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Speakers at Cycle County Active County Essex 2019

Cllr Kevin Bentley

Deputy Leader of Essex County Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure & Chairman of LGA Brexit Task & Finish Group

Kevin Bentley was elected to Essex County Council in 2009 and appointed as the Deputy Cabinet Member to the Leader. Having served two years in this post he was promoted to the Cabinet in 2011 and appointed Deputy Leader to the Council and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Infrastructure in 2013. He now holds the portfolio for Infrastructure.

Kevin is also a Colchester Borough Councillor and has previously been Leader of the Conservative Group in Colchester. He has also served in the Colchester Borough Councillor Cabinet of holding the portfolio for Business, Tourism and Leisure. He has also stood for Parliament twice in Colchester.

Outside of politics Kevin is the Chairman of the awarding winning PR agency Mosaic Publicity and is a journalist by profession. Before leaving to set up Mosaic Publicity in 2000 he spent 20 years working for the BBC as a radio and television reporter and producer.

Helen Akpabio  

Sustainable Travel Planning Manager - Essex County Council

Helen has worked for Essex County Council (ECC) since 2004 and leads a team of three Sustainable Travel Officers supporting local businesses, organisations, schools and property developers to promote and encourage the use of active and sustainable travel; as well as supporting the delivery of the Essex Cycling Strategy.

The team co-ordinate the ECC Employee Travel Plan, recognised ‘as an example of good practice that was relatively simple and easy to replicate although effective, and a good way of leading by example’ by the Sustainable Urban Mobility (SUM) project.

Helen has been involved in several projects, the most recent being the South Essex Active Travel (SEAT) programme, funded by the Department for Transport. SEAT is a joint project between Southend Borough Council, ECC and Thurrock Council and aims to increase the levels of active travel across the South Essex region by providing a menu of travel interventions; underpinned by the Forward Motion South Essex behaviour change campaign. 

Helen was integral in the successful commission of Sustrans, to deliver the Winstree Road Community Led Street Design project (April 2019). Described as a trailblazer project for Essex, this aims to improve a short stretch of road in Colchester by engaging with the local community. 

Laura Taylor-Green

Head of Wellbeing and Public Health: Healthy Places and People, Essex County Council

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Laura is the Head of Wellbeing and Public Health at Essex County Council. Within her portfolio, Laura covers spatial planning and advises on how to use the built and natural environments to improve health and wellbeing.

As part of her role, Laura works with multiple stakeholders to address how to use place to support increasing physical activity and these include Active Essex, Sport England, the NHS and Public Health England. Projects include supporting the development of the health and wellbeing section of the award winning Essex Design Guide, the Essex Planning Officers Association Healthy Places guidance notes, Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilot and the Chelmsford City Council led Livewell Developer Accreditation award scheme.  

Laura regularly speaks on health and wellbeing in planning at local, regional and national levels and has most recently been appointed as a member of the Essex Quality Review Panel.

Chris Tsielepi

Relationship Manager, Cyclepods Ltd

Chris works for Cyclepods, a cyclist-centred cycle parking solutions company  catering for all ages with an emphasis on good design, security and fun. Chris has previously worked for seven years for the Railway in the North of England in various customer focused roles including two years as Facilities Manager for Northern Rail looking after 473 Railway Stations. He has been with Cyclepods for the past 8 years developing their rail business from nothing to almost 50% of turnover. Chris is now focusing on smarter cycle parking solutions. Chris once pedalled 54 miles in a pub car park for charity but is nowadays found on his allotment in his spare time

Ciaron Morgan

Technical Director, Jacobs

An experienced Traffic Engineer, Ciaron specialises in traffic management and design and has over 20 years’ experience in both private and public sector projects in the UK. Ciaron has been responsible for managing the development of area wide and whole route traffic management and accident reduction schemes. Ciaron’s particular expertise is in developing design solutions in conjunction with clients, key stakeholders and community and resident’s groups, where his knowledge of road safety scheme and cycle infrastructure design can be brought together to provide innovative design and effective solutions to improve the highway network.

Graham Scott

Data Solutions Consultant, Tracsis

Graham has over 10 years’ experience in traffic and transport data collection & analysis with Tracsis Traffic Data Ltd. In his position as Data Solutions Consultant he leads a large team of staff dedicated to data processing & analysis, and leads our on-going research & development activity which ensures continuous improvement and increasing automation of our data quality and assurance processes. His training in and expertise of Geographical Information Systems provide a further layer of analytical capability.

Graham recently led on an extensive cycle infrastructure asset data collection project during which extensive fieldwork was undertaken to record assets across the entirety of Greater London. Specifically, Graham led our data processing team during delivery of this project and was instrumental in automating quality processes and validating the quality of the data delivered to the client.

Paul Jackson

Strategic Development Director, Tracsis

Paul’s responsibilities include leading the Business Development Team, account management, providing technical and contractual advice to major projects and developing the business in terms of technical procedures, portfolio of services and client base.

Tracsis specialises in providing transport data collection, data analytics, event traffic management and transport systems and software solutions to transport consultancies, transport authorities, transport operators and major event venues throughout the UK and Ireland. The best and most appropriate technology, techniques, skills and experience are used to help deliver solutions from a network of operational offices and centres of excellence across the British Isles. Tracsis expertise lies behind many aspects of everyday travel and transport decision making.

