Sir John Armitt
Chair
National Infrastructure Commission

Sir John Armitt is Chairman of the National Express Group, City & Guilds Group, National Infrastructure Commission and the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission. Sir John is also on the Board of the Berkeley Group and Expo 2020.

In September 2013 Sir John published an independent review on long term infrastructure planning in the UK. The recommendations in the Armitt Review received widespread support and in large part have now been adopted by the current government, resulting in the National Infrastructure Commission.

After leaving John Laing plc in 1993, where Sir John had been Chairman of Laing's International and Civil Engineering divisions, he became Chief Executive of Union Railways. In 1997 he became Chief Executive of Costain, a position he held until 2001. Sir John was Chief Executive of Railtrack plc from 2001-2002, Chief Executive of Network Rail from 2002-2007, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority from 2007-2014, Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council from 2007-2012, a member of the Airports Commission from 2012-2015, and a member of the Board of Transport for London from 2012-2016.

Sir John was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 2015-2016, he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Institution of Civil Engineers and City and Guilds of London Institute and has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Birmingham, Imperial College London, Portsmouth, Reading and Warwick.

Sir John was awarded the CBE in 1996 for his contribution to the rail industry and received a knighthood in 2012 for services to engineering and construction.

Ross Agnew
Partner, Asset Management Advisory
KPMG

Ross is an Infrastructure Partner and leads KPMG's Asset Management Advisory practice in the UK. Ross advises asset intensive businesses and infrastructure owners across the entire asset lifecycle from conception all the way through to disposal.

Ross specialises in asset transformation programmes, technology application in asset performance and developing asset operating models. Ross's personal experience includes the delivery of major infrastructure programmes and the management of both operations and maintenance across transportation, utilities and defence. Ross is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers public voice committee and is a panel member and KPMG's transport leadership team.

Lewis Atter
Associate Partner
KPMG

Lewis is the Associate Partner within KPMG's Global Infrastructure, where he leads on Transport Strategy. Before joining KPMG, he was the Head of the Transport Team at the HM Treasury and also spent 13 years at the Department for Transport. In his role he oversaw the economic and financial assessment of projects with national level productivity impacts, wide range of economic, policy and finance posts including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and Crossrail.

KPMG's transport strategy team combines specialists in transport policy, economics, funding and financing and bid advisory work. Recent UK projects include the establishment of Greater Manchester's £1.5bn Transport Fund, the development of an economically led transport strategy for the Leeds City Region and the recently published report for Greengauge21 into the employment and productivity impacts of a UK high speed rail network.

Andy Bell
VP UK Urban Rail Signalling
Thales

Andy is responsible for the Thales portfolio of CBTC Signalling programmes, including the current 4LM Programme and the hugely successful in-service operations on the DLR and Jubilee & Northern Line for London Underground. He is an experienced Project Director with over 20 years' experience leading challenging, technical projects in the Rail, IT and Electronic Engineering domains.

Since joining Thales in 2009 Andy led the turning around and delivery ahead of schedule (and under budget) of the Jubilee and Northern Line programme, and in 2015 played a significant role in agreeing the 4LM contract. Since then Andy has overseen the mobilisation for this the largest Signalling upgrade contract in the world, coordinating the delivery of a team of over 700 people across 3 continents, on behalf of Thales.

Andy's success has been achieved through establishing collaborative customer relationships with a strong understanding of the operational context and environment. His management style is based on a strong team culture, backed up with sound project delivery principles. His achievements have seen these projects recognised with awards across the transport industry and by the Association of Project Managers, with Andy himself being awarded the prestigious International Project Management Associations (IPMA) Project Manager of the Year award for Mega Projects, in 2014.

Lucy Dean
Associate
Volterra Partners

Lucy is an economist with specific expertise in economic appraisal of transport infrastructure and how it changes potential patterns of development. She has applied Wider Economic Benefits (WEBs) to many schemes both internationally (in Auckland, Sydney, Scandinavia) and the UK. She has analysed the economic case for several major transport schemes including the impact of station location on the economic case for HS2, a number of light rail schemes and several potential Hyperloop routes. As well as the economic impact of transport schemes, Lucy is also experienced in quantifying the socio-economics impacts of developments and has led the assessment of several major schemes across London.

Vernon Everitt
Managing Director, Customers, Communication and Technology
Transport for London

Vernon is responsible for Transport for London's customer, communication, technology/data and city planning strategies and their delivery, which put customers at the heart of the organisation's operations.

This includes accountability for fares and payments, contact centres, customer information, marketing and customer insight, media relations, public affairs, travel demand management strategic city transport planning and internal change programme.

He focuses on how TfL can use technology and open data to deliver better journeys on public transport, more walking and cycling and enable TfL's employees to provide better customer service. He also leads on supporting and partnering with the capital's thriving tech sector and is accountable for setting the strategy and policy which TfL use to develop specific transport outcomes and schemes.

Vernon led the successful pan-Government and transport industry marketing and communications strategy for the London 2012 Games, the largest integrated campaign of its kind ever undertaken.

