Prof. David Begg (Session Chair)
Chief Executive
Transport Times

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

He is a non-executive board member of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd, is a member of the Cubic Transportation Systems' Advisory Board and chairs EAMS Group.

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.

Claire Haigh (Session Chair)
Chief Executive
Greener Journeys

Claire Haigh is Chief Executive of Greener Journeys, a coalition of the UK's major public transport groups and other supporters committed to encouraging people to make more sustainable travel choices. She is the Executive Director of the Transport Knowledge Hub; and a Director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership. She also chairs the Delivery & Impacts Independent Review Panel for the Government's Joint Air Quality Unit (DfT/Defra); and, has been an Advisor and Board Member of Transport for Greater Manchester.

Previously she was Project Director for Journey Solutions, where she was responsible for PLUSBUS. Other previous roles include Sales Director for Chameleon Press; and, Account Executive for DDB advertising agency. She read History and German at Magdalen College Oxford. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce.

Nusrat Ghani MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Transport

Nusrat Ghani MP was appointed Parliamentary under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport and Assistant Government Whip on 9 January 2018. She was elected Conservative MP for Wealden in 2015.

Nusrat was the first woman in her family to be formally educated. She attended state comprehensive school before studying at Birmingham City University (BA Government and Politics) and Leeds University (MAInternational Relations).
Nusrat was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Office in 2017. She also served as the Chair of the Prime Minister's Apprenticeship Diversity Network.

The minister is responsible for, Accessibility across all transport modes, buses and taxis, high speed rail (HS2), maritime, skills and apprenticeships and, the Year of Engineering.

Laura Murdoch
Director for Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel
Transport Scotland

I joined Transport Scotland as Director of Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel (a newly created role) in September 2018. Before joining I had been working for many years in various roles at the Department for Education, most recently on delivering the free schools programme. As well as central UK and Scottish government, I have also worked for the Director of Children's Services at Tower Hamlets local authority in London on service review and improvement.

As Director of Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel I oversee the delivery of an ambitious policy agenda working with delivery partners and operators to improve sustainable, accessible transport options and get the travelling public back on the buses, walking, cycling and wheeling. We also operate the concessionary travel scheme for disabled and older people and are working with operators to ensure all journeys on Scotland's bus, rail, ferry, subway and tram networks can be accessed using some form of smart ticketing or payment

Ciarán de Búrca B.E., F.I.E.I.
Chartered Engineer Director, Transport Projects & Business Services Division
Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland

Ciarán has responsibility for the delivery of transportation projects including Belfast Rapid Transit, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Park & Ride.

He also has responsibility for the business units within the Department which deliver the following services:
• Parking & bus lane enforcement
• Blue Badge management
• Land acquisitions & disposals
• Claims management
• Corporate support

Ciarán, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland, has a wide range of experience in managing, planning, designing and the implementation of major transportation policies and projects.

David Brown
Chief Executive
Go-Ahead

David Brown is Group Chief Executive of The Go-Ahead Group, one of the UK's leading public transport providers. The Group, which was established 30 years ago, now employs some 28,000 people and carries more than one billion passengers each year on its trains and buses. Go-Ahead's rail operation is the busiest in the UK, responsible for around 30% of all train passenger journeys. It is a leading bus operator in the UK, both in and outside London, with more than two million passenger journeys being made on its services every day. It operates buses in Singapore and has also won rail contracts in Germany and bus contracts in Ireland.

David has held a number of senior positions in the transport industry including 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 and the Red Route road network, congestion charging, and the introduction of the capital's cycle hire scheme. He has 35 years experience working across both the public and private sectors delivering transport solutions. David is also a board member of the Rail Delivery Group.

Cllr Roger Lawrence
Leader
Wolverhampton City Council

Roger is the Leader of the City of Wolverhampton Council and the Wolverhampton Labour Group. Roger was first elected in 1983. As Leader Roger is also the Chair of the Cabinet, the decision making body at the Council.

Prior to being elected to St Peter's ward Roger worked for Sandwell MBC and as a researcher for a number of Universities. He was educated at Millbrook School, New York and St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

He has an MA in Community Studies from Keele, and an Msc in Policy Studies from Bristol. He has a D Soc Sci from the University of Bristol for a study of Cross Border Collaboration in Central and Eastern Europe.

Roger cites local democracy, urban regeneration, regional development, organisational and structural change and social inclusion as his main political interests. He has published on European Structural Funds, the Voluntary Sector, and Citizenship.

Roger is the transport lead for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

Roger is supported by the Co-operative Party and supports co-operative principles.

