Active Travel Summit - Connected Places Catapult

Dame Sarah Storey

Active Travel Commissioner

South Yorkshire Authority

Dame Sarah Storey is the most successful British female Paralympic athlete, and the Active Travel Commissioner for the South Yorkshire MCA (Mayoral Combined Authority). Sarah is also a non-executive director at the UK Department for Transport and a policy advisor for British Cycling. Sarah brings a wealth of experience to her role as active travel commissioner and has made a tangible difference to South Yorkshire. In 2020 the MCA adopted the Active Travel implementation plan, bringing alive her four pledges:

1. We will be led by our communities

2. We will enable walking and cycling not encourage it

3. All our infrastructure will meet or exceed our requirements

4. All our infrastructure will be accessible to all

Social Media Handles

Twitter: Dame Sarah Storey CyclewalkSCR

Facebook: Cycle Walk Sheffield City Region

Adam Tanter

CEO

Fusion Media

Adam Tranter is the CEO of communications agency Fusion Media, working with brands such as Specialized, Shimano, Raleigh and Brompton. In 2020, Fusion founded the industry-funded #BikeIsBest campaign to communicate the benefits of cycling to the British public. He is also a co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast and is Bicycle Mayor for the city of Coventry, the home of the original bicycle boom in the late 19th century. The Bicycle Mayor position helps coordinate between key city stakeholders to help secure better cycling infrastructure.

Social Media Handle

Twitter

Dr Andrea Cooper OBE

Director of Human Connected Design

Connected Places Catapult

Andrea is Director of Human Connected Design at the Connected Places Catapult.

As a design consultant and academic Andrea has worked with a range of brands including Unilever, Apple, Nokia, Samsung and Land Rover. She developed the user experience for the world’s smallest x-ray machine for NASA, created Virtual Reality worlds for BT as well as a range of consumer products.

Andrea has a First Class Honours in Industrial Design, Masters in Public Policy and PhD in Virtual Reality. Early in her career, she taught industrial and automotive design, and since then, has maintained close links with academia through fellowships at Northumbria and Cambridge Universities as well as acting as a PhD examiner at the Royal College of Art and Loughborough University.

After working in consultancy and academia, Andrea joined the Design Council in 2002 becoming their first Chief Design Officer where she co-developed and trade-marked the ‘double diamond’ design approach. She has also been the Chief Designer for Innovation and Service Design at Cornwall Council and an advisor to Innovate UK where she led a major exhibition on the 4th Industrial Revolution at the Design Museum. Prior to joining the Catapult she established the UK government’s multi-award-winning Policy Innovation Unit at the Cabinet Office delivering over 100 projects from the future of rail to the UK’s smart shipping technology route map.

An international judge of prizes, Andrea is a board member at CIPD and a member of the 1851 Royal Commission committee. She is an advisor for the ‘grand challenge’ Design Age Accelerator and Design Museum Observatory and has previously held national and International advisory board roles including working in a number of guises for the European Commission.

As a design and innovation expert, she has delivered over 100 keynotes across five continents. She has also been invited to attend expert groups and roundtables in more than 20 countries and has given a recent TEDx talk and speeches at Google and Stanford. Over two years she advised the United Nations Under-Secretary-General on innovation and transformation in New York. She is a member of the global ‘States of Change’ faculty where she has mentored eight innovation teams across Australia and New Zealand.

Andrea’s multi-award-winning projects and programmes have received significant acclaim in the UK and overseas. She is published widely and has also been a contributor to a number of books on design and innovation.

In 2010 Andrea was nominated for the Cultural Leadership Programme’s top 50 ‘Women to Watch’ and in 2015 became the 10th female in its history to be awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal. In 2016 Andrea received an honorary doctorate in Civil Law from Northumbria University in ‘recognition of her status as one of the UK’s foremost design thinkers’ and in 2019 she was listed by Apolitical as ‘one of the world’s most influential public sector innovators’. In 2021 she received an OBE for her innovative work and public service in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Georgia Yexley

Head of Cities UKI

TIER Mobility

Now in her second unicorn startup in micro-mobility, Georgia has worked in partnership with cities across the globe, to reach their active and sustainable transport goals. A firm believer that collaboration and partnership underpin sustainable services, Georgia now heads up TIER’s partnership with Cities in the UK & Ireland, and is responsible for commercial performance, rider experience and community impact. A passionate advocate for inclusion and accessibility, Georgia contributes to raising the volume of women and underrepresented groups in tech & mobility both in and outside of the workplace.

