Friday 12 October 2018

Guildhall, London

Speakers at Healthy Streets 2018

Shown in the order they confirmed. This page is currently being updated, and new speakers are being added daily.

Heidi Alexander

Deputy Mayor for Transport
Greater London

Heidi Alexander was appointed as Sadiq Khan’s Deputy Mayor for Transport in June 2018. Before joining the Mayor’s team Heidi was the Member of Parliament for Lewisham East from 2010-2018. She served in the Whips’ Office before being appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Health. Between 2006 and 2010 Heidi worked as Deputy Mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham and Cabinet Member for Regeneration.

Maria Vassilakou

Deputy Mayor and Deputy Governor of Vienna; Executive City Councillor for Urban Planning, Traffic & Transport, Climate Protection, Energy Planning and Public Participation
Vienna

Maria Vassilakou started her political career as Secretary General of the Austrian Students’ Union. In 1996 she became Member of the Vienna Provincial Parliament, in 2004 Head of the Parliamentary Group of the Green Party. Since 2010 Maria Vassilakou is Deputy Mayor and Deputy Governor of Vienna and Executive City Councillor. Maria Vassilakou is the first and so far only Deputy Mayor and Executive City Councillor with a migration background in Vienna. She was born in Greece and sees Vienna as an open, modern and diverse city.

Dr Zoe Williams

TV presenter and fitness and physical activity expert

Zoe graduated from Medical school in 2007 and currently practices as an NHS GP in London. Her portfolio GP career means that she has multiple roles, including Public Health England Lead Clinical champion for Physical Activity, RCGP clinical champion - Physical Activity and lifestyle, and CCG clinical associate - Obesity and Lifestyle. Zoe’s ambition has always been to combine her dedication to medicine, her passions for health and fitness as well as succeed in a career in media. She had her first taste of this when selected out of thousands for Sky 1’s Gladiators and became the undefeated ‘Amazon.’ Zoe went on to become resident doctor on ITV’s popular daytime show ‘This Morning’. She has presented across BBC network, including BBC News broadcast, ‘Horizons’ and ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’.  She specializes in debunking the confusing world of medicine, in a fun and entertaining way. In 2009 she founded the organisation ‘Sportsgirls’, which aims to increase the physical activity of teenage girls by inspiring, educating and motivating they to be healthier and more active. In 2013 workshops were also developed for boys and the organisation was renamed Fit4Life.

Dr Jon Lamonte

Chief Executive
Transport for Greater Manchester

Jon Lamonte joined Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) as CEO in 2013. His portfolio covers rail, bus, tram, highways, cycling and other forms of active transport. TfGM is the executive delivery arm of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Jon Lamonte was the CEO of Tube Lines from 2011 – 12, including the critical period of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Tube Lines, as part of Transport for London, was responsible for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the Underground infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
Jon joined from the Royal Air Force where he fulfilled a number of senior operational roles and led major project delivery. His most recent role was Chief of Staff, Strategy, Policy and Plans, which included co-leading the Strategic Defence and Security Review into the maritime programme for the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Prior to this Jon was Director General Finance for Defence Equipment and Support, the MoD’s £17bn a year procurement and logistics organisation. Other roles included running the RAF’s largest base, Brize Norton, with over 4,500 people and three fleets of transport and air-to-air refuelling aircraft.

George Gillespie

Executive Director, Neighbourhoods & Sustainability
Glasgow City Council

George Gillespie is Executive Director of Neighbourhoods & Sustainability for Glasgow City Council with responsibility for roads, lighting, cleansing, parks, waste management, environmental health, scientific services, trading standards and community safety.

He is a Chartered Civil Engineer with extensive experience within roads and transportation together with the delivery of wide-ranging frontline services and the successful management of major projects. He has held a number of senior positions within the former Strathclyde Regional Council, and with Glasgow City Council as Head of Roads, Head of Service Delivery and Assistant Director prior to his most recent, current appointment in March 2018.

Neil Andrews

Campaigns & Policy Officer
Wheels for Wellbeing

Neil is Campaigns & Policy Officer at Wheels for Wellbeing, where he leads on the charity’s political engagement work. Since joining in 2016 he has established a lobbying platform for disabled cyclists and coordinates the Beyond the Bicycle Coalition - a group representing disabled, freight and family cyclists.

In 2018 his research on the under-representation of disabled cyclists in cycling policy led to a co-authored academic paper, which was published in the Journal of Transport & Health. He has also written a number of articles on inclusive cycling for The Guardian and is author of Wheels for Wellbeing’s Guide to Inclusive Cycling.

