Speakers

Rebecca is a Chartered Systems Engineer who has worked in sustainable mobility for over 15 years, leading projects on decarbonisation of road, aviation, and maritime transport. She was responsible for the analysis and report which led to the £200m Zero Emission HGV & Infrastructure Demonstrator programme. Rebecca is currently Technical Lead for CPC within the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative consortium, playing a key role in industrial engagement and the identification of innovation opportunities for the UK.

As the Director of the Digital Twin Hub, Justin Anderson is dedicated to fulfilling the Hub’s mission by aligning and amplifying the Digital Twin ecosystem, with the goal of accelerating the adoption of innovative solutions that address system-level challenges.

Prior to his role at the Digital Twin Hub, Justin served as the Global Head of Technology COE at KPMG International, where he was responsible for assessing the impact of technology on various industries, supporting the firm’s Digital Transformation program, and providing training on emerging technologies to a global team of 80,000 consultants.

Justin’s passion for technology and its intersection with policy, business, and society is evident in his establishment of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, which serves as the authoritative voice within the UK Parliament on all matters related to AI. Additionally, Justin has played a key role in developing BSI PAS 212, a standard for data interoperability that has been widely adopted in Smart City programs worldwide. Justin also serves as a member of the BSI Innovation Committee, contributing his expertise to further advancements in technology and innovation.

Joanne Anderson served as the Mayor of Liverpool from May 2021 – 2023, marking a historic milestone as Liverpool’s first female Mayor and the first black woman to be directly elected as a Mayor in the UK.

As Mayor, Joanne focused on climate action, ensuring decisions supported the city’s net-zero goal and benefited residents through her triple-lock on people, planet, and equality. Under her leadership during a challenging period, the council achieved significant improvements in various areas, including governance and financial stability. Joanne’s role in bringing Eurovision 2023 to the city highlighted her impact, yielding a £20 million return from a £2 million investment and expecting a £250 million return for local businesses.

Joanne has nearly three decades of experience as an equity, diversity and inclusion practitioner through her company Innervision, and is passionate about social enterprises and businesses with purpose. Joanne has also worked as a civil servant as the community engagement policy lead within the Crown Prosecution Service.

Recently, Innervision has been commissioned to provide business support to Black, Asian and Minority-led businesses and set up BlaST as a standalone Black Asian and Minority-led social investment fund.

Alongside her mayoral election, Joanne has also been responsible for a string of ‘firsts’: she launched the first Black-led social enterprise in Liverpool. She has an internationally recognised reputation through her work around equalities and spearheaded Liverpool’s international profile in her role for Liverpool City Council. Alongside Eurovision, the Liverpool Against Racism festival was the first of its kind globally, a thought-provoking, entertaining, empowering, and educational week, described by one participant as an “intellectual Glastonbury”.

Utilising the national influence held in the field of Social Investment, Joanne has been working with regional and national partners to introduce a social investment pathfinder to Liverpool with the ambition of raising £50 million of place-based social investment.

Joanne has also been commissioned by Social Enterprise UK to champion the Social Value Roadmap to advocate for its adoption by policymakers, emphasising the merits of integrating social, economic, and environmental factors into public spending.

Alicia is an experienced leader in the commercial, marketing and customer experience fields, having held senior positions in the media, digital, passenger ferries and rail sectors.

A member of the Executive at Southeastern, Alicia leads the commercial team accountable for retail, revenue, digital services, marketing and for shaping and delivering an inclusive customer experience. A pioneer for innovation, Alicia is driving the change towards digitalisation and has led the development of the industry first ‘SeatFinder’ tool and the Southeastern app.

Alicia has been involved in creating accessible and inclusive customer experiences for 20 years and is the Executive Sponsor for Southeastern’s colleague network group AccessAbility which aims to create equal opportunities and a better workplace experience for colleagues with long-term health conditions and visible/non-visible disabilities.

Previously Commercial Director at Condor Ferries, Alicia has led the launch of new ships, digitisation of ticket sales and marketing activities. She was also a founding member of the team which created FT.com.

Naomi has over 16 years’ experience within the research and innovation environment, with an in-depth understanding of how the innovation eco-system operates, working closely with Industry, Academia, and Government stakeholders. Relevant roles include Head of SME Development, Employer Partnerships, Development Manager for Research & Development and Commercial Funding Manager.

Educated to master’s level in Business (MBA) Naomi has contributed to many different sectors over her career, with the most recent being Very Light Rail, a new and emerging industry which will positively contribute to achieving Net Zero in the rail sector.
Naomi has a wealth of innovation experience in supporting small-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to navigate through the complex world of innovation, assisting them to progress ideas through to commercial market, as well as supporting them with information on technology trends, new and emerging markets, and business model adoption.

Naomi is currently delivering the Clean Futures Accelerator programme which aims to develop a West Midland’s innovation ecosystem, to drive economic growth and address the route to market challenges faced by SMEs in the transport sector.
Naomi is actively supporting 20 SMEs in this programme to test, demonstrate and commercialise their technologies. In addition to this, Naomi is developing an innovative product ‘Commercial Investor Hub’ which will provide an exclusive space and service for Investors, Challenge Setters, and Innovators to make deals in an accelerated timeframe.

Naomi is confident and pro-active and always highly motivated to discover new opportunities. She is passionate about leadership and innovation and focused her MBA dissertation on ‘Shifting Mindsets to Accelerate Innovation’ and is keen to implement her learning to encourage others to adopt.

Naomi has featured in many publications such as, FMBD Media and Rail Business Daily for her contributions to leadership in innovation and in supporting SMEs to successfully innovate & commercialise.

Ann-Marie leads Solihull Council’s Climate Change and Sustainability team, who focus on the development and implementation of sustainability and climate change strategies and projects. Her team drives initiatives that contribute to achieving Net Zero and advancing a broader sustainability agenda within the Council and the wider borough.
Ann-Marie has over two decades of experience in both private and public sector her career has included roles centred on climate change, sustainability, environmental management, energy, and project management.

As a commercially minded engineer with deep experience in advanced analytics and decision-support, Michael is deeply committed to leveraging AI to empower asset-intensive organisations in navigating their transition towards resilient and sustainable low-carbon business models. His primary focus revolves around enabling these organisation to make informed decisions swiftly and seamlessly.

Currently, Michael is immersed in the challenge of facilitating this transition through the innovative utilisation of BMA’s AI-assisted software platform, DecisioTM .

Michael brings a wealth of experience in developing and scaling technology-based ventures for top-tier global corporations, start-ups, and hyper-growth companies. Throughout his career, he has honed a profound understanding of the essential components required to tackle significant challenges and unlock tangible business value – namely, a clear vision, cutting-edge technology, flawless execution, and, above all, a talented team.

In Michael’s perspective, there is no question that AI will play a pivotal role in helping decision-makers navigate complex and existential risks. This is particularly true for BMA’s customer ecosystem, encompassing energy, waste-to-energy, water, and their associated supply chains.

Stuart joined the Solent LEP in 2013 and carried out the role of Assistant Director of Strategy and Programme Development until 2021 when he was appointed Business Development Director. Stuart is also Managing Director of Maritime UK Solent, the private sector-led economic cluster partnership, backed by the Solent LEP, which launched as a limited company in September 2021.

As Business Development Director at the LEP, Stuart leads on all aspects of the Solent LEP’s economic Strategy, including skills, business support, sector development, innovation and environment.

Maritime UK Solent is the regional arm of Maritime UK and works to bring together the Solent region’s maritime strengths and assets to champion and promote the region as a globally significant maritime cluster. It aims to encourage investment, support maritime businesses, drive innovation, pioneer clean and green technology in the industry, and develop a talent base for the future. Stuart sits on the regional council for Maritime UK and is a past chair.

