Speakers

Steve Rotheram

Metro Mayor, Liverpool City Region 

Steve began his political career when he was elected to serve as a councillor in 2002, representing Fazakerley on Liverpool City Council and held the ceremonial title of Lord Mayor of Liverpool during the city’s European Capital of Culture year.

In 2010, Steve was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Liverpool Walton constituency. During his time in Westminster he led campaigns for justice for the Hillsborough families; in support of blacklisted workers; for compensation for those suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis; and to change the law on the use of old tyres on buses and coaches.

From 2015, Steve served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, before successfully seeking the nomination to be Labour’s candidate for Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.

In May 2017, Steve was elected with 59% of the vote and has overseen almost a billion pounds of investment, as well as delivering half-price bus travel for apprentices and implementing the pioneering Households into Work programme.

John Vesey

Business Manager, ​Health and Wellbeing, Satellite Applications Catapult

John has been with our Catapult for more than 6 years and has had an exciting innovative career exploring satellite solutions within, health, rural connectivity, smart cities and sustainable development to mention a few. John will provide an overview of the innovation of smart solutions via satellite technology, including satellite enhanced air quality, as well as delivering capabilities within connected ambulances.

Cllr Liam Robinson 

Portfolio Holder Transport & Air Quality, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Cllr Robinson has key roles in strategic transport groups, ensuring the Liverpool City Region is at the ‘top table’ when it comes to influencing and decision making on a regional and national basis. 

Making public transport more affordable, particularly for young people, is a key focus for Cllr Robinson. He has championed the introduction of reduced price bus fares for young people up to their 19thbirthday. The development of a bus strategy, believed to be the first of its kind, has been introduced under Cllr Robinson’s chairmanship with the aim of focused collaboration between Merseytravel and the operators, with the joint objective of sustainable patronage growth.

Lorna Rogers

Head of Mayoral Programme Delivery, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Cllr Nathalie Nicholas

Deputy Portfolio Holder, Transport and Air Quality, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Lucy Marstrand-Taussig

Transport Planner​, Project Centre

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

Stefan Webb

Director of Digitising Planning and Standards, Connected Places Catapult

Stefan leads the design, development and delivery of projects across the Connected Cities Catapult. Stefan has worked with Greater Manchester to create a new way to understand infrastructure capacity and its relationship with new development, as well as leading the Future of Planning Programme.  Stefan has degrees in Sociology, Politics and Urban Regeneration. Before joining the Connected Cities Catapult he worked for including the Greater London Authority where he worked on spatial policy and strategy for the Thames Gateway and Olympic Legacy development.

Gavin Jackman

Managing Director, Aimsun

Gavin joined Aimsun in 2017 to head up Aimsun’s business in the UK and Northern Europe. 

Gavin past experience includes Telent, TRL, and Ordnance Survey being involved with many of the key technologies used by Local Authorities across the UK . 

Gavin is the current chair for the Simulation Interest Group of ICAV,  Programme Committee Chair for Intelligent Mobility Management and Operations Committee of Association of European Transport (AET), and is heavily involved in the TTF’s SPATULA WG. Formally, Gav has been the Honorary Secretary for ITS UK Local Authority Interest Group, a steering group member of Transport Technology Forum, and Board Member of the AET.

John Smith

Programme Development Officer, Merseytravel

John Smith is a Programme Development Officer in the Local Transport Plan Development Team in Merseytravel, the Executive body that provides professional, strategic and operational transport advice to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and has worked in the transport sector for 28 years. John provides strategic level co-ordination and support for the development and implementation of new and emerging funding methodologies and support in the integration of LTP policies in relation to transport and economic development in City Region policies and strategies. During him time at Merseytravel, John has overseen the development a number of major initiatives in support of improving access to opportunities and services across the region through sustainable transport. 

Claire Hering

Programme Development Officer, Merseytravel

Claire is a Programme Development Officer at Merseytravel, the Executive body that provides professional, strategic and operational transport advice to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Claire works in the Local Transport Plan Development Team, seeing transport projects through all stages from options and appraisal stage, to delivery, monitoring and evaluation. Claire has 11 years’ experience in transportation with background in highway asset management at Liverpool City Council and has an MSc in Transport Planning and Engineering and BSc in Mathematics.

David Powell

Programme Director Rolling Stock, Merseytravel 

With over thirty years of public transport industry experience, David is leading the project to replace the Merseyrail fleet of rolling stock and an associated programme of infrastructure improvements.  Initially a rolling stock designer, he has been a Project/Programme Director for the last twenty years, working on a range of railway, metro and tram projects worldwide for both public and private sector organisations.

