Simon Lightwood MP
Minister for Local Transport

Simon Lightwood was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Transport in the Department for Transport 9 July 2024.

Previously Simon was Shadow Transport Minister, appointed first in October 2022 and re-appointed in September 2023 with an expanded portfolio.

Simon was first elected as MP for Wakefield in a by-election in June 2022 and was re-elected as MP for Wakefield and Rothwell in July 2024.

Prior to being elected, Simon was a proud NHS worker, a Labour councillor and cabinet member for public health. He studied theatre acting at Bretton Hall College in Wakefield after moving to the city in the late nineties.

His wider interests involve spending time with his husband and two young children and supporting his local Rugby League team, Wakefield Trinity.

Bradley Fox
Director of EV Fleet, UK & Nordics
Zenobe

Bradley is Director of Business Development for EV Fleet in the UK & Nordics, focusing on selling and developing Zenobē's innovative electric bus vehicle and charging infrastructure managed service offering to fleet operators. He works closely with the corporate finance team on optimising the underlying finance arrangements to facilitate these transactions.

Bradley has over 10 years of experience in front office roles in corporate and investment banking with specialisms in structured asset finance and relationship management. He has previously worked at Santander, Lloyds Bank and Barclays having executed a range of complex financing structures across many sectors for larger corporates.

Claire Ward
Mayor of East Midlands

In May 2024, Claire Ward was elected Mayor of the East Midlands, representing 2.2 million people across the region.

The Mayor has responsibility for transport, skills and adult education, housing and land, net-zero and economic development.

As the Chair of the East Midlands Combined County Authority, the Mayor works with partners across the region and beyond to deliver transformational change for the East Midlands.

The Mayor also acts as a champion for the region, influencing Government at a national level to boost growth and innovation, shape policy and access further funding.

Gary Hitchmough
MD for Government and Business Development
First Bus

Gary Hitchmough has over 25 years' experience in the delivery of outsourced public services, in a career spanning transport, healthcare, justice and immigration across the UK, Middle East and Australia/New Zealand. He is Managing Director for Government and Business Development at First Bus, where he leads a business unit designed specifically to meet the needs of authorities who have opted to move to franchised bus operations.

As an Executive Director of First Bus, Gary helps steer an organisation with more than 18,000 colleagues using over 5,700 buses to connect people to education, employment, health and leisure opportunities in their communities – enabling over 1.5m bus journeys every single day. First Bus is on a mission to inspire the nation to love and use the bus.

Jason Prince
Director
Urban Transport Group.

Prior to joining UTG in July 2023, Jason was Head of Public Affairs for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority for over three years and he also worked for Transport for Greater Manchester for four years. During both roles, Jason was actively involved in working with partners on buses, specifically the Bus Services Act (2017) and its impact on the future of transport in Greater Manchester, supporting the early development of Greater Manchester's Bee Network and rail projects including HS2, and on innovation and devolution.

Before joining TfGM in 2016, Jason worked for a Member of Parliament, supporting on key policy areas of transport and energy.

Prior to working in politics, Jason held a variety of positions in the private and third sector. He was a business development manager in the field of welfare to work for nearly five years. He was also an operations manager for a third sector organisation across the North of England.

Kayleigh Ingham
Chair
Women in Bus and Coach

Chair of the Northern Region for Women in Bus & Coach, Kayleigh is calling on the industry to increase its focus on both DE&I and tackling VAWG across all bus industry operating models. Alongside voluntary roles in support of diversity, Kayleigh is Regional Commercial Director at First Bus, responsible for commercial strategy & planning, revenue, driver duties, contract management, marketing activity and stakeholder relationships.

Leon Daniels OBE

Possessing an exceptional record of delivery and performance at the highest level of private and public sector organisations, Leon Daniels is recognised for his world-class experience, expertise and knowledge of public sector transport in the UK, Europe and Far East.