Prior to joining TfL in 2007, Vernon spent 10 years at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and 18 years at the Bank of England in a variety of banking, regulatory, corporate and communications roles. This included leading the FSA's national work to improve the financial capability of consumers.

Vernon is on the Board of the London Transport Museum and is a member of an Advisory Group to Marston Group, the largest privately owned specialist UK company in the field of civil and High Court Enforcement. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Claire Haigh
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 also the Executive Director of the Transport Knowledge Hub and a Director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (Low CVP). She has also 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 printing company; and, Account Executive for DDB advertising agency. She read History and German at Magdalen College Oxford. She is a Chartered Fellow (FCILT) of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA).

Jonathan Hale
Lead on Strategic Transport
National Infrastructure Commission

Jon Hale is part of the team developing the first National Infrastructure Assessment. He also runs the Commission's 'Roads for the Future' innovation competition, seeking ideas from across industry and academia for how the UK's roads should be adapted for connected and autonomous vehicles. Prior to joining the Commission he worked for 15 years as a private sector transport consultant with a particular focus on local and regional transport strategy development and scheme assessment. He was the lead author of the Transport Assessment for the Silvertown Tunnel, which has recently been granted consent by the Secretary of State. He was also a surface access technical lead for the Airports Commission led by Sir Howard Davies, and he appeared as an expert witness on surface access to airports at a UK Parliamentary Transport Committee inquiry in 2015.

Russell Goodenough
Transportation and Logistics
Fujitsu

Russell Goodenough heads Fujitsu's Transportation and Logistics business and is a leading commentator on digitisation in the transport sector.

Russell is responsible for all of Fujitsu's transport activity across the public and private sectors covering key partnerships with the Department for Transport and its agencies, Transport for London, Network Rail, prominent rail and bus operators, and customers from the automotive, aviation and maritime subsectors.

Fujitsu's recent investments have focussed on digitising transport infrastructure and operations as providers pursue more passenger-centric solutions. Fujitsu has also invested in next generation data communications in response to demand both from passengers and operators keen to realise the benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Prior to joining Fujitsu, Russell spent 15 years in the defence industry with both BAE Systems and Marconi across a range of system integration projects.

John Holland-Kaye
Chief Executive
Heathrow Airport

John became Chief Executive Officer of Heathrow Airport Holdings on 1st July 2014. He was previously Development Director with responsibility for the £1.3bn per annum programme to rebuild Heathrow, including the new Terminal 2, which opened on 4th June 2014. Prior to that, he was Commercial Director with responsibility for airline business development, retail, property, Heathrow Express and passenger experience. Over a 3 year period, Heathrow's retail income per passenger grew by 10% per annum, and Heathrow was voted the best major Airport in Europe. He is a member of the Executive Committee.

John was previously a member of the Executive Committee of Taylor Woodrow plc and held a number of positions, including Divisional Chairman with Taylor Wimpey plc, Operations Director of Taylor Woodrow Developments and Commercial Director of Taylor Woodrow Inc. Prior to that, John was Managing Director, National Sales Division, of Bass Brewers and has also worked as a strategy consultant with LEK Consulting for a number of high profile businesses.

Greg McClymont
Lead on Cities and Transport
National Infrastructure Commission

Greg leads on cities and urban transport at the Commission, developing recommendations for government on how to support better transport in cities over the next thirty years. ‎Before joining the Commission, he worked on transport and devolution policy at HM Treasury.

Julia Prescot
Commissioner
National Infrastructure Commission

Julia Prescot is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Meridiam and sits on the Executive Committee of Meridiam SAS. In addition, she is a non-executive director at the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, Infraco Asia and Infraco Africa Investments, a non-executive director of the IPFA, a member of the Advisory Board of Glennmont Partners, a fund focussed on renewable energy.

She is a Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School, University College London. She has also sat on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Infrastructure and contributes to the Brookings Institute Initiative on Urban Accessibility. Julia was also the co-founder of the Women Leaders in Infrastructure Group.

She has been involved in long term infrastructure development and investment in UK, Europe, North America and Africa as part of the equity only Meridiam funds investing in energy, transport, environmental and social projects for 25 years. Meridiam's funds are supported by over 70 global pension funds and insurance companies.

Julia has an extensive history and background in infrastructure investment, having acted as an investor, adviser both to Governments and to the private sector and provider of debt and junior funding in respect of a large number of major infrastructure projects around the globe over decades. Julia's past roles have included Head of Project Finance at Hill Samuel in London, Co-Head of Project Advisory at Charterhouse Bank and Senior Director and Head of Eurozone Infrastructure Finance at Bank of Scotland.

James Stewart
Vice Chair
KPMG

James sits on the Board of the UK firm and is one of four Vice Chairs. James provides overall leadership for the firm's engagement with Brexit, and Britain's Industrial Strategy, productivity and trade issues. He also provides particular support for the Infrastructure, Energy, Government and Health businesses.