Andy Martin

Urban Design Advisor, Transport for London

Andy is a social scientist and urban planner with a passion for creating equitable cities.  He joined TfL in 2016 and currently works within City Planning as an Urban Design Advisor, inputting and developing strategic area plans and policy to deliver sustainable growth and healthy streets in the capital.  Andy leads TfL’s ‘Small Change, Big Impact’ approach to delivering healthy streets through tactical urbanism, and in 2017 he organised London’s first ‘community street’ in Marylebone, Westminster for World Car Free day as part of a Low Emission Neighbourhood pilot on behalf of TfL and the GLA.  He is also currently working in partnership with Urban Design London to develop methodology and guidance on designing inclusive walkable neighbourhoods.  Having previously lived in various cities in Latin America, Andy is leading a research project on the contextual application of TfL’s street types and healthy streets within the context of Latin American cities, creating a typology and model based around the Uruguay’s capital city, Montevideo. 

Pola Berent

Transport Consultant, Urban Flow

Pola Berent is a transport consultant at Urban Flow (https://www.urban-flow.co.uk/), where she works on a variety of placemaking and development planning projects. Pola has qualifications in urban planning and design, urban regeneration and transport engineering. She recently completed a doctorate at UCL and developed an assessment tool for unsegregated shared-use paths.

In 2017 Pola was awarded a JSPS academic fellowship and spent three months at Osaka City University researching cycling and walking in Japan. She worked with Osaka City Council on a road space re-allocation project in Namba and explored cycling and pedestrian infrastructure (in Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Matsuyama, Tokyo, Sapporo, Tokushima, Hiroshima).  Afterwards, she continued working with Japanese researchers and was commissioned by International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences to investigate the delivery of inclusive cycling training in the UK. In 2018 she organised The International Workshop on Delivering Cycling Training and Activity Sessions for Disabled People with attendees from Japan, Netherlands and UK.

Lilian Greenwood

Chair, Transport Select Committee  & MP for Nottingham South

was elected as MP for Nottingham South in 2010, and was appointed to the Transport Select Committee in the same year. In 2011 Lilian became Shadow Local Transport Minister, before moving on to the role of Shadow Rail Minister in January 2013. Lilian was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in September 2015, becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, and retained the Transport brief until her resignation in June 2016. During this time Lilian campaigned successfully for the widening of the A453 and extensions to Nottingham’s tram network, and has been a strong advocate for electrification of the Midland Main Line. Since July 2017 Lilian has been Chair of the Transport Select Committee where she remains committed to ensuring that the needs of all transport users are addressed, particularly those whose voices are least heard by decision-makers.

Julian Scriven

Managing Director, Brompton Bike Hire

Julian Scriven has a passion for public transport, sustainability, community investment and stakeholder engagement. This passion has seen him lead the way in some of the most competitive sectors on the planet - driving growth and disrupting the norm. Julian is currently Chair of nextbike UK and Managing Director of Brompton Bike Hire. Whilst bike ownership is still biased toward white middle class middle aged men, Julian sees bike hire and bike share are the keys to unlocking a much broader diversity in cycling.  He does not own any Lycra.

Tim Hollingsworth

Chief Executive, Sport England.

For seven years, until November 2018, Tim was Chief Executive at the British Paralympic Association, the National Paralympic Committee for the United Kingdom.   He has also served as Secretary General for ParalympicsGB at the PyeongChang 2018, Rio 2016, Sochi 2014 and London 2012 Paralympic Games.   

 Prior to that, Tim was first Director of Policy & Communications and then Chief Operating Officer at UK Sport.  Previously, Tim worked for four years as a Director of a strategic communications consultancy, HBL Media, for two years as Head of Corporate Media and Internal Communications at Granada Media plc, and spent five years as Head of Media Relations at the Confederation of British Industry.

 Tim is a Trustee of the Football Foundation and a Member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Paralympic Games Committee. He is a former Board Director of the Youth Sport Trust and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust.  He holds Honorary Degrees from both Bath and Exeter University as well as a Masters Degree in Drama from Exeter.  He received an OBE in the 2017 Queen’s New Year Honours List.  

Simon Geller

Chair, Cycle-Rail Forum for the North and Sustrans Liaison Ranger, Sheffield

Simon has been an active Cycling and Sustainable Transport campaigner for about 30 years having cut his teeth on an early Bikes on Trains campaign. Since then he has been Secretary and ECF Rep for Cyclenation, National Liaison person for CycleSheffield, CTC Right to Ride Rep and Volunteer Sustrans Liaison Ranger for Sheffield, and is currently Chair of the Cycle-Rail Forum for the North and the Friends of the Trans-Pennine Trail. In his day job he is an IT Project Manager for the University of Sheffield, where he has also been Chair of the University Cycle Forum.

John Kirkwood

Visiting Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University and Sustrans Volunteer Ranger, Sheffield

John has been cycling for over 60 years, and since his retirement, as Principal Lecturer in Property Systems at Sheffield Hallam University, he has acted as a volunteer for Sustrans. His professional career involved course leadership, lecturing, conference presentations and consultancy.  For 16 years he acted as the Information Technology Editor of Estates Gazette and he published two books on the use of computers in real estate and planning. He is currently undertaking a study of the provision for bicycling in Washington DC, with the cooperation of local groups, such as the Washington Area Bicycle Association.