Giles Perkins

Head of Future Mobility, WSP UK

Giles leads WSPs Future Mobility team in the UK and has nearly thirty years’ experience in the transportation planning and intelligent transport sectors. He has worked in the public and private sectors as a senior client and director level consultant and has led major projects across all modes. He has a detailed understanding of the strategic needs and opportunities surrounding the transport challenges that face our networks and services in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.  

Giles is a recognised expert in the field of future mobility having undertaken numerous cutting-edge commissions where his insight is helping build ‘future ready’ thinking into strategies, policies, programmes and business cases.  He is a strategic thinker with an in-depth appreciation of the challenges facing the transport sector because of both industry disruptors and wider socio-economic influences.

Giles has presented papers at numerous events and conferences in the UK, Europe, Japan and Australia focusing on the potential challenges and opportunities in the future mobility space with a particular focus on how we can navigate uncertainty. Giles was a key contributor to WSP’s well received publication ‘New Mobility Now’, is engaged with our ongoing international research and has contributed extensively to industry thinking.

Peter Jones 

Professor of Transport and Sustainable Development, UCL

Peter Jones is Professor of Transport and Sustainable Development in the Centre for Transport Studies at UCL; he was previously Director of the Transport Studies Group, at the University of Westminster  He is a member of the Independent Transport Commission and of the CIHT Urban Design Panel, the DfT’s Science Advisory Council and co-chair of its Joint Analysis Development Panel. He was awarded an OBE for services to national transport policy in January 2017.

He led the EU ‘CREATE’ project, looking at changing urban transport policy priorities over time, from a focus on car provision to place-based planning; and is currently Scientific Co-ordinator for the EU funded ‘MORE’ project examining how to plan, design, manage and operate urban main roads, to take into current and account future demographic and technological change, through adopting a  more dynamic approach to street-space allocation.

He has a wide range of transport research and teaching interests, covering both analytical methods and policy. These include transport policy development, traveller attitudes and behaviour, travel trends and the determinants of travel demand, road pricing and traffic restraint studies, accessibility studies, policy option generation, major transport economic and social impact studies, public engagement, development of new survey, analysis and appraisal methods, and advances in urban street planning and design.

Marc Harris

Research and Evidence Lead, Intelligent Health

Evidence is at the heart of Intelligent Health and their Evidence and Research Lead, Marc, is responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of each Beat the Street initiative. With a strong academic background that includes a Masters degree in Health and Social Science Research Methods which is currently being strengthened by a PhD in the Sociology and Philosophy of Sport – Marc is able to expertly investigate the health, social, psychological and environmental benefits of all of Intelligent Health programmes.

John McGee

Head of Government Relations, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

John qualified as a lawyer before joining the Department for Business in 2009. During 7 years in Whitehall he worked in Departments headed by politicians from all three of the main UK parties, covering topics as far reaching as international trade negotiations at the WTO and in Brussels, and the UK planning system. He was part of the team in the Cabinet Office European Secretariat that secured the first ever cut to the EU budget under PM David Cameron and his Chief EU Advisor, Ivan Rogers. Before joining the Combined Authority, John spent two years leading the policy team at the British Film Institute before ‘returning home’ to the North where he leads the CA’s engagement with Westminster, including their discussions about further devolution to the city region. He also oversees the CA’s work on housing, planning, infrastructure and the low carbon economy.

Dr Mark Burke

Data Research Scientist, The Floow

Dr. Burke is the Data Research Scientist at The Floow, the UK’s leading provider of telematics services. He is involved with several UK and EU projects that span a broad portfolio of mobility-related research.  These projects range from developing an understanding of risk in the era of autonomous vehicles to using telematics data to achieve a statistical understanding of congestion and vehicle emissions across cities. 

Dr. Burke joined The Floow from academia, where he was a researcher in high-energy astrophysics. During this time he worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts, L’Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, and the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik in Munich. He is the first author of several scientific papers in leading journals and has presented at meetings and conferences around the world. 

Colin Brown

Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Motorcycle Action Group

Colin Brown is the Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement for the Motorcycle Action Group.  The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) is the UK’s leading riders’ rights organisation, established in 1973.   Colin has been riding motorcycles since the late 1980s and, with an engineering background, has had a varied career that makes him uniquely suited to his current role.  Colin has a national remit within MAG and spends much of his time promoting the benefits that motorcycling can bring to the transport mix.  Taking an evidence-based approach, Colin is very knowledgeable on technical detail and modelling.  Dealing with political contacts provides the balance of more philosophical and strategic elements of transport. Finally, being a highly experienced user of the transport mode and interfacing directly with the wider riding community gives him the real world common sense approach to challenges that is sometimes missing in academics, planners and politicians who commonly have little, if any, first-hand experience of motorcycling.