Prior to joining the LEP, Stuart worked in Local Government, primarily in Transport Planning. He managed Solent Transport, a partnership of the Local Highway Authorities of the Solent area and has an MSc. in Transport Planning and Management.

As the Head of Highways and Maritime Engagement at Connected Places Catapult (CPC), Gemma leads the sales and engagement strategy for the UK’s transport network, supporting senior stakeholders to increase efficiency and sustainability with cutting-edge innovation. With over two years of experience in this role, and another 15 years as a Business Development Manager across various sectors commercialising innovation. I have developed a strong expertise in road decarbonisation, emerging markets, satellite applications and infrastructure.

My core competencies include strategic thinking, and cross-functional team leadership. I use these skills to create authentic relationships with key decision-makers, and to facilitate effective collaborations and partnerships that deliver economic impact and social value for the UK. I specialise in convening different markets and ecosystems to accelerate ideas that disrupt the status quo with low carbon innovation.

I am passionate about creating a happier, greener, and safer planet through transport and mobility innovation. I am inspired by out-of-the-box doers who test people’s creativity and push the boundaries to achieve results.

Dr Alistair Barnes is a Senior Programme Manager working on Net Zero at Innovate UK. He is responsible for over £200m of programmes, with a primary focus on decarbonising heavy duty vehicles. As the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK has a key role in supporting UK businesses to innovate and grow by working with the Government including the UK’s Department for Transport.

Haydon is committed to fostering collaboration within the rail industry, aiming to advance and expand cutting-edge AI technology solutions that enhance the experiences of front-line teams, passengers, and freight customers. At the helm of a leading computer vision team, he has spearheaded the development of groundbreaking and innovative technologies in infrastructure inspection and station management domains; thanks to the support from Network Rail and industry partners. CrossTech has gained significant recognition for Hubble, a pioneering solution that leverages computer vision algorithms to analyse video data collected from in-service passenger trains automatically. This technology identifies exceedances on the railway, offering vital insights to front-line teams without the need for teams to review manual videos.

Jon leads the Inward Investment division at the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), the appointed economic development and investment promotion agency for the West Midlands Combined Authority. His team promote the region domestically and internationally, and facilitate inward investment aligned to WMCA priority sectors. Jon led the Inward Investment workstream of the Birmingham 2022 Business and Tourism Programme – a £23.4m two-year programme delivered in partnership with UK Government to drive an economic legacy from the B2022 Commonwealth Games. The programme’s success has fuelled a record level of FDI investment into the West Midlands; in FY22/23, UK Government figures placed the West Midlands as second only to London in terms of FDI projects and jobs attracted per annum.

Jon joined the Growth Company in 2018, initially as Sector Lead for Business, Professional and Financial Services. In his time with WMGC, Jon has led on the Growth Company’s successful bid to secure a major investment into Birmingham from Goldman Sachs and overseen the region’s engagement with the UK Government’s Places for Growth programme, delivering major regional investments from DfT, DLUHC, Visit Britain and a number of other agencies and arms-length bodies across the breadth of the WMCA geography.

Prior to joining WMGC, Jon held a number of business development and consultancy roles at Gateley Plc, Grant Thornton and Barclaycard.
Jon earned an MBA in Global Banking and Finance with distinction honours from University of Birmingham, and an BA from Durham University.

Alexandra Beaumont is the Head of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) within the UK Government’s Department for Transport. Her background is in shipping decarbonisation and biodiversity policy and project management, and she now heads up a passionate team leading forward the UK’s efforts on Maritime Decarbonisation Research and Development as well as the development of UK-International and Domestic Green Shipping Corridors.

Stephen Biggs has been involved in local government for over 30 years, working in both public and private sectors.

Currently Corporate Director of Community Wealth Building at Islington Council, Stephen leads a directorate designed to tackle economic inequality, shape an inclusive local economy, build new council homes and transform community assets, and drive forward a highly progressive Local Plan. He was Acting Chief Executive during 2023 and is also currently leading the Council’s working to tackle climate change.

Previously, Stephen has worked extensively across London, the UK and internationally, supporting a range of public service delivery organisations across local government, health and care.

Max is a Materials Engineer dedicated to combating the climate crisis. His academic career spanned diverse projects, including bioplastics, sponge metal electrodes for solar panels, and high-temperature alloys. After earning his doctorate, Max’s frustration with the slow pace of decarbonisation in legacy industries led him to co-found VundaHaus at the Carbon13 venture builder. VundaHaus is revolutionising home retrofit through off-site manufacture, intelligent materials, and innovative design – to accelerate the transition to clean heat in homes.

Niall Bolger is Chief Executive for the London Borough of Hounslow who were awarded the LGC Council of the Year 2021. He is Lead CEO for Skills and Employment and Regeneration for the West London Alliance, Chair of the London PREVENT Board and lead CEO for Environment and Climate Change for the Chief Executive London Committee. He co-chairs the Population Health and Inequalities Board for the NW London ICS. He also chairs the Program Board for the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, 3Ci, which is in the vanguard of bringing funding and finance to the net zero challenge in local government. Niall is a Trustee for the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, the national “think-do” tank for fair and just economic development. He was the SOLACE spokesperson for Commissioning and Innovation from 2018 – 2020.

Prior to his role with Hounslow, he was Chief Executive of the London Borough of Sutton for eight years. Niall’s professional background is in urban planning, regeneration and environmental management and he has held a number of board level roles in local government over the last two decades leading these areas and implementing organisational change. In all of his roles he has held, he is passionate about making a difference to communities and securing social justice.

He is a graduate of Queen Mary, University of London, London Southbank University and Warwick University.

Keith is an elected Member of the City of London Corporation and is widely involved in leading on sustainability, climate action, sport engagement, youth, education, environment, and broader policy agendas.
He is Deputy Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee, Chairman of the Communications and Corporate Affairs Committee and former Chairman of its Port Health and Environment Committee.

Keith Chairs the City of London BIDs Strategic Partnership and the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce as well as being a Trustee of Heart of the City. He is also a Trustee of Gresham College, Member of Thames Estuary Growth Board, Trustee of Housing the Homeless Central Fund and Bart’s Hospital Guild.

Keith is passionate about advancing the interests of young people and about skills and education. He is Deputy Chair of Governors at the City of London School and a Governor at the new City Junior School. He chairs Partnership for Young London which influences London, Regional and central government on youth policy.
As a Chartered Banker and former Director of Communications at NatWest Group he has a great deal of experience of working at a senior level in the City of London’s dynamic financial, insurance and professional services industry.

Hugh Boyes is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) credential issued by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium [(ISC)2]. Hugh is a Principal Member of the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists (RSES), undertaking security consultancy assignments relating to the built environment, transport, and industrial systems. Hugh is a leading industry expert on cyber threats in the built environment and supports infrastructure protection. He has contributed to the development and review of national and international security-related standards and was one of the founding members of the BSI IOT/1 committee.

Director of Environment and Sustainability at London Borough of Camden for the past 3 years, with responsibility for environmental services (waste, recycling, street cleansing), transport strategy, climate action, highways engineering, energy management, parking services and transport services. An environmental economist by training, Richard has worked across the urban environmental management sector with the London Environment Directors Network, Greater London Authority, Keep Britain Tidy and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. Richard uses his passion, skills and knowledge to lead motivated teams in tackling the challenges set by the climate emergency through adaptation strategies, advocating efficient material management, structural change to local transport networks, and place-based transformation. Current focus on re-imagining Euston Road; delivery of a Future Neighbourhood programme (£3.1m Greater London Authority funding), and; Greening Bloomsbury programme.

