About the Smarter Travel Awards judging panel...

Giles K Bailey

CEO - TravelSpirit Foundation

Giles Bailey is an insightful thinker about business and societal challenges and the resulting need for organisational change. This is particularly in the mobility sector as well as the wider public sector. The basis for this experience is his 25 year career at Transport for London and in consulting in North America and Europe. He now applies this knowledge, via being a Director at Stratageeb Ltd, in areas such as strategic and innovation advice to businesses including digital start-ups, multi-nationals, local authorities, other public sector organisations and governments. He also university lectures, speaks at conferences and writes for the UK and international transport press. Giles Bailey is also CEO and Director of International Relations at the TravelSpirit Foundation.

Karla Jakeman

Connected Transport & Comms Innovation Lead - Innovate UK

I joined Innovate UK Transport Systems team in January 2015 working in the multi modal field of Connected Transport/Intelligent Mobility and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. The re-named Connected Transport team is now part of the wider Infrastructure Systems Sector. As an Innovation Lead in the Connected Transport area, I am seeking solutions which use innovative technologies to leverage a smarter, greener and more sustainable transport system for the efficient movement of people and goods around the world. I lead on the Customer Experience section of the team. Prior to this I have 15 years’ experience working for a large automotive company in Design Quality.

Lee Omar

CEO - Red Ninja Studios

Lee is CEO of Red Ninja, a design-led technology company that co-creates technology using its expertise in data science, the Internet of Things, smart cities, electrical engineering and app development. He is also co-chair of the City Standards Institute, a collaboration between the UK’s Future Cities Catapult and the British Standards Institution.

Lee worked on the Foresight Future Cities program, which was led by the UK Chief Scientific Advisor and looked at the opportunities and challenges facing UK cities over the next 50 years. He also advises the Indian government on smart cities and Open Innovation at President and Chief Minister level. In 2010, Lee founded Connected Liverpool; a public, private, academic partnership that aims to enable Liverpool to become a smart city. He has deployed future city technology pilots and R&D led projects in the areas of intelligent mobility, smart energy, open data, digital health. Recently, he been working with Google, in Silicon Valley, on R&D for the Internet of Things for health and social care in cities. Lee also has a weekly slot on BBC, discussing technology trends.

Jennie Martin

Secretary General - ITS United Kingdom

Jennie joined ITS United Kingdom, the Intelligent Transport Society for the UK, in 1998.  Prior to that, she worked in the City Engineer’s Department at the Corporation of London, the local authority for the “Square Mile” financial district of London.  Jennie began her working life with the then British Rail in 1986.

Jennie has a BA (Hons) in History from Kings College London, and an MA from the UK’s Open University.  She wrote her MA thesis on the institutional framework of the introduction of camera technology for traffic applications in London. She started with ITS (UK) as Membership Secretary, and was promoted to Secretary General in 2004.

Jennie is a past Chairman of the Network of National ITS Associations, an organisation of 28 European ITS associations. Jennie is originally from Sweden, but is now a happily naturalised Londoner.

Barbara Wade

LTP Development Manager - Mersey Travel

Barbara heads up the LTP Development Team at Merseytravel with a remit to support the Liverpool City Region Transport Partners to ensure that transport investment in the Liverpool City Region is focused on growing the economy of the region, improving the health of the population and connecting people to where they need / want to go.

Previously Barbara has had many roles within Merseytravel, from drawing up specifications for supported bus routes to project managing a multi-million pound extension to one of the region's existing bus stations. In between she took the long journey down the East Lancs Road to work for GMPTE for a short while, as part of the team delivering Bus Corridor improvements.

Dan Hanshaw

Principal Consultant - The Project Centre

Following a two-year stint as a technician, Daniel joined Project Centre as an apprentice, working his way up to Principal Parking Consultant in just seven years.

Daniel is an integral member of the team managing a large pool of engineers and delivering a number of successful parking schemes for local authorities across the country.

A well-respected figure among colleagues within the industry, Daniel delivers innovative solutions for clients and is often sought out for advice and assistance by local authorities.

Daniel has a HNC in Engineering, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation and won the 2018 Young Parking Professional of the Year award at the British Parking Awards.