Colin believes that, in an environment dominated by the private motor car, the role of the motorcycle often goes completely unnoticed, resulting in opportunities being squandered.  With current, growing focus on solving congestion, air quality and wider environmental issues, Colin believes that a golden age of motorcycling is set to launch and flourish.

Deborah Fox

Head of Demand Management, Transport for West Midlands

Deborah has a background in behaviour change working for national charities like Keep Britain Tidy. For the past 10 years, she has worked in large local authorities in the south and east of England, most recently as a commissioner at Essex County Council. Deborah brings delivery experience to her new role in Transport for West Midlands, having successfully managed public transport budgets up to £31 million per year and transformed services to become more commercial. Deborah  feels that congestion is one of our biggest behaviour change challenges of the 21st Century. She is relishing making an impact on it at a regional scale with new planned disruption branding, partnership approach and Travel Choices Team. Her role as Head of Demand Management reflects a growing professional discipline within combined authorities, which was once the preserve of major international sporting events. Deborah is also Project Sponsor for the Network Resilience ADEPT Live Lab, which was awarded £2.65 million by the Department for Transport in 2019.

Geoff Murphy

Lead Engineer, Commercial & Innovation Team, SP Energy Networks (SPEN)

Geoff is coming up to his 23rd year in engineering education and employment, with the last 14-15 years spent at SPEN. For the most part this has been spent in an innovation role, utilising Ofgem Innovation Stimulus to deliver benefits for UK customers. As of May 2019, Geoff was appointed Project Manager for SPENs £8.5m Charge Network Innovation Competition (NIC) project, which looks to accelerate the rollout of public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

David Leipziger

Innovation Lead for Cities & Mobility, Innovate UK

David focuses on helping the UK to lead the way in fostering world-class urban mobility. To do so, he interfaces with public, private, and institutional entities to understand challenges and promote inventive solutions for urban mobility. He also acts as technical liaison with the Connected Places Catapult. With a background in urban infrastructure policy and finance, David previously worked for Arup, Mott MacDonald, the World Resources Institute, and the Institute for Market Transformation. Although undeniably American, David has lived and worked in Brazil, Kenya, France, and the UK. He holds a joint MBA/MURP from UCLA as well as a BA from Brown University.

Tristan Bacon

Research Associate, Zenzic

Working in Zenzic’s Technology Team since January, Tristan has played a core role in running collaborative stakeholder workshops, performing data analysis, and establishing the thematic structure for the UK Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Roadmap to 2030. Tristan also works on other special and strategic projects that Zenzic undertakes on behalf of the UK CAM ecosystem.

Michael Cowdy

Director, McGregor Coxall 

As a Director and Urbanism leader for McGregor Coxall, Michael’s passion rests in creating healthy, smart, sustainable, and vibrant places and cities. He has extensive experience in community led regeneration projects and has delivered internationally recognised urban outcomes to a variety of iconic destinations. From city-wide frameworks in the UK, masterplans in China through to the delivery of award winning public spaces in Australia, Michael pursues a progressive, restorative and engaging outcome for place.

Andrew Caleya Chetty

Partner and Chief Strategy Officer, Umbrellium 

With two decades experience in technology deployment and product creation, Andrew has founded cultural, technology and entertainment initiatives for interactive participatory experiences across the UK. His expertise includes strategic planning for community participation, developing robust financial models for cutting-edge technology and managing production logistics for complex urban projects. Andrew is also a director and partner in Thingful, a search engine for the Internet of Things, enabling secure discoverability & interoperability between millions of public & private connected objects around the world.   It enable an interoperable Internet of Things, in which connected objects find and use each other's data with the active consent of their owners. Thingful enables IoT data owners to control how their data is used, and empowers them to make more valuable and effective decisions through secure cross-domain IoT search & access.

Dave Murphy

Associate, Momentum Transport Consultancy

David has over 13 years’ experience in highways, development and transport planning in addition to obtaining a masters in transport planning and engineering. With combined experience from both the public and private sector, Dave has gained knowledge of a wide variety of development types and scale. David has extensive experience of development planning of a wide range of development types and sizes progressing from the design and pre-application stage through to post construction and occupation obligations. He has enjoyed working on various developments and projects in Stratford as well as working on construction logistics projects in central London.  His experience also extends to both the planning and implementation of major development areas and urban extensions. Whilst working in the public sector, David gained valuable experience from numerous major developments, being responsible for negotiating transport mitigation packages and facilitating the Section 278 process for implementing highway works.