Gareth Powell
Managing Director Surface Transport
Transport for London

Gareth Powell has been Managing Director, Surface Transport at Transport for London since 2017. He has overall responsibility for the safe day-to-day operation and improvement of London's bus network, roads, the Overground rail network, trams, the Docklands Light Railway, cycle hire, and for congestion and emissions charging. Since joining TfL from consultancy firm Atkins in 2003, Gareth has delivered significant change, innovation and service improvement in a range of senior roles, including Director of Business Planning & Performance, Director of Strategy & Service Development at London Underground, and Director of Public Transport & TfL Strategy.

Tom Stables
Managing Director UK and Germany
National Express

Tom was appointed Managing Director UK and Germany in April 2017 with responsibility for the UK Bus and Coach divisions as well as the German Rail business. He joined National Express in 2011 as Group Business Development Director and was appointed Managing Director UK Coach in November 2012, also taking on National Express Rail in January 2017. In July 2017 Tom was appointed Managing Director UK Bus.

Before joining National Express, Tom was Senior Vice President, Commercial Development, for FirstGroup America, with responsibility for building the commercial contracting capability of the business. Previously he held a number of roles at First Great Western Trains including two years on the Board as Commercial Director.

Anthony Smith (Session Chair)
Chief Executive
Transport Focus

Anthony Smith is Chief Executive of Transport Focus, the independent consumer watchdog for Britain's passengers.

Having qualified as a solicitor, Anthony worked for five years as principal consumer lawyer for the Consumers' Association, publishers of Which? This was followed by a year as the legal consultant for Consumers International, a worldwide federation of consumer groups.

Prior to joining Transport Focus, Anthony was deputy and acting director of ICSTIS, the regulator of premium rate telephone services.

Cllr Liam Robinson
Chair
Merseytravel

Cllr Liam Robinson is a Liverpool City Councillor, who has represented the Kensington and Fairfield Ward since 2008. He was elected Chair of Merseytravel in June 2012. Merseytravel is the Executive body that provides professional, strategic and operational transport advice to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to enable it to make informed decisions. It is also the delivery arm, making transport happen.

Cllr Robinson has key roles in strategic transport groups, ensuring the Liverpool City Region is at the 'top table' when it comes to influencing and decision making on a regional and national basis. He is city region representative on the Transport for the North board and currently Chairs the Rail North Limited Board.

Making public transport more affordable, particularly for young people, is a key focus for Cllr Robinson. He has championed the introduction of reduced price bus fares for all young people up to their 19th Birthday. The development of a bus strategy, believed to be the first of its kind, has been introduced under Cllr Robinson's chairmanship with the aim of focused collaboration between Merseytravel and the operators, with the joint objective of sustainable patronage growth
Cllr Robinson grew up in Cheshire and studied politics at Manchester University. He has held a number of management positions in the Bus, Coach and Rail sectors including managing three of Britain's largest railway stations: Liverpool Lime Street, London Liverpool Street and Sheffield.

Iain Jago
Managing Director (Interim)– UK Bus
Arriva

Iain joined Arriva in January 2018 as Finance and Commercial Director – UK Bus. As interim Managing Director, Iain is responsible for the growth, development and overall operational performance of Arriva's regional bus services.

Iain started his career with English Heritage, within the Finance function, and subsequently moved to British Airways in 1996. Iain held several Senior financial roles within his time at BA. His last role supporting and transforming both Finance and the airline operations alongside the COO.
Prior to joining Iain worked on a consultancy basis within the aviation sector.

Iain studied Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Kent. He is married with three children.

Giles Fearnley
Managing Director – UK Bus
FirstGroup

Giles Fearnley has been Managing Director of First Group's UK Bus Division since February 2011.

In 1991 he led a management buy-out of Blazefield Holdings which operated bus networks principally across Yorkshire and Lancashire. He remained as Chief Executive for two years following the group's sale to Transdev plc in 2006. In the mid 90's Giles took a "sabbatical" from the bus industry into rail and was one of the founders of Prism Rail plc, which operated four UK passenger rail franchises. He was appointed as Chief Executive and led the Group prior to the sale in 2000 to National Express. He then served as Chairman of Grand Central, the open access rail operator, prior to its sale to BB in 2011.

At various times, Giles has served as Chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies and President and then Chairman until 2011, of the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

Pete Ferguson
CEO
Prospective

As CEO of Prospective, Pete leads a team of data scientists, software engineers and transport experts from UCL, Cambridge and the Alan Turing Institute in the development of a cloud platform for urban planning. Backed by the UK government following a major national competition, the company has developed a continuously up to date picture of the UK's transport network, development supply and land use activity and the tools to quickly process and analyse this data at scale. The platform has already been used to help major government, real estate and transport organisations to quickly test many alternative planning policies, development plans and operational strategies in the early stages of the design process.