Aline Martins is a Global Business & Partnerships Lead at Connected Places Catapult where she spearheads the Global stream work for the prestigious DIATOMIC programme – a locally-led innovation accelerator being delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the West Midlands Combined Authority. With a robust background in designing, managing, and delivering global innovation projects, Aline is a recognised expert in place-based innovation, smart cities, and transport solutions.

Over the last few years, Aline has been instrumental in empowering innovative businesses to expedite the commercialisation of their solutions and explore international markets. Her expertise lies in orchestrating place-based and human-centric innovation projects and collaborating closely with multidisciplinary teams. She has worked with prominent entities such as Innovate UK, Newton Fund, the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology, and the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office.

Prior to her current role at Connected Places Catapult, Aline served as a Knowledge Transfer Manager – International Development at Innovate UK Business Connect, where she played a pivotal role in fostering international collaborations and driving innovation across borders. Throughout her career, she has held diverse roles in both the public sector and industry, with a keen focus on economic development, trade, and investment. She also acted as an International Affairs Advisor for the City of Sao Paulo and as a Trade Promotion Manager at the Brazilian Trade and Investment Agency (APEX).

Aline’s international footprint spans across continents, having worked extensively in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Aline holds a Master of Science degree in International Public Policy from University College London (UCL) and specialises in Corporate Strategy and Innovation from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Matthew Brewster is the Director of Estates at London Metropolitan University, a Certified Member of IWFM and Chartered Construction Manager.

With over 30 years experience, including 18 in the Higher Education sector, his current remit includes facilities, hospitality and events, sports, property management, capital development and corporate health and safety across a 100,000 m2 multi-site London campus serving 15,000 students.

In his present role he has implemented a culture change programme within his department, developing a High Performing Team and driving improvements including increased customer satisfaction, statutory compliance and significant operational and system efficiencies, with associated reductions in costs.

Matthew took on a senior leadership role during the pandemic, leading the institutional response amid the rapidly changing external environment, delivering the safest campus in London and facilitating conditions in which the university increased income and student satisfaction against sector trends. As COVID-19 restrictions eased, Matthew implemented new hybrid working practices across the University in just 3 months.

Matthew is currently delivering on his £200m, 10-year Estates Strategy, having achieved approval in 2022. The Strategy will transform and modernise the entire estate and deliver carbon net zero for the university by 2031.

In his spare time, Matthew enjoys cinema, long country walks in his adopted county of Hertfordshire, and is seeking to regain his black belt in karate after a 30-year break from the sport.

Rob Cairns is a Senior Innovation Manager at HS2 Ltd. Building a portfolio with over 300 innovation projects resulting in over £500m savings from the baseline of HS2 and reducing over 2m carbon tonnes. In 2019 Rob launched the HS2 Accelerator which has seen over 25 companies graduate, with over 22 paid pilots and over £140m raised in VC funding

With an extensive career spanning over 27 years in IT software engineering, investment analysis, and commercial strategy, Osmín is a dedicated advocate for creating value for communities, investors and businesses, using emerging technology as a catalyst for unlocking value.
Recognising the game-changing effects of emerging technology on how we live, work, play and transact, Osmin founded Mode8 Venture Studio on a vision she calls “exponential participation”. She is responsible for the overall direction and execution of the venture studio, building and managing relationships with corporates, investors, communities and other key stakeholders. This includes identifying and evaluating new IP and developing and implementing innovative business models and solutions to drive business growth. has strong leadership skills and the ability to inspire and motivate others, build and lead a team, and make difficult decisions.

Talented, committed entrepreneurial executive design engineer with practical project management skills.
Experienced commercial innovator, project work from concept to completion, innovation training in Human-Centred-Design and passion for ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ implementation.
Matt was project manager with the successful British Landspeed World record team where many of the Steamology team connections where established. Worked on a range of projects covering a breadth of industry sectors, involved in rail industry plant equipment projects as well as consultancy and start-ups covering aircraft seating, race car & bike design and solar thermal technology.
Successfully raised multi-millions in start-up grant and equity funding

Leonard is the founder of Awaretag, a sensor and analytics platform that measures the insulation, heating, moisture and ventilation performance of homes. The company uses 3D techniques to visualise conditions to make it easier to see what to fix.

Leonard wants to make the science of building performance and the ‘lived experience’ more accessible. He believes this helps speed up understanding of issues, and creates fairer outcomes in housing.

The company is working with charities, surveyors, housing associations, councils and landlords developing new ways for sensor data and people to deliver positive outcomes in a changing world.

Duran is one of the Founding Partners of Atlas Ventures, an industrial tech fund focused on domains such as energy, manufacturing, transportation and heavy industries. Previously, he set up and managed two industrial tech corporate VCs investing in similar domains and his prior investment experience spans mobility services, teleoperations, new generation logistics solutions, industrial AI, hydrogen and carbon capture solutions and robotics companies. Duran started his career in financial services, worked at BCG previously and has an MBA from INSEAD, and did his undergrad at Swarthmore College in the US.

Yusuf is the Investor Relations Manager within the SME Development Team. He plays a key part in growing the Catapult’s relationship with investment communities by building relationships and supporting investors whose interests are aligned to the Catapults domains. Yusuf is an experienced business advisor and management consultant, an award-winning entrepreneur and a recognised technologist with a career across the SME, Corporate, Global and Start-ups sectors in a number of different industries.

Andrew Chadwick is a Chartered Engineer and is the Acting Ecosystem Director Air Mobility & Airports at the Connected Places Catapult. His work includes Solution Architect on a number of Future Flight Challenge air mobility and aviation sustainability projects, the UK Government Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme, plus Solution Architect on the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project studying the introduction and transition of hydrogen and electric aircraft and supporting infrastructure into airports and airfields. Andrew also leads on Future Air Transport, Advanced Air Mobility, and Aviation Sustainability innovation initiatives.

Andrew is a Member of the Jet Zero Council Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure Subgroup, Member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Autonomous Vehicle Systems and Dynamics MSc at Cranfield University, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Working Group on the Safety and Ethics of Autonomous Systems, a member of the UK Government Drones Industry Action Group, and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society Remotely Piloted Aircraft & Autonomous Systems Specialist Group Committee.

Vasant is Director of Human Connected Design at the Connected Places Catapult – the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership. Vasant oversees delivery of programmes which harness user research, design, human factors, futures and facilitation to transform the way we live and travel. Vasant’s focus is in designing accessible and inclusive places and transport. His work covers passenger experience through stations, transport safety, participatory futures and business design. Prior to joining the Catapult, Vasant led the UK government’s Policy Lab, bringing people-centred and experimental methods to policy making. He has held roles across government policy from the Home Office to Department for Health and Social Care.

Claire is the Head of W2, Wincanton’s Open Innovation Programme, which drives collaboration across the business, and with external partners and start-ups, to create new technology products to add value to customers – now and for the future.

Wincanton is a leading supply chain partner, active across a range of markets including food and consumer goods; retail and manufacturing; eCommerce; the public sector; major infrastructure; fuel; and defence. The Group provides business critical services including storage, handling and distribution; high volume eFulfilment; fleet and transport management; and network optimisation for many of the UK’s best known companies.

Claire was appointed to Head of Innovation in 2020. She has spent 25 years within logistics in a variety of roles including sales, development, solution design and transport across a number of different sectors.

Claire also designed, delivered, and now runs Wincanton’s Supply Chain Innovation Centre. The interactive centre showcases the best of Wincanton’s technology solutions and is an inspiring hub to host customers, partners, colleagues, investors and community groups.

Claire is studying for an MSC in Supply Chain Leadership and is also a trustee of a Mental Health Hospital Museum in Bristol.