Dr Kevin Golding - Williams

Head of Cycling and Walking Policy, AAT, Department for Transport

Kevin leads on cycling and walking policy including the ongoing development of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy and works with Departments across Government to support delivery of the Strategy. Previously, Kevin led the development of the first statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. Prior to joining the Department Kevin delivered Living Streets public affairs functions in Wales and England as Head of Public Affairs.

Chris Bennett

Head of Behaviour Change and Engagement, Sustrans

Chris leads the Sustrans School Programme among other responsibilities. Chris is currently working with local authorities, communities and Playing Out to understand the challenges of delivering School Streets and develop Sustrans’ School Streets programme. Chris has over 10 years’ experience designing and delivering engagement programmes with communities, universities, workplaces and volunteers and is passionate about developing community led approaches.

Brian Deegan

Principal Design Engineer, Urban Transport

Brian is one of the UK’s leading street design engineers and was co-author of the London Cycling Design Standards. With a background in engineering, he has also led high-profile policy and planning projects. He helped develop Transport for London’s Healthy Street Check, a key tool in designing for ‘Healthy Streets’, and helped ensure the design quality of all projects associated with the London Mayor’s £1billion Cycling and Healthy Streets programme. As a design engineer for Camden Council, Brian introduced the UK to ‘light segregation’ for cycling, and subsequently assisted TfL in the testing of innovative approaches to cycling-friendly signalised junction design, such as ‘hold the left’, two-stage right turns and early release.

As a street design all-rounder, Brian has experience tackling the many and varied demands placed on complex urban streets and spaces: from design engineering, traffic modelling and network strategies through to conducting research to the highest industry standards. He is helpful and pragmatic, and passionate about making better streets.

Tom Holcroft

Senior Transport Planner, WSP

Tom Holcroft has extensive experience of cycling and walking projects throughout London and the South East of England. Tom grew up in Holland, where he took good cycle facilities for granted, before returning to the U.K. to study Civil Engineering.

As an active travel specialist, Tom has worked on numerous public-sector projects, designing high quality cycle infrastructure for corridor studies in Cambridge and London, including Kingston Mini Holland which he is now overseeing the construction of. Over the past two years, he has been delivering technical support to ten different Local Authorities in the South East as they develop their Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plans to the DfT’s new guidance.

More recently, he has been monitoring and evaluating innovative new cycling infrastructure in London as part of two TfL research projects. He also has experience in the private sector, auditing pedestrian and cycle facilities (PERS, PCL, CLOS and HS assessments) for planning applications for schools and shopping centres. Tom’s interests extend beyond walking and cycling infrastructure: he also audited twelve schools for the Mayor on his landmark School Air Quality Audit programme.

Hana Sutch

Co-Founder and Chief Walker & Talker

Hana has over 15 years experience in the digital product design business, previously operations director at at an award-winning design studio and now co-owner at Furthermore, a digital product and service design studio. Hana is at the front line of the business and in the past has led key projects for the likes of Google, Xbox and Nike, some of the world’s most innovative and disruptive brands. She is a strong believer in the power of tech for good. Her little jaunts are mostly with her husband and four year old explorer and as long as they are by the sea or have incredible views, they always finish their walks knackered but happy.

Roger Geffen MBE

Policy Director, Cycling UK

Roger first became involved in cycling as a volunteer with the London Cycling Campaign in the late 1980s. He then went on to take active roles in various transport and environment groups including the UK's anti-road movement of the early 1990s.

While working in local government, Roger gained a  masters degree in Transport, focusing on walking, cycling and Local Transport Plan policies. He subsequently worked for a while in transport consultancy, specialising in cycling and sustainable transport projects.

Roger joined Cycling UK (then CTC)  in 2002 and has the challenge of persuading the UK’s politicians, the media and the wider public of the need for action to improve cycling conditions, while positively encouraging more people to cycle, whether for day-to-day journeys or for recreation. 

Roger loves hill walking and enjoys classical music and football (but strictly as a spectator).

Andy Salkeld

Cycling Coordinator, Leicester City Council

Andy has an established working career in Local Government, Sustainable Transport, Cycling, Traffic Calming, Community Development, Urban Regeneration & Event Management.

He currently represents Leicester City Council on all aspects of Cycling - Policy, Strategy, Infrastructure, Training, Promotion & Engagement - Guided by Cycle City Action Plan & Bicycle Accounts he devised.

He recently led the Transforming Cities Conference and is leading development of Leicester Street Design Guide incorporating Healthy Streets Assessment best practice developed through the City Mayor’s Connecting Leicester Programme.  

Phil Jones

Chairman, PJA

Phil heads up the firm and has over 30 years experience in the planning and design of development infrastructure, with particular expertise in traffic analysis, transport planning and highway design.

Phil specialises in achieving synergy between highway and urban design, with the aim of creating places and spaces that meet aesthetic, social and functional aims. He advises a large number of private and public sector clients on transportation and infrastructure matters.

