The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP
Secretary of State for Transport

Patrick McLoughlin was appointed Secretary of State for Transport in September 2012. He is the Conservative MP for Derbyshire Dales. Patrick studied at Staffordshire College of Agriculture. Before becoming an MP in 1986, Patrick sat on Staffordshire County Council from 1981 to 1987 and Cannock Chase District Council between 1980 and 1987.

He has held a number of positions in government, including Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry and Government Whip. In opposition, he served as Chief Whip from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2005. He was appointed Chief Whip in the Coalition government in 2010.

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. Responsibilities include: transport strategy, including economic growth and climate change; spending review; transport security; high speed rail.

Baroness Kramer
Minister of State for Transport

Baroness Kramer was appointed Minister of State for Transport on 7 October 2013. She is a Liberal Democrat Peer. Baroness Kramer was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School and St Hilda’s College, Oxford.

Highlights of her political career include: Liberal Democrat Candidate for Mayor of London 2000; Board Member Transport for London 2000-2005; MP for Richmond Park 2005 to 2010; Member of Treasury Select Committee 2005 to 2006; Shadow Secretary of State for International Development 2006; Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 2006 to 2007; Shadow Secretary of State for Transport 2007; Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2007 to 2009; Member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards 2012-2013; Minister of State for Transport October 2013 to present

Outside of politics Baroness Kramer began her career in finance and became a Vice-President of Citibank in Chicago. She and her husband then set up Infrastructure Capital Partners, a firm which advised on infrastructure projects, primarily in Central and Eastern.

Lilian Greenwood MP
Shadow Minister for Transport

Lilian Greenwood was elected on 6th May 2010 to serve as the Labour Member of Parliament for Nottingham South – which covers the wards of Bridge, Clifton North, Clifton South, Dunkirk and Lenton, Leen Valley, Radford and Park, Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey and Wollaton West.

Lilian is determined to stand up for Nottingham South and has already helped secure £60 million of funding to refurbish the city’s train station, an extension to Nottingham’s tram network and the upgrading of the A453. As well as this, Lilian has worked with local partners to bring the Nottingham Greener HousiNG11 external wall insulation scheme to Clifton, helped secure funding for Decent Homes in Nottingham and has campaigned to bring about regulation of landlords and Homes of Multiple Occupation. In Parliament, Lilian continues to urge the Government to abolish its divisive bedroom tax and has called on the Prime Minister to stand up to the energy companies and get a better deal for ordinary families.

In October 2010, Lilian was asked to take on the position of Assistant Whip, giving her responsibility for organising other Labour MPs when the party votes in the House of Commons and to assist the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions challenge the Coalition Government and hold them to account over their programme of severe cuts.

In October 2011, the Labour Leader asked Lilian to take on a role in the transport team with responsibility for the local transport brief. In January 2013 she switched to the shadow rail brief.

Emma Gilthorpe
Strategy, Planning and Regulation Director
Heathrow Airport Limited

Emma is the Strategy, Planning and Regulation Director for Heathrow and is a member of its Executive Committee. Prior to joining Heathrow, she has held a number of senior positions within the telecoms industry, latterly Group Director of Industry Policy and Regulation with BT Group plc. Emma's career began in commercial and marketing roles for Cable & Wireless before moving into the regulatory arena in 1992 whilst at Hong Kong Telecom.

Emma is a qualified Barrister, called to the Bar in 1996, holds a degree in Law and Marketing. She also sits on the Board of South East Water. Away from work she devotes her time to her 3 children Madeleine, William and Martha.

Professor David Begg
Chief Executive
Transport Times

Professor David Begg is Chief Executive of Portobello Partnership Ltd which specialises in strategic advice to clients in the transport sector; publishes Transport Times magazine; and runs a series of transport best practice awards in conjunction with the Department for Transport, Transport Scotland and Transport for London.

He is a non-executive board member of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd and is a member of the Cubic Transportation Systems’ Advisory Board. From 1999 to 2005 he chaired the Government’s Commission for Integrated Transport which was set up to advise the Government on transport policy and to monitor performance. He was a board member of Transport for London from 2000 to 2006 before joining Tube Lines as chairman (2006-2010). He was a non-executive director of the Strategic Rail Authority and before that British Rail. From 2005-2014 David was a Non-Executive Director of First Group Ltd.

Before moving to London he was Professor of Transport Policy at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. He is a visiting professor in Transport at Plymouth University. In the 1990s he was the political lead on transport on Lothian Region and then the City of Edinburgh councils.

Mick Whelan
General Secretary
ASLEF

Mick Whelan is the General Secretary of ASLEF. He was elected in October 2011.

Mick joined the railway industry in 1984 when it was still British Rail. After qualifying and working as a train driver, he became the union’s full-time official for London and the Midlands. He continued to be elected to this position for over a decade.

Before becoming a full time official Mick held several positions in the union at branch, company and regional levels. He has also represented the union at events and conferences abroad.