Mark Knowles

Head of Low Carbon Economy - Liverpool LEP

Mark is Head of Low Carbon Economy at the Local Enterprise Partnership. He is responsible to the Metro Mayor for energy generation, utility networks, building efficiency and low carbon transport within Liverpool City Region. Mark leads on infrastructure investment, energy strategy, project delivery and Government relations. Key projects include Mersey Tidal Power, offshore wind deployment, delivering a £650m local energy projects pipeline and hydrogen development for heat and multi modal transport and electric vehicle infrastructure roll out.

Before joining the LEP, Mark held a series of senior positions with Manchester Airports Group delivering the second runway at Manchester, integrating world leading environment initiatives into a commercially sustainable business model. Mark went on to lead several airport acquisition projects before creating and leading a utilities business including the delivery of the first large-scale windfarm at a UK airport, the first biomass powered airport terminal and the UK’s largest retrofit programme of LED lighting.

Mark sits on a number of UK and European Government working groups looking to reduce climate change impact from sectors including transport, buildings and energy generation.

Ella Taylor

Head of Future of Mobility, Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles  - Department for Transport

Ella is the Head of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge in the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. The Future of Mobility is one of four Grand Challenges announced in the Industrial Strategy with the aim of making the UK the world leader in the movement of goods, services and people. Ella’s team is responsible for three of the early priorities in the Grand Challenge including the Future of Urban Mobility Strategy, conducting a regulatory review process and developing missions. Before this, Ella worked on Connected Vehicle policy for two years, and originally joined the department in 2012 working as a statistician in Maritime.

Jonathan Raper

CEO Transport API

Jonathan is CEO of TransportAPI.com, the UK's largest transport data platform. TransportAPI provide public transport data at scale to First Group, National Express and Heathrow airport and supply over 25% of the country's operator bus and rail apps. Jonathan was a Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University for 11 years before leaving to found TransportAPI in 2010. He has been a member of the DfT Transparency Board, the Mayor of London's Digital Advisory Board and the ICT KTN Industry Advisory Board and is now a member of the DfT's Bus Open Data Implementation Group. Jonathan's expertise lies in the solving of complex transport data problems where technical, commercial and intellectual property questions intersect.

Paloma Cid

Transport Lead, Strategic Engagement and Partnerships - The IET

Paloma is the Transport Lead at the Institution of Engineering and Technology. In this role, she channels the global expertise of IET members for the advancement of engineering, and the benefit of society. Gathering intelligence from engineers across the profession, the IET inspire technology innovation, develop best practice, provide robust, impartial information to key stakeholders, and influence government policy.

Prior to her current role, she worked as a Group Manager in the IET Events department and her team’s portfolio consisted of technical seminars, training courses and call-for-papers conferences on topics including cyber security, power, renewable energy, water, healthcare technology, intelligent transport, radar, antennas and satellites. 

Tom Quay

CEO - Passenger Transport Group

Tom founded Base in 2008; a digital technology group with a focus on app-based products and services for smart cities. 

With over 20 years working in creative technology roles, Tom has spent the last 10 years enabling transport innovation and behaviour change through digital technology. 

In 2015 he launched Passenger (www.discoverpassenger.com), a digital platform for bus companies, which now powers over 30 apps across the UK

Mark Westwood

CTO - Transport Systems Catapult

Mark was educated at the University of Bath, graduating with a BEng and MSc in Mechanical Engineering.  During the early part of his career he was engaged in a wide variety of autonomous vehicle related research and development projects while working for QinetiQ.  Areas of research included vehicle guidance and control, navigation technologies, remote sensing and telematics.  Highlights include working as Theme Leader for Autonomy and Decision Making within the ASTRAEA UAS project, a £62M collaborative project between industry and TSB/Innovate UK which targeted development of technologies to enable the operation of UAVs within civil airspace.

In 2010 he was appointed as Head of Systems Engineering for Air Division within QinetiQ, responsible for a team of Systems Engineers working across a wide range of technology projects.  He has recent experience in a business management role, running a research and development focussed business unit within the aerospace sector.  The application of science and engineering to solve real world problems remains at the heart of his interests, and Mark joined the Transport Systems Catapult to lead projects developing automated and autonomous vehicle technologies.  He now holds the role of Technical Director at the Transport Systems Catapult, with responsibility for development and delivery of the Technology Strategy for Intelligent Mobility, alongside leading a portfolio of autonomous vehicle related projects including the drone and driverless car domains.