Social Media Handles

Twitter

Hana Sutch

Co-founder and CEO

Go Jauntly

Hana Sutch is co-founder and CEO at Go Jauntly, a health and wellness company who created Go Jauntly. A multi-award winning walking, wayfinding and nature connection app. The app breaks down barriers to walking by helping people discover walks, create their own and share outdoor adventures with friends.

Go Jauntly partners with a variety of organisations including Transport for London, Sport England, Greater Manchester Moving, Southampton City Council, London Wildlife Trust, Tranquil City, and the University of Derby to increase walking for leisure, active travel as well as nature connection. Hana is the podcast host of ‘Nature Bantz‘ and is a strong believer in tech for good.

Social Media Handle

Twitter

Harry Badham

Chief Development Officer

Hammerson

Harry Badham was appointed to the role of Chief Development and Asset Repositioning Officer at Hammerson in June this year. In this role, Harry oversees the development teams working on destination repositioning across the UK, Ireland, and France.

Harry was most recently UK Head of Development at AXA IM Alts where he led £3.5bn of major investment, development and repositioning projects from start to completion for a range of funds and joint venture investors. Working on urban projects across a mix of workspace, retail, leisure, civic and residential space including most notably 22 Bishopsgate, Assembly Bristol and 6 Pancras Square, Harry has built up extensive expertise across numerous disciplines including design, sustainability, leasing and technology.

Prior to his 10 years at AXA IM Alts, Harry was part of the leadership team at property development company, Allied London, where he was Investment Director. He was involved in delivering over £2bn of urban regeneration including the creation of the 25 acre Spinningfields development in Manchester and the Brunswick Centre in London, alongside other mixed use schemes across the UK.

A chartered surveyor, Harry began his career at JLL within the corporate finance department having graduated from Bristol University in Civil Engineering.

Social Media Handles

Instagram

Twitter

James Goldsmith

Head of Leasing

AXA IM Alts

James Goldsmith is Head of Leasing at AXA IM Alts. He has worked on some of London’s most progressive schemes, including Apple’s first UK flagship in Regent Street, Central Saint Giles, Television Centre and The Shard. And now the recently completed 22 Bishopsgate, which delivers 1.35million sq ft of social workspace in the heart of the City of London. He maintains a strong belief in market research and how broader social and economic issues influence occupier needs and objectives. During his 25-year career in Central London, James has executed many high-profile and award-winning transactions as both an adviser and a principal, operating within the leasing, asset management and development markets..

John Fox

Programme Director

Micromobility at WMG

John is Programme Director for Micromobility at WMG, working to accelerate a positive transition to net zero transportation which also benefits UK businesses. John works between industry, Government, transport authorities and academia to answer critical research questions and support real-world trials of products and services. Previously John has worked in the aerospace industry during a decade with Rolls-Royce as a Chartered Engineer, and the energy industry in new business model innovation with UK SMEs. Despite a love of building and racing classic cars, John is a keen cyclist and passionately believes that the right investments in Micromobility infrastructure now will unleash innovation to benefit to all for generations.

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Mark Urbanowski

Innovation Lead

UK Research and Innovation

Mark Urbanowski is an Innovation Lead in the ISCF Driving the Electric Revolution challenge team. He joined in early 2020 with several years of consultancy and OEM experience in the automotive industry. Most recently he worked on the Dyson electric vehicle project, leading the Performance and Driveability attribute team. Prior to this he spent several years at Ricardo as a driveline and transmission development and attributes engineer, consulting with automotive companies all over the world.

The central purpose of the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge is to aid the UK’s move towards electrification by investing in the core Power Electronics, Electric Machines and Drives (PEMD) technologies and skills which support it.

Mark’s focus is in the automotive, aerospace, off-highway and personal mobility sectors – he is interested in engaging with businesses working in the electrification of these sectors to discuss funding and collaboration opportunities.

