part in creating a better environment for future generations.”
Betul Canbolat, Field Mechanic, Bike Share Toronto
Leading Bike Chattanooga to New Heights
Joannah Burkhardt has been involved with the Bike Chattanooga program since it launched in 2012. She started as the program’s Marketing Manager and was then quickly promoted to the role of General Manager, spending nearly 10 years of her career dedicated to educating Chattanoogans about the benefits of bikeshare. One of Joannah’s favorite parts of the job is the ability to lead, motivate, and inspire her team to achieve different goals every single day. Joannah leads by example and is always willing to provide an assist to our employees with anything they need – from repairing a bike, to planning a marketing campaign, to meeting with city leaders to review the system’s performance.
She leans on other female leaders at Shift Transit for support and inspiration, stating, “It is so encouraging to see the number of strong women that work for Shift Transit and the impact we continue to make on a daily basis. The support and encouragement we get from each other and from our company are what makes Shift Transit a great place to work.”
Joannah’s work in Chattanooga continues to pay dividends almost a decade after she began working in bikeshare, leading Bike Chattanooga to record-breaking usage and membership gains in 2020.
Joannah Burkhardt, GM, Bike Chattanooga
Passion for Mobility Drives Shift Transit’s Overall Success
From front-line operations, to customer care, to marketing and beyond, our female team members play a critical role in ensuring our company’s day-to-day success. And for many of our female employees, the passion they share for mobility extends beyond their work at Shift Transit, as they spend their personal time working to grow the presence and influence of women in the industry at-large. For example, our VP of Marketing, Heili Toome, serves as a member of Women in Cycling, a new organization that aims to help enhance the visibility and impact of women in the cycling industry. And our Marketing Manager, Janine Ward, serves as a member of Women in Mobility, an organization created to accelerate personal and professional growth for women across the mobility industry.
Thank you to all of our terrific female team members who contribute so much to make our company the leading mobility operator in North America!!