Until very recently James was Chairman of KPMG's Global Infrastructure practice. In the last six years in this role James has visited over 60 countries advising both Governments, Cities and private sector companies.

James is Chairman of the Advisory Board for the UNECE PPP Centre of Excellence and a Board Member of Infrastructure Exports:UK. He regularly speaks around the world at high profile infrastructure/investment conferences.

Prior to joining KPMG in 2011 James spent eleven years as the CEO of Infrastructure UK and its predecessor, Partnerships UK. During this time James was responsible for the publication of the UK's first National Infrastructure plan and was involved in most of the significant UK infrastructure projects.

Before that James spent fourteen years in the banking sector working at both Hambros and Societe Generale.

Mark Thurston
Chief Executive
HS2 Ltd

Mark joined HS2 as Chief Executive Officer in March 2017.

Previously, Mark was Managing Director for Europe at CH2M and was with the company from June 2008. Mark had P&L responsibility for a business with some 3500 employees that spanned the UK and continental Europe, operating in the Transportation, Water, Environment and Nuclear and Industrial Technologies sectors. With more than 25 years' experience in project and programme management, Mark has worked in both the public and private sectors on some of the UK's largest infrastructure projects.

During his time at CH2M Mark spent a significant amount of time in leadership roles on major programmes, including three years as Strategic Projects Director on Crossrail, leading the Programme Partner joint venture Transcend.

Prior to this Mark was Programme Delivery Manager on the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games, where he led the Power Lines Under Grounding project and the £500m Structures, Bridges and Highways programme on behalf of the CLM delivery partner consortium.

Mark started his career as a technician apprentice on the London Underground and trained as an electrical/electronics engineer. He has a Master's Degree in Engineering Project Management from Loughborough University.

Mark is a Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management at University College London and is an honorary Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Association for Project Management.

David Waboso
Managing Director
Digital Railway, Network Rail

David is an internationally renowned engineer and project manager who has worked for some of the world's most prestigious engineering and consulting firms on infrastructure programmes in the UK and internationally.

He has advised governments and agencies around the world on Railway strategy. He is a past president of CoMet (the international organisation of Metros), working to share and benchmark best practice. A Chartered Engineer, he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, a Fellow of the Association for Project Management, and also holds a Fellowship to the City and Guilds Institute.

After obtaining degrees in engineering, David taught maths in inner London before moving into infrastructure where his early career was in transportation and water supply projects including world-bank funded infrastructure developments in Africa. He then started his railway career leading the upgrade of the Docklands Light Railway, where in 1996 he was awarded UK Project Manager of the Year. Following this he was recruited to the Jubilee Line Extension to take charge of completing the trains and signalling systems in time for millennium opening.

He worked on the Thameslink and train safety programmes and for a period was the UK representative on the European Rail Agency. He held the position of Director Technical, at the Strategic Rail Authority where he led cross-industry programmes on ERTMS and system integration as well as being a non-executive director of the Rail Safety and Standards Board.

From 2005 to 2016 David was the Director of Engineering for Capital Programmes at London Underground, where he led the £10bn tube upgrade programme – the biggest in the company's history. With collaborative and innovative supply chain relationships, the investment delivered into operation of new trains, track, digital train control, stations, power supplies, lifts, escalators and stations resulted in a transformation of London Underground's capacity and reliability.

David is currently Managing Director, Group Digital Railway at Network Rail, where he has accountability for leading the industry's Digital Railway programme - a rail industry initiative to accelerate the deployment of digital signalling and train control to improve capacity, reliability and provide better connections for customers. David also oversees Network Rail's Asset Information services and transformation programme (ORBIS), as well as its telecoms function, which provides critical enabling services to Network Rail and to the Digital Railway programme.

He has a passion for the training and education of engineers and project managers as well as the communication of the wider importance of infrastructure to human advancement. He has served on committees for the teaching of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects in our schools, speaks and writes regularly on these matters, and promotes opportunities for people of all backgrounds to realise their full potential. He was recently awarded a CBE for services to transport in London and was named as Leader of the Year in the Manufacturing and Infrastructure section of the Black British Business Awards on 2 October 2014.

In 2015 David accepted the role of President of the Association for Project Management (APM), the largest professional body of its kind in Europe, where he will champion the APM's commitment to advance project and programme management across the country.

Barry White
Chief Executive
Transport for the North

Barry leads the development and delivery of Transport for the North's Strategic Transport Plan and provides strategic leadership to deliver the organisation's vision of a thriving North of England where modern transport connections drive economic growth and support an excellent quality of life.

He is accountable for the overall performance of the organisation, its integrity and activities.

Jonathan White
Head of Infrastructure, Building & Construction
KPMG

Jonathan is Deal Advisory partner who has advised on infrastructure transactions for more than 10 years. He has worked with a range of clients including, banks, construction companies, financial institutions, projects sponsors, and public sector authorities.

In transport, he has advised across a number of sectors including airports, aviation, buses, car parks, ports (river and sea, container and bulk goods), rail (stations, tracks, and trains), roads (availability, managed lane, shadow toll, and toll).