With extensive knowledge and experience of traffic and streets management, bus transport, urban rail, cycling, road safety, river operations, the taxi and private hire industry, policing and enforcement, highway engineering and major project delivery, Leon works at the highest level of central and local Government.

Leon is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Couriers and a Member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Carmen.

Max Sugarman
Chief Executive
Intelligent Transport Systems UK (ITS UK)

Max Sugarman is Chief Executive of Intelligent Transport Systems UK, the national voice of the transport technology industry. He has around a decade of experience working in transport, innovation and communications. He has previously worked at the Catapult Network, where he supported the nine Catapult innovation centres on cross-cutting policy issues and political engagement, and as Public Affairs & PR Director at the Railway Industry Association (RIA), the leading UK trade body for rail suppliers, where he led an award-winning communications function.

He has previous experience at the Institution of Civil Engineers, at a corporate communications agency in the City, at London City Hall and at the House of Representatives in the US. He has a diploma in professional PR, is a Chartered PR Practitioner and has been Chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Public Affairs Group since 2021. Max is passionate about transport and the role it plays in people's lives, in supporting economic growth and reaching net zero.

Miki Szikszai
Chief Executive
Snapper Services

Miki Szikszai has served as CEO of Snapper Services since February 2009. Miki has over 25 years of experience in developing and commercialising innovation for the benefit of customers. He also serves as a Board member at B2B SaaS companies Spotlight Reporting (Independent Director) and vWork (Chair).

Under Miki's leadership, Snapper continuously seeks to improve public transit performance, focusing on customer needs and developing innovative services that meet those needs to improve Authority, Operator, and passenger experiences.

Miki oversees Snapper's continued investment in innovative services with the Mosaiq platform. Mosaiq is designed to improve the quality of public transit data, making it easier for Transit Operators and Authorities anywhere to understand and work collaboratively to improve the performance of transit networks.

Snapper's first services were in New Zealand, with an ambition for positive global impact. Snapper has since proven itself as a trusted service provider in the UK and EU region for almost a decade. Miki is responsible for leading the company into new markets and regions with its transit data focus.

Paul Walker
Head of Passenger Transport
Portsmouth City Council

Paul is an experienced transport professional having led strategic partnership projects and multi-disciplinary project teams as well developed and implemented strategic plans working with a variety of stakeholders. A track record in leading Portsmouth City Council to a major partnership award within two years from a standing start as well as previously leading Southampton to Transport City of the Year. Paul brings commercial nous to the public sector having spent six years with a FTSE 250 transport operations business. Paul has extensive experience of both strategy development and implementation, cost control and customer experience and this has led to an 8 year high in park and ride income as well a 17% increase in overall bus passengers in the city of Portsmouth through close partnership working with bus operators and highways teams.

Sara Gilmore
Partner – Infrastructure Projects and Energy
Addleshaw Goddard

Sara has been at AG for over 15 years. Sara specialises in the regulated sectors, acting for SGN on the innovative "gas to the west" gas transmission pipeline and is currently day to day lead on the novel Havant Thicket reservoir project where we are acting for Southern Water Services.

In addition, Sara advises on transport, being part of the mobilisation and assurance teams to the Department for Transport on the West Coast Partnership and most recently advising on the government covid-19 bail-out for train operating companies.

Sara has a lot of expertise in negotiating and documenting complex commercial and financial arrangements for energy generation schemes including in relation to wind, CHP and energy from waste.

Tracy Brabin
Mayor of West Yorkshire

Tracy has been the Mayor of West Yorkshire since the office was established on 10 May 2021. She was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from 2016 to 2021 under the Labour and Co-operative banner.

She was previously Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Shadow Minister for Cultural Industries.

She resigned as an MP after winning the 2021 West Yorkshire mayoral election. Her resignation triggered a by-election, which Labour's Kim Leadbeater won. She is the first ever woman to serve as a metro-mayor.

Tracy won a second term in the 2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election.