Phill Davies

Co-Founder - Magway

Co-founder/Commercial Director of Magway. Committed to establishing Magway as a new delivery utility for transporting the $4tn of goods purchased online to people's homes.  Significantly reducing the emissions and congestion caused by freight traffic. 

 Prior to Magway, Phill spent his career in the retail and technology sectors focusing on business development and reverse logistics. He has worked with numerous leading retailers to improve efficiency and value on their returns and clearance goods and processes.

 Phill spent a number of years with Deloitte Consulting and Lehman Equity Research providing thought leadership and some of the first written research reports on Software as a Service business models. He is also active in the start-up space assisting various companies including LOVESPACE and RotaGeek with their commercial roll-outs/scale-ups. 

Georgina Maratheftis

Head of Local Public Services, TechUK

Georgina is techUK’s Head of Local Public Services. Georgina works with suppliers that are active or looking to break into the market as well as with councils to create the conditions for meaningful transformation. techUK regularly bring together local authorities and supplier community to horizon scan and explore how the technologies of today and tomorrow can help solve some of the most pressing problems our communities face.

Prior to techUK, Georgina worked for a public policy events company where she managed the policy briefing division and was responsible for generating new ideas for events that would add value to the public sector. Georgina worked across a number of portfolios from education, criminal justice, and health but had a particular interest in public sector transformation and technology. Georgina also led on developing relationships across central and local government.

Henri Murison

Director, Northern Powerhouse Partnership

As its first permanent Director, he has established the Northern Powerhouse Partnership as the business led organisation which convenes the North together. From securing further investment to guarantee HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail would work together as an integrated high speed network, to challenging for a better deal for the most disadvantaged from the education system, his team are focused on how government, business and partners can drive the North’s ambitions. Before joining the Partnership, he worked in senior research and public affairs roles for the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Yorkshire Building Society, as well as previously serving as Cabinet Member for Quality of Life at Newcastle City Council.

Adrian Weissenbruch

SEND and PA Transport Manager, Wiltshire Council

With a background in Civil Engineering I have worked for Wiltshire Council for the past 11 years. During that time, I specialised in routing, for many years in Roadworks Co-ordination and later for Passenger Transport. More recently I have taken a particular interest in Special Educational Needs and Social Care specialist transport and have served as a Specialist Educational Needs and Disabilities Governor. Over the past 18 months I have been working in partnership with Q-Routes, initially to use their software to make savings in transport, but then as a planning tool in a project to look at building new Special Educational School provision in Wiltshire.

Emily Ellis

Consultant, WSP

Emily is a Consultant in the Future Mobility team at WSP and has played a key research role for the team since joining WSP in 2016. Having initially been involved with two internal WSP research projects, exploring the potential improvements automated vehicles could bring to places and routes and investigating the implications of increasingly connected, shared and decarbonised journeys, Emily now leads primary research in the team. Emily advises a range of public and private sector clients on wider developments in the mobility landscape, providing evidence based critical-analysis of emerging technological and societal trends, policy and new people, freight and service-based mobility models for strategic and scheme specific projects.

Dr Craig Smith

Data Scientist, Agilysis

Craig is a mathematician, with an established background in academic research.  He studied for both his undergraduate master’s degree and doctorate in mathematics at the University of Oxford, specialising in Geometric Representation Theory. Since then he has shifted his focus to the road safety sector, and is now the resident data scientist at Agilysis Ltd. Craig’s current role is a mixture of hands-on data analysis (often including large datasets and geospatial analysis), automating regular tasks and encouraging reproducibility, and exploring and implementing the wide range of applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision. He has a wealth of experience in using numerous transport and road safety related datasets such as STATS19 data, MIDAS minute-by-minute speed and flow data, flow data, socio-demographic data, telematics data, and road infrastructure datasets, which he has used to both assess and predict the levels of road risk and danger on the road network.

George Ursachi

Senior Research Analyst, Agilysis

With a strong background in marketing and marketing research fields, and extensive experience in business development research, business intelligence and market segmentation, George has specialised in research design and methodologies and had been constructing and implementing research instruments and methodologies for clients for more than twelve years. With a few years of academic teaching experience, George is also capable to understand and communicate to young audience and to employ modern techniques for engaging audiences in the process of learning.