Adrian Lord

Associate Director, PJA

Adrian is a member of the DfT cycle proofing working group and is retained as infrastructure advisor to British Cycling. He acts as technical lead for all the work PJA carries out in the design of cycle infrastructure, and the development of cycle strategies.

Patrick Darlington

CEO, Yellow Bike Company

Patrick Darlington is a chartered accountant by training and has a track record of building businesses. Following success in the wine industry, Patrick started Yellowbike to develop the integration of cycling into the urban landscape. Supported by a grant from Innovate UK, Yellowbike has designed a secure transient bike parking unit, which it believes will offer greater on-street security than anything currently available in the UK.

The continued absence of core infrastructure has convinced Patrick of the need for low-cost/no-cost cycle facilities to meet the needs of cyclists and provide the UK with the facilities that will support the delivery of better air quality, less congestion and a fitter, more agile population. Clamp-IT, delivering disruptive bike security, is now emerging.

Natalie Grohmann

Head of Active Travel and Road Safety, Welsh Government

Natalie Grohmann leads on the implementation of Wales’ landmark Active Travel legislation and road safety. The teams work with a wide range of stakeholders across different sectors to embed consideration of active travel considerations in their work and help create a new walking and cycling culture in Wales. A particular focus is on the integration of active travel plans and initiatives with land use planning, decarbonisation and air quality, as well as and health and education agendas. For road safety, the team is re-examining long established approaches with a view to build greater synergies between road safety interventions and active travel. An example of this is the work on the planned introduction of default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas across Wales.

In her previous role in the Welsh Government, she worked on the initial development and review of the Wales Spatial Plan. She has a degree in Spatial Planning from the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, which included studying town planning at Liverpool University and has previously worked for an environmental facilitation and communication consultancy in Germany, and as planning consultant and a transport research consultant in the UK.  She is a member of a number of national research and policy advisory panels. Key professional interests include improving engagement & participation, effective use of evidence in public policy and delivery and the application of sustainability principles into practice.

Andrew Grieve 

Head of the Department for Infrastructure Walking and Cycling Unit, Northern Ireland

Andrew has been Head of the DfI Walking and Cycling Unit since November 2013.  He lives in Belfast and is a regular commuter / everyday cyclist clocking up around 2,500 miles annually around the city.

His background is in mechanical engineering.  Following a short time working in industry and four years in academic research at Queen’s University, Belfast he joined the NI Civil Service in 1989.  Over the past 25 years he has held a variety of posts dealing with a broad range of public services.  He enjoys his current post in the Walking and Cycling Unit with the challenges that it presents for making a real difference to people’s lives – improving health and wellbeing through more active lifestyles, improving the environment through reduced reliance on motorised transport and bringing the economic and social benefits of more ‘people-centred’ places.

Dave Stevens

Project Manager, Transport for Greater Manchester

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Dave Stevens works at Transport for Greater Manchester in the Infrastructure Support Team, working with Wigan and Manchester to deliver Chris Boardman’s vision for the City Region.

Previously he worked at Sustrans, for over a decade in a variety of roles across the North of England. Career highlights include 3 European Greenway awards, Bradford’s Big Red Bridge, The Ghost Peloton - part of the celebrations linked to Yorkshire’s hosting of the Tour de France in 2014, and the Padiham Greenway, which won “Best Transformational Project” in the awards to celebrate first 20years of the National Cycle Network.

Before that he was at Bradford Council for 3years as a School Travel Plan co-ordinator where he helped pilot a yellow School Bus Scheme and a school cycling project – that became the Bike IT scheme.

He’s a graduate of the University of St. Andrews (in Philosophy and Medieval History) a Dad of two and he’s very worried about Climate Change.

Tim Burns

Senior Policy and Partnerships Advisor, Sustrans

Tim works across UK-wide policy at Sustrans. He is also the Strategic Lead for Bike Life, the UK’s largest assessment of cycling development in cities. Tim has over 15 years’ experience working in the third sector on a wide-variety of social and environmental issues. Tim has worked across education, community and business engagement, research, social-innovation and policy. Tim’s interests lie in how we can develop the evidence base to influence political support to increase active travel and improve liveability in towns and cities.

David Janner-Klausner, PhD

Director of Customer Success, Commonplace

David is Co-founder of Commonplace and Director of Customer Success. David came to Commonplace following a career centred on local development, local government and community involvement. He has worked in the private sector, in civic society organisations, think tanks and academia. Among his past roles he was Head of Good Practice at Transport 2000 (Now The Campaign for Better Transport and in a voluntary capacity, Founding Chair of The Bike Project, a charity that refurbishes bicycles and gives them to refugees and asylum-seekers.

David holds degrees in Geography, Economics and Sustainable Architecture. He works closely with Commonplace clients ensuring that the digital platforms tie in with their overall engagement strategies. He is the company's specialist on transport and is passionate about increasing engagement and delivering new levels of insight and transparency.

Lucy Marstrand-Taussig

Healthy Streets Adviser​, Project Centre

Lucy Marstrand-Taussig is the Healthy Streets Adviser at Project Centre in London.

Lucy has about 20 years’ experience in the built environment (public and private sectors), starting in architecture and moving to transport planning and design. She is particularly interested in querying inherited highways engineering practice.