Lee Kidger

Managing Director

Raleigh UK

Neil Fulton

Chief Delivery Officer

Connected Places Catapult

Neil began his career with Cummins Engine Company with a Degree in Mechanical and Production Engineering. In 2000, he joined Millbrook Proving Ground where he had responsibility for Powertrain Engineering, managing a team of industry leading Technicians and Engineers involved in engine test, exhaust emissions and advanced Powertrain development.

Neil Fulton joined the Transport Systems Catapult organisation in November 2013 where he acted as Programme Director for Connected and Automated Transport. His focus was on the introduction and integration of automated and connected vehicles into the transport infrastructure and the associated barriers to this huge area of growth and potential. An example of this is the leadership of the LUTZ Pathfinder programme – a trial and test programme of technology readiness and public perception of autonomous Pods onto the pavements of Milton Keynes.

Karla Jakeman

Innovation Lead for Connected Transport

Innovate UK

Karla is the Innovation Lead for Connected Transport, part of the Land & Maritime Transport Team at Innovate UK and is also the Vice Chair of ITS(UK) and a member of the Highways Sector Council. She is seeking solutions which use innovative technologies to leverage a smarter, greener and more connected transport system for the efficient movement of people and goods around the world. Prior to Innovate UK, she worked for 15 years at a large automotive company as a Design Quality Engineer.

Nick Evans

Head of Planning

Sports England

Nick Evans is Head of Planning at Sport England with overall responsibility for Sport England statutory role on the protection of playing fields and ensuring the land use planning system helps deliver sport and physical activity into everyday life. He is currently leading on the development of Active Environments – creating the spaces and places for us to be physically active in our everyday lives, which forms part of Sport England’s recently published strategy Uniting the Movement.

He has a particular interest in Smart Cities and is passionate about data and how this can be used more effectively in planning and has led on a number of data related projects at Sport England including Active Places, and the initial development of the OpenActive programme with the Open Data Institute.

Rachel Aldred

Professor of Transport

University of Westminster

I’m Rachel Aldred, Professor of Transport at the University of Westminster, and Director of the Active Travel Academy. I also teach on Westminster’s MSc Transport Planning and Management. A few years back I set up this site to bring together my various academic/research/policy interests. It is updated less frequently than in the past because I’m putting quite a bit of stuff instead on the Active Travel Academy website, but there will be occasional posts here and I will keep my publications list reasonably up to date.

You can download a current CV here. Please click on the various tabs to find out about some of the projects, publications, and events that I’m involved in. You can follow me on Twitter at @RachelAldred and follow the ATA at @Active_ATA.

In 2016 I was awarded the ESRC Outstanding Impact in Public Policy Prize and the first annual Westminster University Prize for Research Excellence. One research project (Near Miss Project) was awarded Cycling Initiative of the Year 2015 by Total Women’s Cycling, while another (the Propensity to Cycle Tool) was in 2019 awarded the Transtech Open Data Award.

Mark Anderson

Customer and Commercial Director

Go Ahead

Mark is committed to attracting people to sustainable transport modes and driving continuous improvements to the customer experience on public transport. In 2019 Go-Ahead published their ‘First and Last mile’ report which made the case for combining active travel with bus and rail as a way to reduce car dependency.  Leading on Go-Ahead’s innovation strategy and establishing test and learn trials with partners in one way Go-Ahead are preparing for the Future of Transport. 

Roger Madelin

Joint Head

Canada Water Development

Roger Madelin is Joint Head of the 53 acre Canada Water Development at British Land and is a member of the Executive Committee. He joined British Land in February 2016 after 29 years at Argent.

As the development director at Argent from 1988 he was responsible for delivering all of Argent’s projects including Brindleyplace in Birmingham, Thames Valley Park in Reading and major office projects in central London and the City. The company was a FTSE 250 emerging major from 1993 until it left the stock market in 1997. Roger then become CEO of the once again private development business which was funded by British Telecom Pension Fund and the senior management team.

Over the next decade he expanded Argent’s development activities with major projects in Manchester and further projects in Reading, Birmingham and the City of London. In 2000 he led the company to be selected, and then to take forward the development of the 56 acres of ‘railway lands’ between, and to the north of, King’s Cross and St Pancras.