Prospective's founding team includes urban analytics pioneers Professor Sir Alan Wilson (CEO of the Alan Turing Institute) and Professor Mike Batty (UCL Professor of Planning) and experts in systems modelling, Machine Learning and the use of cloud technologies for geospatial analysis.

Pete has been working across the transport, real estate and planning sectors for 12 years with a focus on the development and application of novel data analytics and modelling tools.
He is an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL where he is undertaking doctoral research in network science and where he has published widely on the impacts of transport network design on energy consumption and carbon emissions in cities.

Pete Bond
Director of Integrated Network Services
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) / West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA)

Pete has worked in transport for nearly 30 years including freight, shipping, logistics, and events and is a former time served London bus driver.

Pete was appointed Director of Transport Services and subsequently Integrated Network Services at TfWM in December 2015. Prior to this in 2006, Pete was the Head of Network Delivery at Centro. During this time Pete worked at the forefront of the development and implementation of the award winning schemes such as the Transforming Bus Travel programme with West Midlands' bus operators.

Under his current role Pete is responsible for overseeing the relationship with Bus operators and highway authorities on bus measures, all bus stations and travel shops, the management and maintenance of the 12,200 bus stops and shelters within the West Midlands region, corporate Health and Safety for the wider West Midlands Combined Authority and management of railway station car parks – which all helps to keep the West Midlands moving.

Pete is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Logistics and Transport and a PCV license holder.

Cllr Waseem Zaffar
Cabinet Member – Transport & Environment
Labour

Born and brought up in the Lozells neighbourhood in Birmingham, the area he represents, Councillor Waseem Zaffar was for many years a local magistrate, as well as the CEO of a local not-for-profit organisation and has had his community work recognised by a number of awards including an MBE for services to the voluntary sector.

In May 2018, Councillor Zaffar was appointed Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Birmingham City Council. This brings together the responsibilities for: sustainable transport policy and strategy to improve connectivity and safety across all modes of travel; while working with partners to develop liveability and environmental improvement for Birmingham.

He is also a Non-Executive Director at the Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust which includes City Hospital where he was born. At the Trust, he chairs the Charity Funds Committee.

Always a proud Brummie, Waseem developed the successful Birmingham Heritage Week which has just completed its third year. The projects promotes the Birmingham Story over many years and the learning, achievements and contributions of the communities that have come, gone and stayed in diverse Birmingham.

Cllr Anna Richardson
City Convener for Sustainability & Carbon Reduction
Glasgow City Council

Anna Richardson graduated with an MA (hons) in Geography in 2001, and an MSc in Human Resources in 2005, as well as spending several years working in the public sector, in administrative roles. She has since gained an HND in Antenatal Education, and works part time for the national parenting charity, NCT.

She was elected as a councillor in Langside, Glasgow in 2015, and re-elected in 2017. She currently holds the position of City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction.

Anna also has three school aged children.

Peter Williams
Director of Certification & Compliance
Cummins Europe

Peter Williams' career at Cummins started in 1995; the first 10 years or so of his career was spent developing the combustion, performance and emissions of European on-highway and nonroad products at Cummins' European Technical Centre in Darlington. A number of the engine families developed during this time are still on the road on truck and bus products throughout the UK and Europe.

Peter now leads the team within Cummins that is responsible for regulatory affairs, type approval and emissions compliance of Cummins products in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Having particular focus on regulatory affairs he has been directly involved in the development of current and future European emissions and CO2 regulations for heavy duty vehicles though his participation in a range of regulator and stakeholder expert groups. Peter has also interacted with similar bodies in other parts of the world that are basing local regulations on those from Europe.

Robert Drewery
Commercial Director
Optare

Robert has over 15 years of national and international sales and marketing experience gained within the bus and commercial vehicle industries at a senior level.

Robert's career in the commercial vehicle and bus industry started with Leyland Daf where he gained extensive experience in both sales and aftersales, followed by the role of business development director of the truck maintenance company, Pullman Fleet Services.

More recently Robert led the Wrightbus sales team to win a number of major UK and international contracts supplying Wrightbus products. Robert also oversaw the introduction and support of the New Routemaster.

Over the last 18 months at Optare, Robert has been focused on engaging with operators across the UK to the deliver an extensive demonstration programme for the new double deck product and extended range electric buses. He has also used his international sales experience to help expand Optare's presence in overseas markets, in particular Australia and South East Asia.