For the past four years George was involved in various research and analysis projects in Road Safety field and had the opportunity to enrich his knowledge in the field and to bring his contribution in improving the power of analysis and the robustness of used methodologies. With his multi-field skills and capabilities and his research and statistical experience and expertise, George is well-equipped to lead research and analysis projects, ensuring that robust methodologies, appropriate conditions, and appropriate measurement and evaluation designs are in place through all stages of the projects. In addition to several awards for projects he has worked on, George was awarded the International Transport Forum’s 2018 Young Researcher of the Year Award, for his work on profiling drink-drivers involved in UK collisions.

Fiona Appleton

Regional Account Manager, Energy Saving Trust

Fiona works on the Local Government Support Programme at the Energy Saving Trust, helping local authorities to develop, deliver and analyse low emission transport initiatives and strategies that improve local air quality and reduce CO2 emissions. Fiona has extensive experience in managing sustainable transport projects. She previously worked with Transport for Greater Manchester in their Travel Choices team engaging with businesses on reducing carbon emissions from transport. She also worked in EST’s Edinburgh office where she assisted local authorities to review their grey fleet and benchmarked the carbon emissions from Scotland’s public sector fleet.

Dr Adele Carter

Project Manager, LHOFT: Liverpool - Humber Optimisation of Freight Transport

Dr Adele-Louise Carter is the MD of Kiteway Ltd, involved in Business Doctoring Services from the management of complex problems, projects and issues to coaching of SMEs.  Currently Adele is the project manager of the LHOFT (Liverpool–Humber Optimisation Freight Transport) project involving over 50 organisations and working for P&O Ferries as the lead partner. Adele is originally a software engineer with 30 years experience within logistics and across aerospace, rail, maritime and automotive with such companies as Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Serco, Bentleys and companies in their supply chain. Work has included International strategic implementations, consultancy, assessments and operational management.  To enhance this Adele is also a Phd Supervisor/lecturer for a number of Universities in the UK and Malaysia and works for Government and Charity Aid Agencies.

Sung Pil Oe

Innovation Project Lead , UK Power Networks

Dr Sung Pil Oe joined UK Power Networks as a project lead for Optimise Prime project. Sung has over 15 years of combined experience in the power system and renewable industry as well as in academia. Previously Sung has worked for National Grid including leading the National High Voltage Strategy and for WSP as a Principal Power Systems Engineer and Team Leader. Sung holds a MSc in New and Renewable Energy from Durham University and a PhD in power converter control from University of Nottingham.

Ann Williams

Lead, Liverpool 5G testbed, health and social care & Commissioning and Contracts manager, Adult Social Services, Liverpool City Council

I am a Commissioning and Contracts manager of Adult Social Services at Liverpool City Council. Part of that role is as the innovation network lead which looks at innovative ways of delivering care against a decreasing budget and increasing needs. I have led the Liverpool involvement in the EU STOP&GO programme.  Through this programme, I digitalised  Liverpool Domiciliary Care services (value £16M+) and introduced a LoRaWAN network and IoT sensors into the current services delivered by a range of in house and external care providers.  I am the council lead for the current DCMS Phase 1 5G Health and Social Care test Test Bed and Trial for Liverpool City Council social services.  This involves a Mm mesh network using the Council owned dark fibre and lampposts using unlicensed spectrum.

Previously I had been in Citizen Advice Bureau management for 19 years at both local bureau and regional level. I have always been driven by a strong sense of social justice and working with the most marginalised in society heightens my awareness of inequalities in society especially with the current financial challenges to household and public budgets and the need to lessen the digital divide.

Through my passion about improving the quality and equity of public services I am also a member of Food Standards Agency (FSA) Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food and a member of the Campylobacter group working on a report looking at how to control Campylobacter in food supplies. I am the Vice Chair of the Liverpool Central Local Research Ethics Committee and a core member of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Public Health Advisory Group.  This wide understanding of different sectors mean I can vision the benefits of 5G across a range of industries as well as life science use cases.

Ana Paola Lopez

Social & Urban Innovation Specialist, i.lab Barcelona

Ana Paola Lopez is introducing innovation in Barcelona City Council through the i.lab. The i.lab’s goal is to accelerate social and sustainable urban innovation in an open and collaborative way between the public, private, social and academic sectors. It serves as transformation tool of the city administration to deliver better services and improve the quality of life of Barcelona’s residents, while fostering economic development.

She is a specialist in urban and social innovation and provides advisory services to local governments on problem-solving, needs’ identification and public procurement. She also has experience in urban resilience, climate change policy, social development and urban poverty alleviation.

She has worked for the Social Development Ministry of the Mexican Government on a program to tackle urban poverty; for the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department on projects to strengthen social resilience to climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean; and for Citymart, managing projects on challenge-based procurement and open innovation competitions working with several cities in countries such as the U.K, U.S., Chile, and Spain.