He formally left Argent at the end of 2015 but retains an advisory role on the remaining King’s Cross projects for the Aga Khan Development Network.

Scott Cain

Associate

Connected Places Catapult

Scott Cain, founder of active environments business Active Things, and Associate at the Connected Places Catapult. 

Scott is the founder and CEO of Active Things, the active environments business which provides ‘on-demand’ secure bike parking and end-of-trip facilities. 

As an Associate at the Connected Places Catapult, Scott is focused on active travel, the shorthand often used for cycling, walking and other human-powered mobility. Specifically, Scott is supporting the Catapult in developing an active travel innovation programme. The programme supports both supply-side and demand-side innovators. It builds innovation capacity and capability among place leaders and their teams, and supports the acceleration and growth of a broad range of existing and near-to-market products and services. This includes but is not limited to product and service R&D, partnership building, market intelligence and advocacy, Living Labs and testbeds, and boosting active travel innovation.

Scott is an Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL CASA) and Visiting Research Associate at King’s College London’s Centre for Urban Science and Progress (KCL CUSP) and is a Non Exec at Global Entrepreneurship Network. Formerly, Scott was Chief Business Officer at Future Cities Catapult and CEO of Enterprise UK. 

Social Media Handles

Twitter

Professor Sarah Sharples

Chief Scientific Adviser

Department for Transport

Professor Sarah Sharples is Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport.  She is a Professor of Human Factors in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham and from 2018-2021 was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and People. She has led research in transport, manufacturing and healthcare, and currently leads the EPSRC (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council) Connected Everything Network Plus. She founded and co-director of the EPSRC Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training, and has led research programmes examining implementation of new technologies in rail, highways and aviation. She was President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors from 2015-16.  

Shelley Lawson

Strategy Director

Frog Bikes

Shelley is the Strategy Director and co-founder of Frog Bikes, one of the most recognised and admired brands in kids’ cycling; she is dedicated to getting more kids on bikes and shaping the business to reduce its emissions and maximise sustainability.

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Simon Hicks

Deputy Editor

The Planner

Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The Planner, the membership magazine of the Royal Town Planning Institute. A journalist for more than 25 years, he has been employed by a local newspaper, an international charity and a young people’s news agency, as well as operating as a writer/editor for hire. His work is diverse and has ranged from corruption in local politics to the impact of Covid on town centres, via a guide to track cycling for Olympics watchers and the ghostwritten autobiography of a successful Anglo-Asian businessman. He rides a Condor Pista and is baffled by most of the cycling infrastructure he encounters.

Social Media Handles

Twitter
LinkedIn

Steve Garidis

Executive Director

Bicycle Association

Steve Garidis heads the BA executive team.

Steve has worked in and around cycling since 2005 when he ran Cycling England’s £60m p.a. programme to promote cycling, including creating Bikeability – the modern Cycling Proficiency. Since then, he has also run a cycling-related consultancy and a social enterprise – the Electric Bicycle Network – introducing people to the delights of electric bicycles. Now as the Bicycle Association’s Executive Director he’s still working to get more people on bikes and grow the cycling market in the UK.

Social Media Handles

Twitter

Susan Claris

Global Active Travel Leader at Arup and Vice President of Living Streets

Arup

Susan Claris is a transport planner and an anthropologist who has worked for Arup for nearly 30 years. She is Arup’s global champion for active travel and she led the report “Cities Alive: Towards a walking world” and co-authored the “Cycling for Everyone” report with Sustrans. Susan is also the Vice President of Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. In 2019, Susan was awarded the title of Transport Planner of the Year by the Transport Planning Society based on her work raising the profile of transport planning and being a champion for diversity in the transport planning profession. 

Social Media Handle

Twitter

Will Norman

Walking and Cycling Commissioner

Mayor of London

Will Norman became London’s first Walking and Cycling Commissioner in 2016. He leads the Mayor’s work to make the capital’s streets safer for walking and cycling, enabling thousands more Londoners to choose greener, cleaner and healthier ways of traveling around the city.

Will was previously Director of Global Partnerships at Nike. He lead Nike’s work with not-for-profits, governments, UN agencies and European Institutions to tackle the global inactivity crisis, focusing on how to design physical activity into everyday life.