Mark Artis

Senior Engineer
Transport for London

Mark is a member of TfL’s new Engineering directorate and has an extensive range of experience, both in the private and public sector. Mark has been part of the team developing and delivering the Healthy Streets Check for Designers (HSCD) and is keen to assist designers and planners to develop healthier streets. His current role is to explain the use of the HSCD amongst the design and planning community and is working internally at TfL and with external stakeholders to reach a wide audience. Mark is a member of the Institution of Highways and Transportation and his previous project work includes the Quietways and Grid cycling programme, Cycle Superhighways and Legible London.

Tom Bailey

Director
Almere Consulting

Tom Bailey is a Director of Almere Technology offering a range of Computer Vision Healthy Streets Sensors and survey services.  Most recently Tom has worked on analysis of pedestrian and cycle behaviour in City of London looking at the interaction of high volume pedestrian and cycle flows through shared space.  With use of artificial intelligence, Healthy Streets Sensors detect, track and record movement of people in public spaces.  Tom has a background in scheme funding and design having worked on Newcastle’s Cycle City and has also worked on walking and cycle network design for large scale housing development.

Iain Simmons

Assistant Director
City of London Corporation

Iain Simmons is the Assistant Director (City Transportation) at the City of London Corporation; where he has worked for over 30 years.  He is responsible for road danger reduction, transport strategy, network performance, transport planning and development and, major projects.  Iain is a long standing advocate for Healthy Streets.

Iain is a Member of both the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (MCIHT). Having been instrumental in changing every street in the City of London; Iain has been the driving force behind the award-winning major schemes at Aldgate and Bank.

Isabelle Clement

Director
Wheels for Wellbeing

Isabelle is Director of Wheels for Wellbeing, an award-winning charity based in London that supports disabled people to discover or rediscover cycling. Established in 2007, the charity works with around 1,300 disabled and older people each year, helping them grow their cycling ambitions.

As an urban commuter handcyclist, Isabelle has extensive experience of what it takes to create the right environment so everyone can cycle. She is a regular attendee of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, an elected member of the London Cycling Campaign’s Policy Forum, member of the Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People and an appointed member of Sustran’s London Advisory Board. In 2018 she was granted the Freedom of the City of London. She speaks regularly on issues relating to disability and cycling.

Matt Croucher

Associate Director & Sustainable Transport Lead
WSP

Matt Croucher is WSP’s specialist lead in sustainable transport, promoting improved urban realm, walking, cycling, public transport, low emission vehicles and smart mobility. He has an expert knowledge of the emerging electric vehicle and future mobility sector, and has spoken on the topic at conferences across the UK and Europe. He has delivered innovative masterplans, scheme designs and feasibility studies as part of the Mayor’s Low Emission Neighbourhoods programme, including the City Fringe and the City of London. These plans have included a wide spectrum of sustainable transport and future mobility solutions, including the UK’s first ULEV only streets.

Giulio Ferrini

Senior Engineer
Sustrans

Giulio Ferrini is senior engineer at Sustrans, trying to create people-sized streets. He’s never owned any Lycra, but has been able to cycle around every city he’s lived in. Transport Planning Society’s 2018 Bursarian of the Year for his research on integrated land use and transport planning.

Julie Fleck OBE

Strategic Access and Inclusive Design Adviser
Self-Employed

As Principal Inclusive Design Adviser for the Greater London Authority Julie developed the 2004 and 2008 London Plan policies on inclusive design, wrote the Supplementary Planning Guidance 'Accessible London: Achieving an Inclusive Environment’, and contributed to the development of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s award-winning Inclusive Design Strategy and Standards helping London deliver the ‘most accessible Olympic and Paralympic Games ever’.

Following the success of London 2012, Julie became Project Lead on a Government Paralympic Legacy project aimed at stimulating a systematic change in the way built environment professionals are taught inclusive design – the Built Environment Professional Education Project (BEPE). Julie continued to lead the BEPE project when it moved to the Construction Industry Council in 2016, helping with its transition from a government driven project to an industry owned and led project, drafting a Teaching and Learning Briefing Guide ‘Bringing inclusive design into built environment education’ and two Essential Principles Guides – one for built environment professionals and one for clients, developers and contractors.

Julie is currently writing a book on inclusive design to help shift attitudes and behaviours in the construction industry and encourage the achievement of an accessible and inclusive environment for all.