Elliot Christou is the Technical Lead for the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) project and leads the Data and Technology Team at Connected Places Catapult. Connected Places is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership. CReDo is a pioneering climate change adaptation digital twin project that provides a practical example of how connected data can improve climate adaptation and resilience across a system of systems. With his background in data science, Elliot works across industry, government and research sectors looking at how to connect data and use technologies for innovation opportunities, provide insights to decision makers, and better understand the world around us.

Louisa is a lawyer and entrepreneur driving innovation and scaling of low carbon projects, natural capital solutions and ocean-positive initiatives.
Louisa is successful at:
– Pushing the boundaries of what is possible with first-of-kind / demonstrator projects including the first utility-scale wind and solar projects in Jordan which created the blueprint for the Middle East, and the first battery storage project to absorb reactive power from the transmission network in the UK
– Scaling investment models, including as consortium partner to the UK Government’s flagship Heat Network Investment Project to accelerate heat decarbonisation
– Creating new partnership frameworks and delivery models for transformational change, including through public private partnerships
– Harnessing innovation from green to blue finance

A research and insight specialist currently leading social research and insight projects at Connected Places Catapult.

A strong advocate for stakeholder collaboration to generate impact using creative approaches to better understand data and insight to inform strategy, measure impact and drive forward new initiatives. Steve applies a multi-disciplinary approach to enable smarter and more human-centred decisions to understand problem spaces and develop solutions.

He is currently the Catapult technical lead for Station Innovation Zone at Bristol Temple Meads and has used techniques such as segmentation and personas to understand the market for new mobility solutions within the West Midlands and to increase public acceptance of drones. Steve has previously worked extensively in the social housing sector, with local authorities and central government, and in commercial market research.

Mark Cramman is a physicist with a background in hydraulics, flood risk, GIS and environmental engineering with over 20 years experience of a consultant engineer. Mark is the main client point of contact at CCI and project manager.

Mark cofounded CC Informatics with Rhys Coombs and John Cramman following the delivery of AssetScan™ on project joint funded by Welsh Water on Claerwen Dam.

David and Arnold du Toit, act as and on behalf of the dual Family Office between UK-SA and DE. Industrial/Deep Tech investors and operators. Specialising in Transport, Aerospace, and Energy.

Day to day, the du Toit Family owns and operates WeSprint, an advisory firm, acting on behalf of Private Equity and private/public funds.

The dual Family Office holds equity in a small portfolio of property, technology businesses and funds. With over £200m in assets under management.

George started his career in the world of Formula E and rapid prototyping, before leading a spin out in the smart mobility space. In 2017, he joined Oxfordshire County Council to lead the Future of Mobility Team, managing numerous innovation projects ranging from self-driving vehicles and drones to active travel and policy evaluation.

George joined DfT under the office of the Chief Scientific Adviser to head the Transport Research and Innovation Board (TRIB), and later became the Department’s Head of AI and Autonomy Technologies. He currently serves as the Head of Digital Twins.”

Being visually impaired and obtaining a PhD in the mobility of visually impaired people at Imperial College London, Jean Marc is driven by the life-changing potential of his research and its impact on assistive technology. Jean Marc leverages his findings in the development of the WeWALK smart cane, a TIME best invention, through managing multi-million-pound R&D collaborations with world-leading partners including Microsoft and RNIB.

Jean Marc also regularly advises on transport accessibility and sits on Transport for London’s IDAG advisory board for disability and inclusion, as well as conducting novel mobility research that has been recognised through an Imperial College Medal for Outstanding Achievement, the Walter Redlich Prize for Academic Excellence, and the Royal Institute of Navigation for an Outstanding Contribution to a More Navigable World

Alex is the Exec Director of Etopia the leading Modern Methods of Construction Category 2 Pannelised system. Etopia designs manufactures and installs net zero ready homes across the world. Alex is one of 2019’s Property Week’s Resi Trailblazers and was nominated for EGs Future of Real Estate award in 2020.

Alex was most recently named third in the Climate Champions power list in real estate.

David Flynn is a Professor of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) at the University of Glasgow. Prof. Flynn is Head of Research Division (HoRD) for Autonomous Systems and Connectivity within the James Watt School of Engineering. He is the Cyber Physical Systems and Digital Twining thematic lead for the National Hydrogen Integration for Accelerated Energy Transitions (HI-ACT) hub, National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe), and the National Digital Twinning Hub for Transport Decarbonisation (Transit). Prof. Flynn is a member of the idnepent net zero advisory boards of SP Energy Networks, and Cadent Ltd. He is the Chair of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Scotland, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).

Emma is highly experienced in delivering strategic integrated urban regeneration programmes. She worked on the London Olympic and Paralympic Legacy from bid stage to 10 years after the Games, overseeing all aspects of Innovation, sustainability, community and business development across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. She led the formation of SHIFT – the inclusive innovation district at the Olympic Park before moving to work as consultant supporting place-based innovation systems.
Emma still works as a strategic advisor for SHIFT and a range of other innovation districts nationally and internationally. She is also an associate for The Business of Cities and Connected Places Catapult.
Emma is passionate about enabling inclusive innovation – drawing on her sustainability and community skills as well as extensive urban and economic development experience. Emma is a Chair of the UK Innovation Districts Group, co-founder of Echo , a board member for Kingston First BID and Trustee of the One Percent Scheme.

Chris is currently part of a team within ULEMCo responsible for the research, development, and delivery of both novel and innovative technologies within the hydrogen sector. He has a Mechanical Engineering background with 10 years of experience in the automotive engineering sector. Driven by a passion for sustainability and the environment, Chris has spent the last 5 years working with ULEMCo as both a Development Engineer and now Head of Application Engineering. This role allows him to engage with a variety of customers, partners and suppliers helping him work with industry leading technologies and developing a hydrogen enabled and low carbon future.
Chris’ role allows him not only to focus on just new technologies, but also different applications for the current technologies ULEMCo offer. Widening the view of how these technologies can be used will allow more opportunities to decarbonize, compared to focussing solely on specific industry and applications.

Amardeep has extensive experience in advising government and public bodies on business critical or transformation projects. In recent years, Amardeep has been involved in advising on landmark projects such as the delivery of the Commonwealth Games 2022, Belfast City Region Deal and Transport for West Midlands’ 5G pathfinder connectivity project (a first in the UK). He has contributed to a number of initiatives designed to improve the delivery of public services and inputted into the sector’s policy agenda, including working alongside Think Tanks and public sector bodies on the development of future devolution plans across the UK. He has extensive experience in procurement and technology matters.

Amardeep is recognised nationally by Chambers as a leading individual in the sector and has a tier one ranking in Legal 500 for his local government work, where he is acknowledged for his ‘astute legal mind, and a skillset to match his personality’.

A native New Yorker, Alanna Gluck has worked in local and national programme delivery in the US and Spain before relocating to the UK. As Delivery and Engagement Manager at Connected Places Catapult, Alanna leads and contributes to several projects in both an advisory and delivery capacity, providing insight on policy and market intervention development and analysis, and engagement activities. She believes that better use of the built environment improves social, economic and environmental outcomes for people and places, with a special interest in the interface between the digital operation of infrastructure and improved public services including public health and education.

Georgia Gould was elected a Councillor for Kentish Town ward for Camden Council in 2010 at the age of 24. After holding a range of Cabinet portfolios, she became Leader in 2017 and as Leader has made citizen voice, participation and co-production a priority for the organisation. Under her leadership the Council held the country’s first Climate Emergency Citizens Assembly in 2019 to inform the response to our climate and ecological emergency. Georgia is Chair of London Councils and Co-Chair of the London Recovery Taskforce as well as a member of the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) Board. @Georgia_Gould

Athanasios Grammatikopoulos leads the Climate Action strategies across all ecosystems at the Connected Places Catapult. He bridges central and local governments, innovators, investors, and businesses to remove market barriers and drive innovation in GHG emissions reduction. With over 15 years of international experience, Athanasios has spearheaded strategic sustainability and climate change programs in public and private sectors and played a pivotal role in shaping sustainable practices across various industries.