Luke Rust

Head of Commercial Development, Immense 

Like is driven to improve decision-making capability across the mobility industry by placing the Immense platform in the hands of key stakeholders. Luke is passionate about the intersection of technology, transportation and energy, and possesses a balance of technical and commercial experience within the domains of intelligent mobility, sustainable energy, and the built environment. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London, where he led research into climate compatible operation of autonomous vehicle fleets.

Helen McAllister 

Head of Strategic Planning (FNPO), Network Rail

Helen joined Network Rail in 2004 following the completion Doctorate at Imperial College, London. In the subsequent 15 years, she has been involved in cross industry strategic and business planning.  She is now Head of Strategic Planning for Freight and National Passenger Operators within the System Operator, working closely with customers and regions to identify the opportunities to deliver improvements for end users. The Network wide remit of the role includes leading Network Strategies – the Railway for Everyone Network Strategy draft is currently being finalised and the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy is underway. Helen was a member of the Decarbonisation Task Force, chaired by Malcolm Brown.

Network Rail’s role

A Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy is underway, following on from the outputs of the Decarbonisation Task Force. This piece of work will be led by System Operator on behalf of industry, drawing on input from Network Rail, RSSB, RDG, RIA, ROSCOs and manufacturers in order to provide choices for funders to reduce the carbon impact of the railway. It will consider to what extent a renewals driven programme of work would enable industry to support the achievement of national carbon emissions targets and the additional steps that would need be taken to reduce carbon emissions in line with these targets. It will also consider how to deploy the different technology alternatives to diesel engines in order to provide efficient utilisation of these across the network

Lauren Poon

Head of Digital, EMEA

As the Head of Digital for CRTKL UK, Europe, and the Middle East, Lauren is spearheading data-enabled design and digital innovation. She is paving the way for sustainable and responsive creative processes by fostering and developing ideas with diverse, multidisciplinary teams. Lauren is bringing about advancements in BIM, computational design and emerging technologies to generate better solutions, faster. Informed by specialist expertise in residential regeneration schemes and her human-centric creative approach, the application of these solutions is creating successful mixed-use communities with user-experience at their core.  Lauren is the Vice-Chair of the ULI UK Tech Forum as well as a member of the ULI UK Young Leaders Group and the ULI Sustainability Forum.

David Brown

Principal Transport Planner, Liverpool City Council

I have been at Liverpool City Council  for 3 years, working on new technology projects such as Electric Vehicle charge points, bike and car sharing schemes.  I have also worked on various transport policy documents and successful funding bids. Previously I worked at St Helens and Sefton councils on transport planning projects. I started my career at Manchester City Council before moving to Leeds working on LRT, guided bus and road schemes projects in both cities.

Richard Clements

CMO, Connected Kerb

Richard began his career in fundraising within the sports entertainment business and moved into Formula One, mainly involved with sponsorship projects for a variety of teams. He later worked in the world of finance and, after a successful career funding various tech and infrastructure projects, he set up a small private equity firm based in Mayfair with two other partners. Richard was one of the joint founders of Oxygen Freejumping, a chain of trampoline parks across the UK.

Harriet Greene

Head of the Future of Mobility Team, Department for Transport

Harriet Greene is the Head of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge in a joint unit of the Department for Transport and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a role she has held since May 2019.  The Future of Mobility programme is designed to set the UK as a world leader in the way people, goods and services move.

Chris Sibthorpe

Projects director, Mott MacDonald

With over 20 years of consultancy experience, Chris leads Mott MacDonald’s transport planning team in Manchester. He has extensive experience of working on projects right across the North West region and has a clear understanding of the transport and movement challenges facing the Greater Manchester city region.

As a transport planner, Chris has developed a strong interest and passion in active travel and placemaking and has recently worked with TfGM’s strategy, innovation and walking and cycling teams. He has supported the development of the transport evidence base to support the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) based on a ‘decide and provide’ approach and is working on connectivity schemes to ensure that the benefits of HS2 extend beyond their immediate station footprint. He was the project director for the Streets for All Orbital project which has identified interventions to move away from car dominated environments to those focused on people and place. He is a skilled practitioner in the development of walking and cycling strategies across a number of different scales including town centres, suburban locations and garden villages.

Chris is passionate about delivering thoughtful well-designed schemes that can help to deliver transformational change to our urban environments. He enjoys working closely with clients to ensure that these are locally referenced and take into account the unique challenges of each geography.