Amy Foster

Chair
Dulwich & Herne Hill Safe Routes to School Forum

Amy Foster teaches at Bessemer Grange Primary School in Southwark and was part of the campaign for it to become the borough’s first ‘School Streets’ school. She has worked championing active travel both within her school and across its wider local schools network, through the Dulwich and Herne Hill Safe Routes to School forum, which she chaired for 18 months.  Amy is one of Southwark’s ‘Healthy Schools Champions’ and a trustee for the London Cycling Campaign.

Rebecca Fuller

Assistant Director
Urban Transport Group

Rebecca is Assistant Director at Urban Transport Group where she works to make the case for the right policies in urban transport and related areas to support inclusive and sustainable growth. Rebecca is policy lead on a number of areas, including on the connections between transport, health and wellbeing. She is currently leading the delivery of ‘Healthy Streets for All’ – a year-long programme of activity to raise awareness and support UK cities in shaping urban environments around people and their health.

Ryland Jones

Head of Built Environment
Sustrans Cymru

With a background in Environmental Project Management, Ryland leads the Built Environment Team for Sustrans in Wales, developing and implementing a range of infrastructure projects. He has over 20 years experience of designing and implementing practical projects in the field of Sustainable Transport, often linked to regeneration programmes and regularly inputs to strategic planning, network development and transport appraisals for the Welsh Government.

Ryland has managed a number of strategic infrastructure programmes, including co-ordinating a £30m initiative to build over 100 miles of new multi-user routes across Wales.  He has also co-ordinated delivery of several collaborative urban design projects, working with urban communities, with recent work including projects developing innovative approaches to street design around schools, linked to wider community engagement, participatory design and people focussed interventions.

Nicola Kane

Head of Strategic Planning and Research
Transport for Greater Manchester

Nicola Kane is Head of Strategic Planning and Research at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and spends most of her time thinking about what the future might hold, as her team works to develop and deliver a new long-term transport strategy for Greater Manchester, covering the period to 2040 (www.tfgm.com/2040)

Nicola is a chartered town planner (MRTPI) and qualified transport planning professional (TPP) and joined TfGM in 2014 after 15 years of working in consultancy.  She has wide-ranging experience in transport strategy and policy development and travel behaviour change.  She’s now enjoying the opportunity to help shape the future of transport in Greater Manchester and is leading on work to develop a new “Streets for All” Strategy for the city-region.  Nicola was awarded “Transport Planner of the Year” by Transport Planning Society in 2017 for her work in leading Greater Manchester’s 2040 Transport Strategy. 

Patrick Williams BA(Hons) MSc DipUD 

Programme Manager, Collaborative Design
Sustrans Cymru

Patrick joined Sustrans in 2012, and is currently Programme Manager, Collaborative Design  for Sustrans Cymru. He has led on the development and delivery of various large scale community street design, traffic management and behavioural change projects across Wales and the South of England. This includes work for the  Road Safety Trust, the delivery of a project based around the mini Holland concept, retro-fit SuDS using co-design principles, and the development and delivery of community street-pockets using Sustrans ‘street kit’.

In previous roles, Patrick worked on the design and development of housing in both the UK and Spain.

He has recently been part of the Mayor of Bristol’s Congestion Task Group, feeding into the development of transport policy, air quality and other measures aimed at addressing traffic congestion in Bristol.

Cllr Clyde Loakes

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment
Waltham Forest Council

A Councillor for the Leytonstone Ward in Waltham Forest for the past 20 years, Clyde has a deep understanding of the workings of local and National Government.  He understands how policies are developed and shaped, to deliver for local residents and communities.  Widely respected in local government circles across the political spectrum, Clyde stood down as Leader of Waltham Forest in May ‘09, after 6 years at the helm.

He is a member of the London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee and has helped establish a London Councils ‘Healthy Streets Steering Group’ to help influence TfL’s thinking on this ground breaking agenda.

In his role as Deputy Leader and Environment Portfolio Holder he leads on all transport policies and highways and parking management. He provided political leadership through the initial bid process and is currently providing the same robust political leadership for the implementation and delivery of the multi award winning and ground breaking £27 million Mini-Holland/Enjoy project. 

Clyde won the 2016 London Cycling Awards "Cycling Champion of the Year" in recognition of his leadership on Waltham Forests Mini Holland project and has been shortlisted in this year’s National Air Quality Awards in the ‘Air Quality Champion’ category.
 