She is a committee member of the national Road Danger Reduction Forum and sits on the CILT Active Travel Forum and the Department for Transport’s Cycle Proofing Working Group. Lucy is also a committee member for the ICE Walking and Cycling Community of Practice. Lucy was part of the DfT Steering Group Panel for the re-write of LTN 2/08 the national cycling design guidance, with a focus on designing for children

Sílvia Casorrán

Cycling lead, Sustainable Mobility,  Barcelona Metropolitan Area

Her professional career has been developed in Sustainable Mobility planning and management, during 15 years as a consultant from private companies and for the last years as public servant in Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). Her activity has been focussing especially in public transport and bicycle policies. Since 2015 she's coordinating the Spanish Cycling Cities Network.

Her social activities are mainly about fighting for a sustainable mobility in Barcelona, from the Poblenou Neighbors Association, the Association for the Promotion of Public Transport and from the Poblenou Superblock Association. Since July 2019 she's the mobility councillor from Sant Martí District in Barcelona.

Jo Wheatley

Co-founder, Wivenhoe Bike Kitchen

I am the co-founder of Wivenhoe Bike Kitchen, a volunteer run workshop set up in 2014 to help people learn to fix and maintain bicycles.

I am a lifelong user of bicycles for personal transportation and for carrying children and a wide range of other cargoes!

A community activist passionate about health and wellbeing of people and communities.

Have worked in charity, private and public sectors in a range of community focused roles.

Marianne Scott 

Regional Cycle Training and Development Officer, Cycling Scotland

Marianne is the Regional Cycle Training and Development Officer for Cycling Scotland covering the Tactran area (Tayside & Central Scotland Transport Partnership) which covers the local authorities of Angus, Dundee, Perth & Kinross and Stirling.

Developing, promoting and supporting cycling, active travel and behaviour change projects including Bikeability Scotland, adult cycling and all ability cycling opportunities, active travel strategy development, creating and developing strategic partnerships, networks and opportunities.

Delivering projects in schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and communities across the Tactran region.

Marianne is a life long cyclist and has been working for Cycling Scotland for the past 4 years and has extensive knowledge and experience in managing and delivering projects, training and events.

Previous background in active travel, logistics, events management and British military (Army) and can talk all day about cycling and active travel and the benefits for anyone anywhere to jump on a bike and enjoy the great outdoors and make every day an adventure.

Dr Alex Longdon

Principal City Planner, Transport for London

Alex works in TfL’s Transport Strategy & Planning team, with a particular focus on developing cycling policy and strategy. He has played a significant role in a range of major cycling projects, including the Strategic Cycling Analysis, the Cycling Action Plan, and the launch of a new online hub for the economic benefits of active travel.

Iain Banks

Travel Engagement Manager, South Essex Active Travel

Iain is the Travel Engagement Manager for the South Essex Active Travel (SEAT) programme a 3 year programme funded by the Department for Transport. SEAT is a joint project between Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Essex County Council and Thurrock Council and aims to increase active travel across South Essex by offering a range of travel interventions. Through the ForwardMotion campaign as part of SEAT, his team have provided support for the community and have played a key part in promoting healthier living. Iain is a keen cyclist, and practices what he preaches, empowering people to partake in more active ways of travelling with an emphasis on getting on the saddle.  He has worked with various demographics throughout the campaign such as students, employees, businesses and jobseekers in order to spread the message about the importance of active travel, including health benefits and the impact on our environment.

Iain will be speaking on overcoming the challenges of engaging with these demographics, providing insights, research and experiences from his own work with ForwardMotion and also with other marketing companies. The presentation will offer an understanding of the obstacles his campaign has faced and the steps they have taken to achieve their targets and help the community.

Irene McAleese

Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. See.Sense

Irene is Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of See.Sense - a cycling tech and data company that brings people and technology together to improve journeys for everyone. Official supplier to British Cycling, and winner of numerous business, product and design awards, See.Sense is one of UK's fastest growing startups. Irene is the winner of Best Small Business in the NI Women in Business Awards and is listed in Cycling UK's 100 Women in Cycling, 2019.

Antonia Roberts

Executive Director, CoMoUK

Antonia was part of the team which set up CoMoUK  (as Carplus) in 1999 and spent 10 years helping to nurture the newly emerging car club industry, developing the information programme and accreditation scheme amongst other projects. Antonia re-joined the organisation in 2015 to set up the sister arm Bikeplus to support the development of bike share. For intervening 5 years Antonia managed an Active Travel Project in Leeds for Sustrans. Antonia has 20 years’ experience working in the field of sustainable transport and previously worked in marketing for Oxfam.

Beate Kubitz

Beate Kubitz is a transport consultant with experience in shared mobility, research, innovation and policy development. She edits the Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service (for Landor Links) and has contributed to policy development on data and mobility for organisations including TravelSpirit, the Open Data Institute and the British Standards Institution. As a consultant she produced an evaluation of the Cardiff bike share scheme and provided mobility hub and shared transport market assessments for local authorities and operators.

Mac Ferrari -Guy

Founder, BikeStormz

BikeStormz was founded by social entrepreneur Mac Ferrari-Guy. Mac’s vision came about as a result of investing his life working with young people in varying capacities, from youth worker to community mentor.