Athanasios is dedicated to accelerating positive socio-environmental and sustainable economic growth by defining strategic directions for climate change initiatives. He has previously collaborated with diverse stakeholders, including government agencies, financial institutions, NGOs, and corporate partners, to advocate for sustainability changes and promote the adoption of innovative climate technologies. His passion for sustainability advocacy has led him to involve and speak in numerous conferences and projects focused on climate mitigation and resilience.

Janet is a Director at KPMG with over 25 years of experience in major and mega project development, delivery, and assurance. She has experience in carbon and sustainability at both strategy and project delivery levels, and is a member of leading industry carbon forums. She has worked on major projects including Thameslink, the South West Route Capacity Programme, and Crossrail. She is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Member of the Association for Project Management, and Chair of the Major Projects Association Sustainability Ambassadors Group.

Catherine leads on the delivery of key place innovation programmes for Connected Places Catapult, as well as leading engagement across the innovation ecosystem in the West Midlands. She is an innovation, economic development and public policy professional with strong organisational and communication skills, with a passion for regeneration, innovation ecosystems and cross sector collaboration. Catherine has strengths in leadership, policy, visioning and strategy, communication, multiple languages, leadership and project management.

Steven has been a railway professional for over ten years with experience ranging from project management in development and delivery of infrastructure projects, project sponsorship and latterly long-term strategic planning. Steven led on and authored the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS) on behalf of the industry and has been a part of WSPs Rail Advisory Team since 2022. In WSP Rail Advisory, Steven continues to provide strategic advice around rail decarbonisation and other major strategic rail issues and topics to a range of clients across the public and private sectors.

Tash leads on the delivery of Lambeth Council’s award-winning Kerbside Strategy. The Kerbside Strategy aims to dedicate 25% of kerbside space (the space typically used for car parking) to sustainable uses by 2030, through 4 key priorities:

1. Enable Accessible and Active Travel
2. Create Places for People
3. Increase Resilience to Climate Change
4. Reduce Traffic and Emissions from Transport

Tash joined Lambeth Council in 2023. Prior to that, she worked for Sustrans and delivered active travel and sustainable transport projects across London. Tash has a particular interest in how we can better design our built environment to positively impact public health and climate resilience.

Rob Harwood is CEO of Slingshot Simulations, a place-based decision intelligence solutions provider focused on the use of data and advanced data science (modelling and simulation, digital twins, AI/Ml) to tackle the biggest challenges we face today – decarbonisation, sustainability, adaptation and climate resilience. Prior to Slingshot Simulations, Rob held a range of leadership roles in the modelling and simulation sector, mostly in the US.

Sarah Hayes is an economist specialised in data, digitalisation and regulation and works as an independent consultant. Sarah leads on engagement for CReDo the Climate Resilience Demonstrator project working with Connected Places Catapult. She led the first phase of CReDo through the Centre for Digital Built Britain and set up the demonstrator project to show how it’s possible to share data across energy, water and telecoms sectors to increase climate resilience across the infrastructure system. Sarah was the lead author on the National Infrastructure Commission report Data for the public good which set the vision for a National Digital Twin as an ecosystem of connected digital twins. Sarah has advised Ofgem on the development of a data sharing infrastructure and is currently supporting Connected Places Catapult on the National Cyber Physical Infrastructure roadmap. Sarah supports Innovate UK as a member of the Strategic Innovation Fund Advisory Group and Ofgem as a member of the Digitalisation Technical Advisory Group. Sarah is an Ambassador for Connected Places Catapult and chairs the DT Hub Data Sharing Working Group.

Daniel is driving decarbonisation of transport by enabling the transition to new energy sources such as hydrogen and electric, using emerging technologies such as automation, machine learning and AI to accelerate a safe transition. This work build on his 4 years at Connected Places Catapult and 30 years experience delivering improvements to mobility through technology, using system engineering and business management capability to promote change and innovation.

Charlotte is Grainger’s Head of Sustainability and CSR.

Charlotte joined Grainger in January 2018 and previously worked as a sustainability consultant with JLL, where Grainger was one of her clients.

Her role involves overseeing Grainger’s corporate sustainability programmes such as our net zero carbon commitment and charity partnerships and working with teams across the business to embed sustainability in everything that we do.

In his role at Oldham Council, Andrew was responsible for developing the Oldham Green New Deal Strategy, the first such local authority strategy in the UK. Adopted in March 2020, one week before the first national Covid19 lockdown, the strategy sets challenging carbon neutrality targets and sets out a methodology for taking Oldham borough to Net Zero through securing investment in low carbon infrastructure whilst at the same time ensuring that Oldham’s local Green Technology and Services supply chain companies have the best opportunity to participate in delivery, creating new jobs and training opportunities in the growing green sector.

As Green Energy and Sustainability Manager, Andrew’s current role is as programme manager for the Oldham Green New Deal delivery programme, which covers a wide range of capital delivery areas including Regeneration, Property, Housing and Economic Development. One of the main initiatives Andrew is working on is the Oldham Green New Deal Delivery Partnership, a programme to set up an inclusive cross-sector delivery partnership to enable the co-production of low carbon infrastructure schemes by communities working with the private sector and Oldham’s anchor organisations.

The ability of investment in decarbonisation programmes to also secure a range of co-benefits across health, economic inclusion and local economic development, climate resilience and education is a key feature of Oldham’s Green New Deal, with social justice and the creation of equal opportunities for Oldham’s residents at its heart. Oldham aims to embed Community Wealth Building principles into its Net Zero programmes to achieve a ‘Just Transition’ with all sections of the community able to share in the benefits.

Ed Hunter is responsible for the Drone Connect product portfolio at BT Groups Innovation arm Etc. With over 10 years of experience in R&D and emerging technologies, he has been recognised for shaping the future of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) by winning Industrial IoT Solution of the Year at the 2024 IoT Breakthrough Awards with his Drone SIM product.

In March 2024 Kate Jennings was appointed by the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) Group as its new Chief Executive.

Kate’s extensive infrastructure career began at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She subsequently worked in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Transport, leading on EU and international transport policy. Kate left the civil service to join the Railway Industry Association in March 2020.

Before joining ACE, Kate was an Executive Board member at Logistics UK. She established a strong policy team, developed new commercial products and secured government funding for flagship campaigns and programmes.

David has worked in the Maersk organisation for over 30 years in a variety of roles and locations. Focussing on logistics and containerisation his career has taken him across the UK to Egypt and the East Mediterranean as well as a period at head office in Copenhagen. Now back in the UK David is involved in all areas of Maersk’s Integrator strategy and growth agenda with specific connections to sustainability and decarbonisation. Outside of Maersk David is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transportation and a member of both the Freight Logistics and Air Policy Groups.

Christian Kerrigan is Director & CEO of Co-You Ltd, a carbon capture SME based in London. Co-You have developed an innovative carbon capture panel system for use in railway stations. Previously Co-You won New Civil Engineers TechFest and was Runner Up in OneTech Startup Accelerator. In 2021 CO-YOU succesfully completed the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership (CISL) programme and was selected for Innovate UK Global Business Innovation Programme (GBIP) in 2022-23. Christian has over 10 years’ experience as an architect and architectural technologist working across commercial workplace, residential & education sectors in the UK. Including technical and on-site project delivery for experienced construction contractors in London. Christian has over 5 years’ experience leading product design, engineering Research & Development for Brunel University Co-Innovate Programme. He has contributed to published scientific papers on the topic of synthetic biology technology and architecture.