Andy Martin

Transport Planner
Transport for London

Andy is a Transport Planner working as part of TfL’s Urban Design team to deliver, design and advise on public realm, infrastructure and planning related projects following the Good Growth and Healthy Streets approaches.  He has previously worked with the London boroughs on designing and implementing key urban realms schemes including Low Emission Neighbourhoods, Crossrail Complimentary Measures and Legible London.  Most recently he has been responsible for embedding an urban design-led approach to TfL’s Liveable Neighbourhoods bids.   Andy is also working on a research project with the Transport Planning Society exploring the integration of Urban Design in Transport Planning practices

Christopher Martin

Co-Founder
Urban Movement

Christopher Martin is co-founder of the streets and transport design practice, Urban Movement. He is an Urban Designer and Planner, with over 12 years’ experience designing and leading complex urban projects, focussing on public realm, streets and transport. He is on the ‘Urban Design Group’ Editorial Board, and have also been a guest-lecturer and tutor at The Bartlett School of Planning and Architecture for a number of years.

David McKenna

Studio Associate Director
IBI Group

David works as a Chartered Landscape Architect at IBI Group but is also a Chartered Engineer.  He has been a Landscape Architect for 19 years and leads the Landscape team at IBI Group, he was an engineer for 7 years prior to retraining.  David draws on his engineering knowledge and experience to take a bold, creative, yet practical approach to design and to communicate effectively with other professionals. He has developed particular experience in the design of streets and spaces for people whilst accommodating vehicles. David sits on the Landscape Institute Technical Committee where he leads the Working Group on Inclusive Design.

Bruce McVean

Strategic Transportation Group Manager
City of London

For over 15 years, Bruce’s career has involved exploring and promoting the social, economic and environmental benefits of safe and attractive urban environments and sustainable transport. He leads the development of transport policy for the City of London, with the aim of ensuring that London’s financial district and historic heart remains a great place to live, work, learn and visit. Previous roles include Principal Strategy Planner at Transport for London, Senior Policy Advisor at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Trustee of Living Streets.

Stephen O'Malley

Founding Director
Civic Engineers

The skills Stephen has developed to engineer healthy, active and attractive urban neighbourhoods are broad – civil, transport, highways, flood risk, drainage, utilities, structures, ground remediation engineering – to name some. Stephen’s fusion and practice of these engineering skills enables the creation of inspirational public spaces that have a positive impact on the environment and enable people to lead healthier and happier lives. This broader, more creative and collaborative approach sets Civic Engineers practice apart and has seen Stephen recognised as an industry expert in his field

Jess Read

Senior Engineer
Witteveen+Bos

Jess Read has over 18 years experience delivering walking and cycling projects in places like Bristol, London, Copenhagen, Oslo and Portland, Oregon. She recently led the “iWalk - innovations in inclusive walking” project based in Bristol City Council. Her focus is inclusive walking and cycling standards. Jess was the technical project manager for the award-winning Copenhagen Blue-Green Infrastructure Masterplan (2011-2014), which through an innovative co-financing approach has liberated an additional £500m investment in walking, cycling and green infrastructure.

Caroline Russell

Assembly Member
Green Party, London City Hall

Caroline Russell, Green Party Member of the London Assembly since May 2016, chairs the Assembly’s Environment Committee and is a member of both the Transport and Economy Committees.

She is working on making our streets less hostile so Londoners can get about on foot or by bike safely and conveniently, without worrying about traffic danger.

Caroline came in to politics through campaigning for people friendly streets, after a career as an artist, retraining as a civil engineer and a period of parenthood combined with community activism.  She is the only opposition councillor in Islington.

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.  

Lucy Saunders

Public Health Specialist - Transport & Public Realm
Transport for London and the Greater London Authority

Lucy Saunders is a Consultant in Public Health specialising in transport, public realm and planning. She developed the Healthy Streets Approach™ and the 10 Healthy Streets Indicators™ in 2011.

In 2015 she was awarded Transport Planner of the Year by the Transport Planning Society and her work won awards from the international UITP and UK Chartered Institute for Highways and Transportation.

Lucy currently leads on the integration of transport and public health in London supporting Transport for London, boroughs and advocacy organisations. Lucy works across both the Greater London Authority and Transport for London embedding the Healthy Streets Approach, as set out in Healthy Streets for London, in policy and practice. In 2014 TfL became the first transport authority in the world to publish a Health Action Plan which Lucy wrote and lead its 3-year implementation.