Dr Laurence Chittock

Associate Transport Planner, PTV UK Ltd

Laurence is an Associate with PTV UK and is currently project manager for the Charge project (chargeproject.co.uk), an Ofgem funded study assessing the infrastructure needs of electric vehicles (EVs) in collaboration with SP Energy Networks, EA Technology, and Smarter Grid Solutions. His experience with electric vehicles started with his involvement in the CABLED project – the UK’s first major EV demonstration trial, and continued with research in Denmark – investigating business models to support uptake, and his PhD from Aston University, where he developed a location model to identify optimal locations for rapid charging stations. Prior to joining PTV he worked as a transport modelling consultant for Mott MacDonald, undertaking several major modelling assessments for public transport and highway schemes across the West Midlands. Laurence regularly attends and presents at leading transport conferences and is a reviewer and committee member for the European Transport Conference.

Paul Osborne

Associate, SYSTRA

Paul Osborne has over 25 years’ experience of promoting sustainable transport schemes, ranging from developing transport policy and travel behaviour change projects to technical design of walking and cycling infrastructure schemes.  Before joining SYSTRA as an Associate in March 2017, he was regional director for Sustrans in Yorkshire and the Humber.  His key skills are stakeholder consultation and engagement, policy support, development of new projects, travel planning and walking and cycling scheme design.

Paul is currently managing the communications and engagement activities for Bradford Council as it develops a Clean Air Plan for the city. Work to date includes an initial public survey, website development and branding exercise alongside activities with seldom heard community groups. A full business case will be submitted at the end of October.

Paul has also managed delivery of a new cycling and walking strategy for the North East Combined Authority, completed a Local Transport Plan review  and cycling and walking infrastructure plan for Gloucestershire; and strategic technical support for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.  He currently acts as Chair for the West Yorkshire City Connect Advisory Group and sits on the project board for the West Yorkshire LCWIP project.

Nigel Cassidy

Professor of Geotechnical Infrastructure Engineering, University of Birmingham School of Engineering

Prof Cassidy has over 30 years’ academic and industrial experience in near-surface geophysics, hydrological & geotechnical engineering and numerical modelling research. Nigel’s current work is focused on the development of sensing technologies for infrastructure & environmental monitoring applications and the development of machine learning processes for the autonomous interpretation of sensor data. He is a
board member, DAFNI (Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure), and Deputy Director of the new National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF) at the University which forms part of the wider, UK capital investment to support the UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC).

Therese Karger-Lerchl

Senior Economist, Cities and Infrastructure Practice, Vivid Economics

Therese advises private and public sector clients in the UK and in developing countries on urban economic development strategies with a focus on the role of built, digital and green infrastructures. Projects focus on applying natural capital accounts to strategic planning and sustainable development, and spatial analysis for the promotion of local economic development.

Prior to joining Vivid, Therese was a Consultant at the Open Data Institute, where she helped cities design strategies for data and digital infrastructure. As a Senior Economist at the South African National Treasury, she led on developing a sustainable framework for infrastructure financing in South African cities. She also worked at KPMG and GIZ, where she focused on public sector advisory and joining up economic research across emerging economies.

Therese has an MSc in Specialised Economic Analysis: International Trade, Finance and Development from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics as well as a BSc in International Economics from Maastricht University.

Frank Mitchell

CEO, SP Energy Networks

Frank Mitchell leads a business with responsibility for getting the electricity from power generators to all 3.5 million customers in Central and South Scotland, Merseyside and North Wales. A key focus for SP Energy Networks is supporting the communities it serves beyond that of a traditional utility, which has been recognised in a number of customer and community national awards for the business.

SP Energy Networks employs around 3000 people directly and another 3000 through partners and is currently recruiting around 150 graduates and apprentices every year.

Frank is also Chairman of Skills Development Scotland and Co-Chair of the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board.

Frank has over twenty five years’ experience working in the energy sector, covering all aspects of the value chain, in both the UK and USA. Involvement in M&A activity as well as leading strategic business change.

SP Energy Networks has been a leading business in both technical and commercial innovation that has allowed many communities to now be net-exporters of energy via distributed generation.

Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins

Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainability, Liverpool City Council

The target for Liverpool City Council is to be carbon-neutral by 2030. The Climate Emergency motion agreed on July 17 set out some specific actions for the local authority, and also sets out how the council will work as widely as possible with communities, the City Region Combined Authority, individuals, employers, organisations and other local authorities and academics to deliver.

Mark Dickens

Lead Officer for Spatial Planning, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Mark is the lead officer for spatial planning at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and provided the planning input into the Devolution Deal “asks” related to spatial planning powers. His present focus at the Combined Authority is on delivering the first Spatial Development Strategy outside of London, which will help shape future development throughout the City Region.  Previously he was the Senior Assistant Director for Regeneration at St.Helens Council, with a key responsibility for transport policy, delivery of development schemes and the spatial planning service.  He has also worked for various other local authorities including Chester City, Wirral, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, primarily in Development Management.