Sarah Kimpton is the Low Carbon Lead in DNV’s Energy Systems business in the UK and Ireland. She has a particular interest in the physical properties of hydrogen and how hydrogen can be used to decarbonise the gas networks, power generation, industry and heating. Sarah is a chemist by training, with a PhD from University College London. She has over 30 years’ experience working with industry and particularly enjoys the challenge of innovation projects.

Prior to joining ZeroAvia, Sergey led e-mobility in Europe for Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy business line. He had formerly served as VP Europe for leading smart electric vehicle charging company eMotorWerks – a California startup which was acquired by Enel in 2017.

A decade leading into this, Sergey worked at McKinsey & Company focusing on energy, sustainability and public sector work in former CIS countries. He was one of the partners opening and expanding McKinsey’s Kazakhstan office.

He began his career in high tech industry with Hitachi in Silicon Valley in developing novel information storage. Sergey got his PhD and conducted postdoctoral research in experimental low temperature physics and nanomagnetics at Cornell University in the United States.

Anna is a multi-award winning disability justice activist, researcher, and policymaker. Her work focuses on the disability law “implementation gap”, in which progressive legal standards often fail to improve disabled people’s lives in practice. Anna’s research spans the disciplines of humanitarian relief, international development, urban planning, comparative policy, disability culture, and community-building. As an inaugural Board Member for the NCAT, Anna will contribute expertise on emergency preparedness, intersectionality, sustainability, and regulatory implementation in accessible transport.

Anna is currently pursuing a PhD within the Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub at University College London (UCL), where she is exploring how digital technology can be used to help disabled-led advocacy organisations collaborate and share knowledge globally. She also works as the Global Research and Response Lead at The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, a disability-led disaster response organization. There, she spearheaded the launch of an evacuation and humanitarian aid mechanism for disabled Ukrainians being left behind in the current war. Before this, Anna served the Washington, DC government as a twice-elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner.

Anna was just ranked fourth on the Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100, a list of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK

Sophie joined ATI in September 2021 as our Chief Relationships Officer. She has over 15 years experience working in Central Government on defence, security and trade primarily and 5 years in industry. Most recently, Sophie was the CEO of a Saudi-British joint venture growing engineering expertise in the Kingdom.

Giulia leads the Innovation Funding team within the SME Directorate at Connected Places Catapult. In her role, she oversees CPC’s Innovation Funding Programmes and competitions, which amount to over £8m annually across our ecosystems. Notably, she spearheads the flagship Transport Research Innovation Programme (TRIG), funded by the Department for Transport. The programmes within Giulia’s portfolio are geared towards propelling new, cutting-edge ideas and technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the transport of the future.

Prior to joining CPC, Giulia worked for 13 years in Research & Innovation within the rail industry, where she successfully delivered projects, events and established academic and industrial partnerships. Giulia’s expertise in cultivating partnerships underscores her ability to leverage collaborative efforts for the advancement of complex initiatives and maximising their impact.

Steven Lua is a passionate clean-tech entrepreneur with a personal mission to “create a virtuous world for the next thousand generations”. He graduated from Oxford University in 2008 with a Masters in “Engineering, Economics and Management” and shortly founded Unitrove following his work as an investment analyst in the City of London.

As a member of the British Standards Institution (BSI), he regularly contributes to the development of various international standards including those governed by ISO/TC 197 on “Hydrogen technologies” and ISO/TC 220 on “Cryogenic vessels”. His key interests include robotics, safety-critical software, and advanced industrial control systems

Brian was formerly the Global Transport Fuels Advisor for BP and has held several senior leadership positions in prestigious petroleum and automotive research organisations.​

More recently, he led and advised on several initiatives to lower the carbon intensity of fuels and has been successful in enabling the introduction of new lower carbon fuels and fuel additives that improve the efficiency of vehicles.​

Brian is a recognised leader in the interface between the petroleum and automotive industries. He has deep expertise and experience in the project management of fuels development and deployment including the relationships between products and the human factors essential to promote the rapid deployment of the products that will provide societal and environmental benefits.​

Since becoming a Connected Places Associate Brian has provided expert advice to the Net Zero Pathfinder projects and the End to End Hydrogen project.​

Mr. Macmillan is Chief Strategy Officer of Vertical Aerospace and joined the company in September 2021. He leads the development of an ecosystem of partners to launch and grow the eVTOL operations of Vertical’s customers around the world. Before Vertical Mr. Macmillan was Chief Carbon and Strategy Officer at Heathrow Airport and worked in various regulatory, planning, operational and commercial roles at the airport for over a decade. He worked with McKinsey and Company in London and Tokyo on infrastructure and transport in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has an MBA from INSEAD and degrees from the London School of Economics and Hitotsubashi University.

Hannah is the Director of ESG at Arsenal Football Club, responsible for environmental sustainability, diversity & inclusion and operational governance. Arsenal Football Club has a long history of positively impacting the lives of people in local and global communities. As the first Director of ESG, Hannah is responsible for defining and delivering the club’s ESG strategy in support of the overall strategy and operations of the club . Hannah has nearly 20 years of experience in consulting and global leadership roles leading teams to turn strategy into positive action and impact.

Sam Markey is Ecosystem Director for Place Leadership at Connected Places Catapult, overseeing strategic investments, partnerships and programmes with places which promote innovation-led levelling up across the UK. At present, this means a focus on fostering collaborative leadership between local organisations around shared strategies for economic renewal, empowering local service managers to adopt smarter spending practices which leverage public contracts to spark innovation, and civic investment which unlocks the power of private finance to curate inclusive, thriving hubs of innovation.
Before joining Connected Places (then Future Cities) Catapult in May 2016, Sam was a senior implementation advisor in the Cabinet Office, focused on public service reform, policy innovation, and the application of emerging technologies to tackle policy challenges. Sam started his career in the London Borough of Barnet where he was responsible for creating the original and infamous ‘Barnet Graph of Doom’.

Natasha is the Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy and Policy lead at Network rail. She has a keen interest in innovation and has previously worked on the introduction of British Sign Language and accessible digital wayfinding in railway stations.
She has worked as a subject matter expert for accessibility on a number of innovation competitions and is a strong advocate for ensuring equal access for all.
Away from innovation Natasha looks after the accessibility customer experience within Network Rails 20 managed stations, inclusive of passenger assistance and accessibility focused mystery shopping research. Previously to Network Rail Natasha worked for TransPennine Express as their Accessibility and Integration manager, and before that working to support people with disabilities in the charity sector.

Selina Mason is an Architect and masterplanner who is responsible for delivering high quality design and masterplanning across Lendlease’s UK and Europe urban regeneration portfolio. Currently she is also Development Director on Smithfield Birmingham.
Selina also has an Honorary Fellowship from RIBA and she is a Design Council Ambassador and was recently appointed by the Government to the Urban Centre Recovery Task Force.

Flora leads the Growth and Partnerships team at VivaCity, having worked previously with VivaCity’s London partners and research institutions across the UK. She has spent the last 5 years in the mobility industry working to improve the way people experience streets and road networks. A firm believer in the power of data, she’s motivated to see the UK’s cities and wider transport networks strengthened by data-led decision making. Her team works with the UK’s largest regional transport authorities, helping them leverage the power of VivaCity’s technology and push boundaries in innovation.

Sharon McNicholl was a key member of the senior team at Belfast City Council for 24 years before taking up the post of Strategic Director (Strategy and Performance) at Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council in 2018.
She returned to Belfast City Council in July 2023 to take up the role of Deputy Chief Executive and Strategic Director of Corporate Services. The remit of this role currently includes Audit, Governance and Risk Services, Digital Services, Commercial and Procurement Services.
Sharon is the senior lead within the Council for the Belfast Region City Deal which includes £200m investment in five new university centres of excellence; and over £100m in digital enabling infrastructure, equity financing and challenge funding for accelerated cluster growth. She leads the Smart Belfast urban innovation framework delivered by the Council’s City Innovation Office. This work includes delivery of the £3.8m Belfast 5G Innovation Region programme.
She is a member of Innovation City Belfast, the city’s senior leadership group advocating for Belfast’s innovation value proposition.
Sharon works alongside Elected Members, the Chief Executive, and the Corporate Management Team, as well as colleagues throughout council to deliver services, investment and programmes across Belfast.

