Mehdi Langroudi: Smart Freeways, Curious Leadership, Creating Impact
This week's guest is Mehdi Langroudi, Executive Director of Network Operations for Main Roads Western Australia — or, in his son's words, "the guy who fixes traffic"! With a global career spanning Scotland, London, Dubai, Qatar and now Perth, Mehdi shares how he accidentally fell into traffic engineering, what he's learned about leading diverse technical teams, and why career choices don't need to be over-engineered.
In this episode:
- What a traffic operations leader actually does (and why his team includes people from the gaming industry)
- How predictive data modelling is helping his team get ahead of congestion before it happens
- The differences between working in the UK, the Middle East and Australia
- How to know when it's time to move countries — or jobs
- What he looks for when hiring, and why attitude beats technical skill every time
- How Mehdi thinks about leadership for leaders managing large, diverse technical teams
- His thoughts on work-life balance, wellbeing and what career fulfilment actually looks like
Mehdi's leadership advice: "The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."
Resources mentioned:
- Feel Better, Live More — the wellbeing podcast hosted by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
All opinions are the guest's own.
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Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dr Luella Forbes
Dr Luella Forbes is a consultant specialising in Organisational Change and founder of The Career Library and it's podcast, Career Stories.
Guest
Mehdi Langroudi
Mehdi Langroudi is Executive Director of Network Operations at Main Roads Western Australia and is a Transport Executive with extensive experience in the Transport Sector. His experience spans the UK, UAE, Qatar and the wider Middle East region, as well as Australia.