Mark Knowles

Lead, Low Carbon / Energy Strategy, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Stephen Stewart

SP Manweb Director, SP Energy Networks

Stephen Stewart is Director SP Manweb in SP Energy Networks. He started his professional career in ScottishPower in 1981 and has gained a wealth of experience in a number of different roles in the Networks business including Construction, Maintenance and Project Engineering. In 2001, Stephen moved to the role of Asset Manager in Energy Networks and in 2006 he took up the position of Head of Planning & Investment Planning Manager. He was appointed to the position of Head of Distribution Programmes in 2012.

In his current role he is responsible for the Manweb networks licence in England and the successful operation of the distribution of our network in that area. Decarbonisation of the transport and heat networks are expected to increase demand and reliance on our electricity network infrastructure and Stephen is committed to ensuring a smooth transition to low carbon technologies for all industrial, commercial and domestic customers in Merseyside, Cheshire, North Shropshire and North Wales.

Since becoming Director for the SP Manweb area, Stephen is proud to have made his home in the Liverpool area.

Cllr Gill Wood

Deputy Portfolio Holder, Energy & Low Carbon, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 

Dr Kay Inckle 

Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool

Dr Kay Inckle is a lecturer in sociology and a researcher and activist in the field of disability and mental health, she has held a number of academic positions as well as working in health and social care, advocacy, training and consultancy. She has published widely in the fields of disability and mental health and self-harm including her recent paper, “Disabled Cyclists and the Deficit Model of Disability” and her book Safe with Self-Injury: A practical guide to understanding, responding and harm reduction. She is also an avid handcyclist, a para-dance competitor, a vegan, environmentalist and qualified Pilates Instructor.

Jannat Alkhanizi

Transport Planner, Mott MacDonald

Jannat is a Transport Planner based out of London with experiences in Strategic Planning, Future Mobility, and Traffic Engineering. Her work in Future Mobility focuses on trend analysis, Strategic and Economic case analysis, and planning for first and last mile solutions using new modes such as CAVs, micro-mobilities and demand responsive services. In addition to her project work, Jannat has also participated in national and international conferences, and published papers including “Enabling First and Last Mile Solutions” and “Autonomous Readiness in Rural UK”. She has worked in various international environments including secondments and work placements in Singapore, Dubai and various UK locations.

Chris Bristow

COO, BetterPoints

BetterPoints develops incentive-led, evidence-based behaviour change solutions for communities. Working with a wide range of stakeholders BetterPoints can deliver measurable outcomes in key areas. Our solutions are applicable across different sectors and we have a strong focus on health and sustainable transport. This includes co-branded localised programmes and vertical applications that connect, engage and motivate people, businesses and civil society while driving positive societal impact and self-sustaining communities.

Beate Kubitz

Consultant

As a thought leader within the rapidly evolving world of innovative mobility, I specialise in  analysing new technology, agendas and behaviours and articulating their potential future impact. I enable messages to be heard by the right people and acted upon, whether they be transport operators and consultants, tech developers or transport authorities.

Paul Hodgins

CEO, Ginger & former Leader, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

Ginger is about modernising last mile transport with small, clean, low speed electric vehicles including e-scooters, e-bikes, and other emerging small e-vehicles. Making our cities and towns better connected, improving the liveability for all.

Ginger is a UK-based shared transport provider. Our approach is building a service that integrates well with local areas, working closely with local councils. A committed local partner in improving last mile transport.

Dan Hubert

CEO and founder, AppyWay

AppyWay is the champion of the kerb. We’re kerb obsessed. It began when we launched AppyParking, the tool that makes parking easy for everyone. By working so closely with Local Authorities, we realised the huge, untapped potential lying right under all of our feet. The humble kerb, with the power to transform our cities. Right then AppyWay was born. Armed with best-in-class kerbside data, APIs and full stack management systems, we know kerbs are our key to tackling urban issues of modern-day living: congestion, mobility, pollution, even dying high streets. 

Andrew Anderson

Business Engagement, Liftshare

With over 18 years experience Liftshare is the UK's largest car sharing provider, offering fully integrated car sharing schemes and personal travel plans into workplaces, motivating large numbers of employees to travel more sustainably. I work within Liftshare's Business Development Team and lead Business Engagement, helping businesses solve issues around parking, recruitment and retention, corporate social responsibility, finance, ISO accreditation and employee engagement

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