For over 20 years Bruce’s career has involved exploring and promoting the social, economic and environmental benefits of inclusive and attractive urban environments and sustainable transport. He currently leads the team that develops and delivers transport and public realm policy and projects in the City of London, helping to ensure the Square Mile remains a great place to live, work and visit. He is a member of the NLA’s Expert Panel on transport and infrastructure and the Ebbsfleet Design Forum. 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.

Before he started at EIT Urban Mobility, Willem-Frederik was captivated by the documentary ‘Together we Cycle’ by GertJan Hulster and Arne Gielen. He sold his cars the next day, became chairman of the Rotterdam+Regio Cyclists’ Union and is now fully committed to the Mobility Transition.
He was previously a director in the energy utility sector as Chief Commercial Officer of the number 5 utility in the Netherland, where he led, among other things, major energy savings and sustainable energy programs. After he had established himself as an entrepreneur in data analytics and IT, he worked for several years at EIT Digital. There he got to know and understand the digital landscape of Europe, and continent itself.

Alex is DfT’s Head of AI and Autonomy and works in the Emerging Technologies team underneath DfT’s Chief Scientific Advisor. Alex leads on the sector wide adoption of AI in transport and has led on the development of DfT’s first ever Transport AI Strategy (due for publication Spring 2024). Alex brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of science and technology roles in government, including: a review of Defra’s R&D portfolio, overseeing NPL’s climate adaption & resilience research, developing & prioritising AI concepts for Dstl’s Defence AI Centre.

Susie came to Glasgow in 1996 to undertake a PhD in cancer research at the University of Glasgow’s Beatson Institute for Cancer Research where she was awarded the John Paul Award for research excellence. She would then become an R&D manager within the NHS, a public policy practitioner for local and national government, and accessibility and inclusion lead for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. In 2013, Susie became Programme Director for Glasgow City of Science and Innovation – a regional innovation partnership that influences regional innovation strategy and delivers impact through a range of pioneering programmes that support greater innovation in business. She is a champion of diversity in STEM and in 2016 was recognised by Equate Scotland as a “Leading Woman of Scotland” for her contributions to STEM and Scotland’s advancement. In 2023, Susie was named as an “Unsung Hero in the Scottish Start-up Scene” in 2022 by the Scottish Founders Survey. She is now Programme Manager for the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District. Outside work, Susie is Chair of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival and is a session musician and a presenter and contributor for the BBC.

Ibrahim is the Infrastructure, Freeports and Investments Zones Advisor at the Department for Business and Trade, as well as being part of the Connected Places Catapults Associates Network, where he leads on the establishment and mobilisation of the Freeport innovation Network (FIN), a body that works closely with a wide range of government departments and agencies. The FIN is a body established for and on behalf of the Freeports to help drive their innovation objectives.

Ibrahim has over 35+ years in the design, development, financing, and operation of building types and across a broad range of infrastructure asset classes, 10 years of which were based in the UAE delivering the infrastructure objects of the Abu Dhabi government. Ibrahim has worked both within the public and private sector within in the UK and globally.

As an Accelerator Programme Manager at Connected Places Catapult, Kirsty is currently responsible for the Local Authority Transport Decarbonisation Accelerator, aiming to find new and innovative place-based solutions or suppliers that have the potential to reduce carbon and other harmful emissions from local transport networks. Kirsty worked for 17 years in the RAF before transferring to the civil aviation and space sectors, where she has been delivering projects and events. She is passionate about raising the aspirations of young people and speaks regularly about STEM careers at schools and events.

Alan is at the forefront of innovation as the leader of the Connected Places Catapult Concept Demonstration team in New Mobility Services. In his role, he spearheads initiatives that propel the maturation and operational readiness of cutting-edge technology. A Transport Planning Professional and Chartered Engineer, Alan gained experience in transport and innovation with over 11 years at transport consultancies and almost 10 years at the Catapult.

Passionate about sustainable progress, Alan is an advocate for investing in technology and infrastructure that mitigates the environmental impact of transport as well as driving economic growth and enhancing customer experience. He leads CPC projects relating to transport decarbonisation, such as our investigations into how to accelerate the UK’s transition to zero-emission long haul heavy goods vehicles. Alan is committed to driving positive change in the transport landscape and shaping the future of mobility.

Brian is the Insights and Advocacy Analyst for the Digital Utilities team. In this role, he is responsible for conducting research as well as developing and disseminating insights on how innovative digital solutions can drive development in cities.

Before joining the GSMA, Brian was a Communications and Partnerships Officer at Kupona Foundation through the Princeton in Africa Fellowship. Previously, he has worked with Equity Bank in Kenya, and with Social Entrepreneur Corps in Guatemala consulting for local non-profits. Brian has also worked with a community-based micro-finance in Kampala, designing an agricultural project that was implemented in Central Uganda.

Brian holds a BA in Public Policy and International Comparative Studies and a certificate in Markets and Management from Duke University. He also holds certificates in impact measurement and urban planning.

Matteo has over 10 years’ experience in consulting for the transport sector, is the Programme Lead for BSI’s road transport standards, including the Zero Emission HGVs and Infrastructure Standards programme. The programme, supported by the Department for Transport, and delivered in partnership with the Connected Places Catapult, is aimed at supporting the scale up and commercialisation of zero-emission HGVs: BSI is working with industry stakeholders on the development of standards to enable the demonstrations of battery electric and hydrogen-fuelled HGVs, towards wider adoption.

Yiu-Shing Pang manages the Open Data programme at UK Power Networks – the electricity distribution system operator for London, the east and south-east of England. He chairs the Energy Networks Association’s Open Data working group, driving best practice and standardisation across the energy sector.

Previously, Yiu-Shing worked in UK Power Networks’ strategy and regulatory affairs, and prior to that, he trained as a patent attorney in London. Yiu-Shing holds a MSci in Physics from University College London, and a PGCert in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary University of London.

Dr Isabella Panovic is the Programme Manager at Innovate UK, facilitating the delivery of Innovate UK and the Department for Transport’s £200m Zero Emission HGV & Infrastructure Demonstrator programme. The programme aims to increase HGV operator confidence and government understanding of various zero emission HGV technologies and their infrastructure.

Prior to joining the Land & Maritime Transport team at Innovate UK, Isabella has worked in R&D policy for a number of years within the UKRI research councils to support development of other net zero technologies, such as offshore renewables and decarbonising heating and cooling. Isabella also completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews, focussing on biorefineries and the chemistry of biomass.

Tom leads the GFI Transport Team’s work on heavy goods vehicles. Specifically, he has led the development of the ‘Delivering Net Zero’ report which identifies10 innovative financing solutions to help operators overcome barriers to decarbonisation and accelerate private investment into zero emission HGVs and infrastructure, as well as a guide for investors in the EV Battery Supply Chain. He joined the Institute from the Growth Lending Group, a provider of working capital and venture debt to high growth businesses, where he managed a portfolio of clients and worked across different teams to structure and restructure ABL facilities.

Liz Peace has more than 35 years’ experience in government and the property sector. She spent her early career in the Ministry of Defence, eventually becoming a key player in the team that created QinetiQ plc. She subsequently served as Chief Executive of the British Property Federation (BPF) for thirteen years where she regards her key achievement as being the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). She was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to the property industry.