Having a passion for pedal bikes, Mac wanted to see how many young people he could inspire to ride alongside each other in unity and harmony, simply to have fun and display their passion and talents.

Since its inception on July 11th 2015, BikeStormz has grown from just over 400 riders to in excess of 8000 riders at its most recent event which took place on June 1st 2019. BikeStormz -8 which took place in South London attracted a variety of community leaders, councillors and A-list celebrities.
The event has been supported by the local council and has been praised by the Metropolitan police as one of the most peaceful and effective anti-knife crime events in London.

Jason Fergus

Director, Active Essex

Jason Fergus has a wealth of experience having worked within the Sport & Physical Activity sector for the last 20 years. 

His career has involved him working in a variety of settings including; Local Authority, National Governing Body of Sport and also at Sport England on a secondment. Throughout this time Jason has gained over 18 years Senior Management and Director experience driving positive change to increase participation and contribute to multiple outcomes. Jason’s career has also seen him lead and deliver the London 2012 activities in Essex including the Olympic Mountain Bike events, as well as delivering on the biggest cycling event in the world in 2014, Tour de France through Essex.

Jason’s current role as Director of Active Essex has seen him lead the transformation and the reformation of the Olympic Legacy Team, the previous County Sports Partnership team and the County Council Education team to a well-positioned and one of the largest, high performing Active Partnership team in the Essex landscape. 

Jason lead and created a team in which Essex was successful in being selected as one of the 12 Sport England Local Delivery Pilots (LDP). The Essex LDP is a once in a generation opportunity to make a difference to the people of Essex, addressing the high levels of inactivity in our most deprived communities. It will supercharge the delivery of Active Essex’s strategy to get 1 million people active by 2021.

Iain Banks

Travel Engagement Manager, South Essex Active Travel

Iain is the Travel Engagement Manager for the South Essex Active Travel (SEAT) programme a 3 year programme funded by the Department for Transport. SEAT is a joint project between Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Essex County Council and Thurrock Council and aims to increase active travel across South Essex by offering a range of travel interventions. Through the ForwardMotion campaign as part of SEAT, his team have provided support for the community and have played a key part in promoting healthier living. Iain is a keen cyclist, and practices what he preaches, empowering people to partake in more active ways of travelling with an emphasis on getting on the saddle.  He has worked with various demographics throughout the campaign such as students, employees, businesses and jobseekers in order to spread the message about the importance of active travel, including health benefits and the impact on our environment.

Iain will be speaking on overcoming the challenges of engaging with these demographics, providing insights, research and experiences from his own work with ForwardMotion and also with other marketing companies. The presentation will offer an understanding of the obstacles his campaign has faced and the steps they have taken to achieve their targets and help the community.

Anjali Badloe

Evaluation Manager, Sustrans

Anjali has worked in Sustrans’ Research and Monitoring Unit (RMU) since 2015. As Evaluation Manager for Sustrans’ work in London, Wales and Northern Ireland she acts as project sponsor of a diverse portfolio of over 20 behaviour change, community engagement and infrastructure research, monitoring and evaluation projects. She has expertise in designing programme and national scale monitoring and evaluation frameworks fit for government and funder requirements, with a strong background in economics and quantitative analysis.

She has led the Research and Monitoring Unit’s components of the strategic support offered to Local Authorities by the Walking and Cycling Alliance under the DfT’s LCWIP programme, including delivering workshops on making the economic case for active travel centred around key datasets and tools. Anjali was part of a consortium of authors that contributed to the ‘Transport Fit for Future Generations’ report published by the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales in September 2018. This report used Sustrans’ Strategic Investment Tool to model what investment in active travel could achieve, instead of building the proposed motorway extension around the M4.

Claire Hamilton 

Director, Harlow & Gilston Garden Town

Claire is the Director of the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town Project which is a one in a generation opportunity to build on the heritage of Harlow and deliver high quality housing and employment growth which will act as a catalyst for further regeneration. She is responsible for the delivery of 25,000 homes, an innovative sustainable transport corridor, other associated infrastructure and employment space across three District Councils and two County Councils.

Claire has a background in strategic housing and town centre regeneration and most recently worked at Basildon Council where she was Head of Regeneration. Her current challenge is to develop sustainable travel and transport proposals for the garden town which will radically change the way people move about and get to schools, shops, leisure and places of work.

Sam Robinson

Director, Love to Ride

Joining the team shortly after its inception in the late noughties, Sam has since helped to shape and develop Love to Ride’s unique offer in the UK and more recently globally, helping to guide them through a rebrand and into a niche area of product and project design and delivery. Love to Ride have a solid reputation as behaviour change experts, now working across multiple sectors and in cities and businesses right around the world to get more people riding bikes. Sam's professional background spans public, private and voluntary sectors – where he has useful experience in CSR, employee engagement and wellbeing. Out of work Sam loves bikepacking with family and friends and kicks a ball around for the world-famous Easton Cowboys!

 

Krysia Solheim

Managing Director, Nextbike UK

Krysia joined the UK team in 2018 after managing nextbike Inc., the North American branch of nextbike for a year. With a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale University, her background is in sustainability and efficiency. Previous to nextbike, she was a sustainability consultant for the City of New Haven, USA and led the development of the city’s Climate Action Plan and the set up of New Haven Bike Share.  