He has extensive experience of negotiating in the rail industry and has led negotiations with a number of train operating companies on pay and conditions, health and safety and re-structuring issues. He has also represented individual members at disciplinary hearings, appeals, employment tribunals and other bodies.

Mick is a member of the Labour Party.

David Brown
Chief Executive
Go-Ahead Group Plc

David is Chief Executive of The Go-Ahead Group.  Go-Ahead is one of the UK’s leading providers of quality public transport employing over 23,500 people and carrying more than one billion passengers each year on its trains and buses.  Go-Ahead has a 30% share of all rail passenger journeys made in the UK on its three train operating companies.  It operates bus companies across the UK from as far afield as Newcastle to Plymouth and is the largest bus operator in London.

David has held a number of senior positions in the transport industry including MD of Berks Bucks Bus Co Ltd, Chief Executive of Go-Ahead’s London Bus division and MD for Surface Transport at Transport for London.  At TfL he had a diverse range of responsibilities including London Buses (one of the world's largest urban bus networks), managing London's Red Route road network, congestion charging, and he introduced the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme.

David Brown
CEO and Director General
Merseytravel

David Brown was appointed as Chief Executive and Director General of Merseytravel, Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive in February 2013.  Prior to this he held the position of Direction General at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), since April 2008.

In April 2014 the newly formed Liverpool City Region Combined Authority appointed David as Head of Paid Service.

David is the lead Director General on buses and Chair of the pteg (Passenger Transport Executive Group).  He led on developing the Local Transport Act, in particular, the provisions relating to the delivery of bus services and the governance in Integrated Transport Authority areas and has continued to develop pteg bus policy, as well as delivering improved bus services, utilising the provisions of the LTA.  At SYPTE David led on the delivery of new models for bus services with the key operators in Sheffield.  

Nick Dunn
Chief Financial Officer
Gatwick Airport

Nick was appointed CFO of Gatwick Airport in April 2010. He also sits on the Gatwick Airport Board. Nick joined from Anglo American plc where he was General Manager of Corporate Finance. Prior to that, he worked for six years with Centrica plc in a number of senior finance roles. Nick has more than ten years’ experience in investment banking, with the majority of this time specialising in the transportation sector. He has advised governments and private investors on the financing of airports and air traffic control and has managed airport acquisition, IPO and financing transactions in the UK and internationally.

Michael Roberts
Director General
Rail Delivery Group

Michael Roberts joined ATOC as chief executive in April 2008.

Michael previously worked at the CBI, where he was Director of Business Environment from 2000, having previously been Transport Policy Adviser and Head of Industrial Policy. He and his team were responsible for developing and promoting the views of CBI members on transport, land use planning, environment, energy and health & safety.

Michael was a long standing member of the Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) and a Non-Executive Director of The Carbon Trust between 2001 and 2008.

Before moving to the CBI, Michael worked for political consultants Decision Makers, where he was a member of the team which won the PR Week award for best political campaign in 1991.

Michael was educated at Prior Park College, Bath and St Benet's Hall, Oxford, where he obtained an MA in Modern History in 1987.

Michael was appointed Director General of the Rail Delivery Group in October 2013.

Ed Thomas
Partner
KPMG LLP

Ed leads the transport team within KPMG’s Corporate Finance Infrastructure practice – a role he has held since 2010. Ed is the author of KPMG’s quarterly thought leadership publication Transport Perspectives and supported Sir John Armitt CBE, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, on a review of long term infrastructure planning in the UK which has been commissioned by the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. Ed specializes in rail and has worked with all of the major private sector players in the UK market - primarily on bids for franchise contracts. He has also advised public sector clients in the UK and overseas on franchising transactions and issues of contract design. Beyond franchising Ed has led a number of high profile mandates in relation to HS2. These include updating the Strategic Case for the scheme and establishing the financial impact of HS2 on the level of ongoing support to the UK rail industry required from central Government.

James Stamp
Global Head of Aviation, UK Head of Transport
KPMG LLP

James is a partner within the KPMG’s Transport Advisory Group. He leads KPMG’s Global Aviation Group, and the UK Transport Sector. He also leads the UK Transactions and Restructuring practice for transport clients. James has worked for a number of large corporate transport groups in the aviation, rail and bus, and shipping industries, and has extensive experience of strategic business planning, and cost reduction gained via his work in Private Equity. Prior to joining the transport group, James spent two years in the US KPMG practice helping build their transaction advisory capability. He has also worked extensively with some of the largest Private Equity houses in Europe including TPG, CVC, Cinven and Permira.  

David Williams
Partner
KPMG LLP

David is a member of KPMG’s transport leadership group and for the past fifteen years has specialised in the transport industry, predominantly in the rail and bus sectors. David has worked on a number of financial transactions in the transport sector as well as gaining experience on restructuring projects. His key area of expertise is in providing commercial advice and market insight, as well as leading engagements covering areas such as business planning, financial analysis and forecasting. David has advised public sector, central government and regional transport bodies on a number of high profile projects, including an independent strategic ‘Value for Money’ review of the London bus market for Transport for London.