Lucy has worked as a Public Health Specialist across a wide range of organisations from local to international level including NHS, government, academic, private and voluntary sector. She advises the World Health Organisation and the UK Government Departments for Transport and Health and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

She gained Fellowship of the UK Faculty of Public Health in 2012 on completion of the UK specialist medical training programme in Public Health. She has masters degrees in geography and public health.

Val Shawcross CBE

Former Deputy Mayor for Transport
London

Valerie Shawcross CBE had a professional background in Aid and International Development before being elected as a Labour Member to Croydon Council in 1994.  She became the Leader of the Council and her time in office was marked by the installation of Croydon Tram-link and a new focus on economic regeneration and education.  She went on to represent Lambeth and Southwark on the London Assembly between 2000 - 2016, serving Ken Livingstone’s administration as the Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority until 2008. From 2008 she spent 8 years as either the Clair or Deputy Chair of the Assembly Transport Scrutiny Committee and made a name as a vocal spokesman for passenger interests, for cycling, pedestrian rights and disability access in London.  In 2016 she was appointed by Sadiq Khan as the Deputy Mayor for Transport and in that position she pioneered the development of a 25 year Transport Strategy for London which lays out a pathway to ‘Healthier Streets’ a growth in  walking, cycling and Public Transport infrastructure. She retired in June but is a continuing member of Transport for London Board. 

Glen Davies

FORS Technical Adviser
Transport for London
 

Glen, FORS Technical Adviser, has been employed in logistics and transport all of his working life. After 20 years in operational logistics he was employed by Transport for London to establish FORS in 2007 where he led the initiative for nine years, alongside delivering a range of environmental and safety projects with the freight and fleet industry. In particular, Glen created the Construction Logistics and Community Safety (CLOCS) initiative, developed the HGV Direct Vision Standard and initiated the LoCITY programme which is stimulating the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles. Glen now leads on a range special projects in the fields of freight transport, city logistics, environment and safety at FORS and CILT.

Gillian Howard

Principal Project Manager
City of London

Gillian has worked at the City for over 15 years and is a Member of CIHT.  She has been leading on the work at Bank Junction in the City’s heart for the last few years.  The experimental Bank on Safety scheme has been a big piece of the challenging work to try and move Bank towards being a safer, cleaner more enjoyable place to be.

Laura Balzanella

Principal Transport Planner
Hackney Council

Laura is a Principal Transport Planner at the London Borough of Hackney and has 8 years experience of working in Hackney. Laura is responsible for developing and delivering the Council's transport policies and projects.

Neil Taylor

Director
Integrated Transport Planning

Neil Taylor is a Director at ITP with over 15 years’ experience of transport planning and research.  Drawing on a degree in Human Geography, and understanding of social and behavioural research techniques, his professional interests include; transport strategy and policy, inclusive mobility for disabled and older people and active travel.  Neil led the team that provided inclusive public realm design and accessible mobility advice to TfL and Westminster City Council on the proposed transformation of Oxford Street.  Away from the office he enjoys cycling, football, badminton, tennis, photography and music.

Tom Holcroft

Sustainable Transport Specialist
WSP

Tom Holcroft is a sustainable transport specialist with extensive experience of cycling and pedestrian projects throughout London and the South-East. Tom has designed high quality cycle infrastructure for schemes of all sizes in and around London, including the Kingston Mini-Holland programme. He was recently an auditor on the Mayor’s School Air Quality Audit programme, identifying air quality issues at twelve schools and identifying measures to reduce emissions and exposure – from transport solutions to green infrastructure. He is currently delivering technical support to several Local Authorities as they develop their Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plans to the DfT’s new guidance.

Gareth Morris

Co-Founder & Director
what-if Projects

Co-founder and director of what if: projects, recent winners of Architect of the Year Awards 2018 for Infrastructure. Gareth has been actively engaged in a broad range of building projects and public realm schemes in London. He led on the award-winning mini-Holland project series, Waltham Forest; and is developing Castle Place Project, a community-led regeneration scheme at Elephant and Castle. The practice serves on Design Review Panels in the London boroughs of Harrow and Croydon.  

Derek Dunsire

Principal - City Centre Regeneration
Glasgow City Council

Principal Officer, City Deal/City Centre Regeneration, Development & Regeneration Services, Glasgow City Council. Ecologist by profession. Experienced practitioner of open space and community led regeneration at local and city level. Worked within policy and strategy, and leading on actual delivery of projects/programmes on the ground. Currently client lead for Avenues – Enabling Infrastructure Integrated Public Realm programme.