Alastair Southgate

Head of Future Transport Strategy, Essex County Council.

Having originally trained as a geologist working in academic research and then within the private sector, I have now been working as a transport planner for 15 years.  For the last 10 years I have worked for Essex County Council in various transport strategy roles, leading the development of the Local Transport Plan and helping to develop our thinking around the role transport should play in the delivery of the Council’s wider aims; enabling economic growth, creating places where people want to live and work and ensuring people can live healthy, active and productive lives.  During my time working in Essex it has become clear that this requires us to think differently about how we travel and how we plan for the future, more of the same simply won’t work.  It is essential that we first have a clear view of what we want to achieve and then develop our plans with this in mind. Active travel has to be a key component of our daily lives in the future.

Isobel Pastor 

Head of Housing and Transport Policy , Department for Transport

Isobel established the Department of Transport’s Housing and Transport team in 2017. We work in partnership with MHCLG to promote the integration of housing and transport. The team sits in the Regions, Cities and Devolution Directorate, which aims to put place at the heart of the Department’s decision making to support growth and productivity. Before working on housing and transport, Isobel led on airspace policy in DfT, and regulatory delivery and employment law in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Julian Sanchez

Active Travel Programme Manager, Essex County Council

**Profile picture to follow**

Julian is the Active Travel Programme lead at Essex County Council where he works closely with the Essex Cycle Lead to deliver the Cycle Strategy, he is the Walking Strategy lead and manages the Essex LCWIP programme. Julian is interested in Behaviour Change and was part of the four year European Commission FP7 PASTA Project evaluating walking and cycling in seven European Cities and was the practitioner partner for the London case study and is a co-author of recent papers produced by the consortium. Julian has previously worked on the regeneration of east London as a programme director and prior to that worked at Transport for London in Corporate Planning. Julian is passionate about creating healthy, walkable urban environments which enable everyone to be healthy and reach their potential. 

Sean Perry 

Transport Planning Manager, Essex Highways

Sean currently leads a team of transportation planners within the Essex Highways contract providing specialist advice and support on a range of issues ranging from Local Plan analysis and mitigation to developing overarching transport strategies for Essex.  Prior to this role Sean progressed through the transportation industry within the Local Government arena, spanning nearly twenty years from a Graduate Trainee to heading up a service of nearly 40 professionals with specialisms ranging from town planning to sustainable travel planning.  Sean has lived and worked in Essex since the start of his career and is committed to ensuring that Essex residents, workers and visitors travel as sustainably as possible. Sean is an experienced and collaborative individual who has experience in a range of different projects ranging from large major schemes to smaller scale projects aimed at promoting sustainable transport measures including in Chelmsford.  Sean also has extensive experience in preparing and producing transportation strategies for Essex including Local Transport Plans and Urban Area Transport strategies as well as engaging and managing relations with colleagues across Highways and Transportation and wider Essex County Council teams.

Rachel Forkin

Transport and Sustainability Manager, Colchester Borough Council

With 20 years’ experience in planning and transport planning, Rachel has an established career in both the public and private sector.  Her interest in active and sustainable travel, together with her planning background, has influenced her approach to transport planning.  Her areas of expertise include developing walking and cycling networks and infrastructure, behaviour change projects and planning and providing for sustainable transport in new developments.  She currently leads a team at Colchester Borough Council responsible for all aspects of promoting sustainable travel, travel planning and sustainability.

Phil Freestone

Associate Transport Planner - WSP

Phil is a chartered Transport Planner specialising in behaviour change, sustainable transport and transport scheme appraisal. He is WSP’s regional lead (North East & Scotland) for sustainable transport and is a member of the national leadership team for active travel projects. He has participated in industry conferences, seminars and debates on sustainable transport themes.

Phil has developed a wealth of experience in the development and delivery of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) for a variety of combined authorities and large local authorities across the country. He is also currently providing support to several authorities to take forward emerging schemes for delivery, including providing business case support to secure investment in active travel infrastructure.

Phil has also amassed significant experience in the delivery of behaviour change and mobility management projects, including lead roles in the delivery of Access Fund and LSTF-related programmes for clients including North Yorkshire County Council and the North East Combined Authority.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-freestone/

Deirdre Harrington, Ph.D

Lecturer, Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester

Deirdre is a Lecturer in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health at the University of Leicester. She previously had academic roles in the US and Ireland. Her main role involves the development and delivery of research studies within the Diabetes Research Centre, secure external research funding, teach at M.Sc. level and deliver meaningful and sustainable models for community outreach and engagement.

Deirdre is the academic lead on Leicester Changing Diabetes. This is part of the Cities Changing Diabetes global programme. Leicester was the first UK city to join the programme and they collaborate with other CCD cities including Houston and Copenhagen. Locally, Leicester Changing Diabetes strives for partnership working between local government (e.g. transport and public health at City Council level), key community assets (e.g. professional sports clubs and faith centres), clinicians and academics to tackle urban diabetes.