Lucie Beeston & Tiff Howick 

Co-Founders
Venner Store Ltd

Jewellery designer Lucie Beeston and printmaker Tiff Howick co-founded Venner, a gallery and shop on Francis Road in Leyton. With a focus on beautiful design, Lucie and Tiff stock products from small independent businesses that are sustainably sourced and made to last. Many of the designers and makers they work with are London based, and Tiff and Lucie like to use zero emission courier service ZED for deliveries from their local suppliers. Francis Road was pedestrianised in 2017 and has been transformed into a wonderful space for local residents and visitors to walk, cycle and support their local shops.

Charles Butler

Founder & CEO
Freebike

A serial entrepreneur, Charles Butler, is the founder and CEO of Freebike, the most technologically advanced dockless electric bike in the world. Charles gained a 1st class degree in Economics at the LSE in London and moved to central Europe in 1990 from where he has founded, developed and sold companies as diverse as the largest retailer of consumer electronics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a consumer magazine publishing company and a real estate development company that built and sold 150.000m2 of offices and apartments. His passion in recent years is to change public transport into something that is efficient, environmentally sound, healthy and fun. That is Freebike.

Mike Saunders

Co-Founder
Commonplace

Mike has been a digital pioneer and entrepreneur for over 20 years, developing innovative digital businesses across media, public and commercial sectors. After graduating in Physics with Philosophy, he trained as a software engineer at JPMorgan and studied an MA in Interactive Design. He then founded Forma Communications, which became the preferred digital agency for Sony Playstation. After negotiating the sale of Forma, Mike went on to lead digital projects and teams at Channel 4 and DCMS, where he was responsible for commissioning digital education projects in the arts.

In 2007, Mike was appointed Director of Digital at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – the leading plant science institute in the world. He helped transform Kew into a digital organisation at the forefront of digital research and public engagement tools.

Whilst at Kew, he because fascinated with the potential of digital tools in the built environment – and in particular how technology can make citizens more effective partners in the design and development of cities. He presented this idea at TEDx Parliament, setting out this vision for smart citizens.

In 2013 Mike co-founded Commonplace to realise this vision. Commonplace has since grown rapidly, being used by some of the largest customers in the built environment in the UK, as well as in the US and Germany. It has won awards from the Nominet Trust, Big Venture Challenge and the national award for Best Stakeholder Engagement tool.

Mike is a Non-Executive Director and member of Council for Trinity College London and has served in other non-executive roles as a member of the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Public Engagement at Parliament, and a member of the Digital Advisory Board for ActionAid.

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.

Chris has a real skill for understanding the broad and cross-cutting issues that BetterPoints can help organisations to manage. Eminently unflappable, Chris fulfils many roles across the organisation, all of them with efficiency and good humour.

Beth Humphrey

Low Emission
Neighbourhood Project Manager

Beth Humphrey is starting out her career in Environmental Management. Having worked for the City of London Corporation for a year exploring ways to communicate air quality to the different stakeholder groups, she is now managing the Low Emission Neighbourhood project in the City of London. The three year project, supported by the Mayor of London, is now in its second year. A series of pilot initiatives are being delivered through the LEN project, with the aim to promote the air quality improvement agenda, reduce emissions and encourage further understanding of air quality issues.

Leah Coburn

Major Projects & Programmes
City of London Corporation

Leah’s extensive local authority experience has taken her across London from Ealing to Southwark before moving to the Square Mile to lead the Major Projects team at the City of London Corporation. Her portfolio currently includes the recently completed Aldgate Square, the innovative safety scheme at Bank Junction and new major civic projects around Beech Street and St Pauls.

Alastair Moss

Deputy Chairman
Planning & Transportation Committee
City of London

Biography to follow

Johan Diepens

Director
Mobycon

For more than 25 years, Johan has helped shape mobility patterns in Holland. He combines expertise in traffic, transport and mobility with sound business sense. By watching changing trends, Johan is able to provide advice that fits the needs of changing societies. It is his ambition to share knowledge in a way that suits the local context. For this reason, Johan believes strongly is working with partners internationally. 

In his position as company director, Johan designs integral traffic and transportation plans, supporting policy-making in these areas and undertaking the research upon which solid ideas can be built. Johan has extensive experience teaching post-graduate education courses, and he is a regular speaker at international conferences like Velo-City. He helped developed an innovative series of bicycle planning master classes, which he has brought to cities across Canada and England. With the aim of making cities more livable.