Deirdre is also a keen bike commuter and eternal cat4 racer.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdre-harrington-31525817/

@DeeHarrPhD @Leicester_CCD

Jenny Jones, BA (Hons), MICHT

Divisional Director for Transport Planning, Jacobs

Jenny currently co-leads the London and South-East Region of the Jacobs Transport Planning team encompassing 140 staff. Jenny lives in Chelmsford and has spent the past 18 years working on a full range of transport planning projects across all modes of transport and for a range of public sector clients. Over the duration of this time Jenny has maintained a close, collaborative working relationship with Essex County Council playing an integral role in the mobilisation of the Integrated Services contract in 2012 and leading the evolution of delivery of Transport Planning services to Essex which in recent years has seen Jenny draw significantly on resource from across the national and international Jacobs team. In addition to technical input and review, Jenny has led officer, Member and key stakeholder engagement across a range of high profile projects including the ongoing Housing Infrastructure bids, Local Growth Fund Bids, Colchester Town Centre Study, Chelmsford City Growth Package and District Local Plan transport evidence base support.

John McQueen

Associate, Phil Jones Associates

John is a Civil Engineer with 10 years’ experience in highway and traffic engineering.   He has a strong passion for sustainable transport with extensive experience of developing and designing innovative cycle and walking infrastructure, drawing on successful examples from around the world, and applying them to local situations in the UK.  He is familiar with the policies, standards and guidelines relevant to working on the public highway and delivered many improvement schemes. An integral part of John’s project work focuses on comprehensive client, community and stakeholder engagement.

Stephen Fidler

Director, Local Transport, Department for Transport

Stephen has worked on transport issues across central government for over 20 years, including in the then Department for the Environment and the No 10 Policy Unit. Before starting his current role in June 2019, Stephen headed the department’s client team for Highways England – leading on the £15bn Road Investment Strategy and major projects including the A14 Cambridge-Huntingdon and A303(Stonehenge) schemes. Other previous roles have included leading the department’s work on buses and taxis, local transport funding and infrastructure, local roads and freight/logistics. Stephen received an OBE for services to transport in the 2019 New Year Honours List and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation.

Rupert Furness 

Deputy Director, Active and Accessible Travel Division, Department for Transport

Rupert Furness is the head of the Active and Accessible Travel team in the UK Department for Transport, where he is responsible for advising Ministers on policies to promote walking and cycling, as well as on how best to ensure that transport is genuinely accessible to all users. His previous posts in the Department for Transport have included heading the London Transport team; heading the Environment Strategy team; and managing the implementation of the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation.  Before joining the DfT in 2003, he worked for a number of other Government Departments including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Cabinet Office. 

Mark Carroll

Executive Director, Place and Public Health, Essex County Council

Mark holds the ECC responsibilities for highways, sustainable transport, infrastructure, economic growth, adult community learning, planning, housing, public health, waste, environment, country parks, tourism and culture.  He is a member of the Corporate Leadership Team and holds corporate responsibility for property, estate management and capital programmes.

Mark was previously a senior civil servant in HM Government for 14 years, including roles on the corporate board at the Home Office and the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Prior to the civil service Mark worked in consultancy and the voluntary and community sectors, where he held senior and Board level positions.

Mark Jenks

Senior Urban Designer, Midlands and East, Sustrans

Mark has a passion for and significant experience of delivering community led public realm projects. He uses his landscape architecture training, project management experience and community engagement skills to enable partners, other professionals and communities to re-imagine and shape the urban environment. He has developed expertise in delivering temporary interventions both on and off the carriageway, which adds an innovative interactive dimension to community engagement. Mark’s expertise in psychological traffic calming and knowledge of place making principles is also invaluable when developing community led design proposals.    

James Coleman

Project manager, Bristol City Council

After studying at the Institute for transport Studies in Leeds, James worked for the University of the West of England as a researcher on the Knowledge Transfer Programme on a joint project between the NHS and Bristol City Council.  James now works for Bristol City Council as a project manager in the Transport Programme team, and delivered a substantial part of the Cycle City Ambition programme for the city.

Chris Bristow

COO, BetterPoints

Chris is a former senior executive of technology organisations in the USA, Asia-Pacific and UK. He co-founded the first ethical/sustainable reward programme in the UK, ‘Smartly Green Rewards’, which was acquired by BetterPoints in 2011. He leads the day to day running of BetterPoints, and is a highly-regarded contributor to conferences and events.

Richard Kuziara

Health Improvement Practitioner, Oxfordshire County Council

MSc Sustainable Cities, is a Health Improvement Practitioner working within Oxfordshire County Council’s Public Health Team and has over 20 years of experience working in various public health roles. The majority of Richard’s work is partnership based with a focus on identifying practical ways to improve the health and wellbeing of Oxfordshire residents and reduce health inequalities.  Richard is the public health lead for ‘healthy place shaping’, ‘active and healthy travel’ and the public health representative for the Bicester Healthy New Town programme.

Richard strongly advocates close working between public health and spatial/infrastructure planning teams and sees this as essential for the creation of environments where the ‘choice architecture’ is more likely to encourage healthy behaviours. Following outreach to Oxfordshire’s district councils’ and internally to the County Council’s transport and planning teams, public health representation is now routinely integrated into Oxfordshire County Council’s ‘Single Response’ to planning policy consultations. Recent successes include integrating ‘healthy place shaping’ into the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal polices and workstreams and the addition of policies citing the need for Health Impact Assessments within the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and district council Local Plans.