Having retired from the BPF at the end of 2014, Liz now has a portfolio career with a range of non-executive, advisory and charity roles, at Howard de Walden Estates, RPS Group plc, RDI REIT plc, the Churches Conservation Trust, and Whiteley Village Trust. She is Chairman of the Architectural Heritage Fund, Centre for London and Real Estate Balance, the property industry’s leading diversity organisation. She is also President of the Property Litigation Association.

In 2017 Liz was appointed Chairman of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and in 2018 she became Chair of the Sponsor Board for the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme.

Stephen is Chief Executive of Bristol City Council, having previously been the council’s Executive Director for Growth and Regeneration with achievements including the City Leap decarbonisation project, Temple Quarter regeneration and the council’s house building programme. A former equity partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP, Stephen has extensive experience of economic development, scale-up businesses, major regeneration projects, technology and the energy sector. His early career included a decade in the international energy industry following which he was a founding director of 3 Mobile.

For over 27 years’, I have created impactful private/public sector partnerships. Over the last four years, I have successfully operated my own consultancy specialising in Stakeholder Engagement, Communications, Interim Management and Business Planning & Performance. Before starting my own business, I had built a successful career working across the private, public and charity sectors, I was Director of External Relations at the Community Transport Association and Head of Development at the National Railway Museum

As Ecosystem Director for Rail and Stations at the Connected Places Catapult, Alan leads the vision and strategy for the organisation’s rail activities. Alan works with the wider team of rail experts and cross-functional experts at CPC to create programmes and partnerships that help connect those with innovative solutions in rail to those who have applicable challenges.

Previously at CPC, Alan has led a number of automated vehicle programmes including collaborative R&D projects such as MuCCA, HumanDrive and VeriCAV, has worked with the DfT & BSI on a UK strategy for automated vehicle standards, and has developed guidance on the use of simulation for automated vehicle safety verification.

Before CPC, Alan led delivery of the safety case for the Personal Rapid Transit system at Heathrow airport, led innovation projects for Jaguar Land Rover, and applied systems thinking approaches to better assess risk in nuclear industry. In 2011, he completed a EngD in Systems Engineering with thesis: ‘The Safety of Rapid Transit Systems’. Alan is a chartered engineer through the IET and is on the IET Codes and Standards Advisory panel.

Lorna has over 30 years’ experience in developing and delivering major infrastructure projects. An architect by profession, she has worked in both the private and public sector throughout her career, engaging with central and local government to solve challenges in infrastructure. She has led schemes when in a multinational contractor, central government grant organisations to big four consultancy and government Arm’s Length Bodies. Her most recent roles were at the Great British Rail Transition Team and as Sponsorship Director for Phase 2 at HS2. Lorna started her new role as Managing Director of the Local Authority function in the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) in July 2023 and is continuing to develop offerings for advisory and lending services across the UK’s four nations, working directly with local authorities, devolved governments, the private sector and government departments to accelerate the impact UKIB can make to Net Zero and regional economic growth.

Dan has been working in the railway industry since 2011 and joined South Western Railway as Senior Design and Innovation Manager in January 2022. Dan leads on SWR’s innovation programme with a strong focus on improving the customer experience. Prior to SWR, Dan was in the role of Rail Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, responsible for delivering funding to drive innovation in the railway industry. Dan also has significant experience working with TOCs all over the world, including MTR Hong Kong, Metro Trains Melbourne and BART in San Francisco, to assist them with developing their strategy and optimising performance through the sharing of innovations and best practices.

Silviu Pirvu is the Chief Technology Officer & Co-founder of Optimal Cities.

Based in London, he is an Urbanist and Technologist with experience spanning hundreds of projects in the UK and beyond, focused on developing geospatial companions to help planners and developers create places that heal in any condition.

His ‘Symbiotic Intelligence’ approach uses a harmonious integration of remote sensing, intuitive interfacing, Artificial and Human Cognition capabilities for optimal decision-making in dynamic and challenging places, such as cities, space and extreme environments.

The solutions developed with his team can be now used to improve the lives of over 40 million people by boosting the speed of development and healthy outcomes.

Silviu Pirvu is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the European Centre for Space Economy and Commerce and an experienced domain expert and mentor for tens of SpaceTech, DeepTech and ClimateTech initiatives across Europe, Asia, MENA and Americas.

Dr Mike Pitts leads Innovate UK’s Net Zero Heat programme and is the Deputy Challenge Director for Transforming Construction. He was previously Head of Urban Systems at Innovate UK, covering the priority areas of Urban Living and Smart Infrastructure. He joined Innovate UK in 2012 to lead on embedding sustainability across Innovate UK’s strategy and has run programmes on cleantech, resource efficiency and environmental data

Senior Associate at Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town, and Visiting Professor at ENU where he previously held the Chair of Sustainability Science and created and led the Resource Efficient Built Environment Lab. He brings 120+ scientific publications and over 17 years of experience in the construction sector to the founding team of Preoptima. Francesco is a global thought leader on embodied and whole life carbon. He is also an advisor to the International Energy Agency (IEA), national governments, and EU standardisation committees. Francesco co-authored UK’s National Methodology 2017 and the embodied carbon roadmap for Scotland 2020. He is a Fellow of the RSA.

A senior manager and innovation professional within the UK infrastructure industry with experience in digital innovation, corporate venture capital, and utilities project delivery. Developed and implemented the group innovation strategy for Mott MacDonald’s Global Water Sector.

UK Expert on BSI and ISO 56000 Innovation Management Standards Committees. Project manager for Clathrate Desalination as part of the TAG driving innovative ideas to commercial success by linking Venture Capital Group, with inventors and clients.

Extensive experience leading joint ventures and client & contractor secondments. Delivered innovation management consultancy for clients. Seconded to HS2 innovation team to support the development of the Hybrid Venture fund for construction startups. Leading group innovation strategy as part of Mott MacDonald’s Excellence programme.

Gopal (Sarvapali) Ramchurn is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at University of Southampton, CEO of the £31M Responsible AI programme and Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub, which sits at the centre of the £33M Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme. He is also co-founder of the AI start-up Empati Ltd, which delivers solutions for real-time carbon accounting across grid, generation and consumption. His research interests include development of core AI technologies and Human-AI partnerships and their application to key sustainability challenges

Head of Net Zero leading easyJet’s Net Zero strategy and industry partnerships. An experienced aerospace professional with expertise in airline strategy, network planning and sustainability. He has been in the airline industry for over a decade with commercial and strategy roles at British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet. Prior to joining the airline industry he completed a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering and started his career as an engineer working on Airbus commercial aircraft.

Sophie Randall is the Innovation Lead for Mobility and Cities at Innovate UK. She leads on a number of activities across both the transport and urban living space.

Margaret joined the Commission in October 2022, having previously worked as part of the RAPID leadership team, a joint Ofwat, Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate unit to speed up water supply infrastructure delivery – a direct result of the Commission’s recommendations in Preparing for a drier future.

Margaret has extensive experience leading policy development in Whitehall, principally in Defra on water supply, flood and coastal erosion risk management, access to the environment and a number of other environmental issues. Her teams have supported Ministers in developing primary and secondary legislation and in working with delivery bodies to implement policy. She has also worked to shape and implement policies in the East of England and was Parliamentary Clerk at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2011-12.

Dr Alisdair Ritchie is Head of SME Development at the Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for transport, smart cities, and place leadership. Alisdair and his teams manage the Catapult’s network of 4,300+ SMEs, delivers Department for Transport’s TRIG (Transport Research Innovation Grant) programme and leads its Freight Innovation Fund programme. The teams seek to foster innovation and integrate SME capabilities across all Catapult activities and with its partners. The teams also develop and deliver commercial and CR&D frameworks that enable SMEs to innovate, build partnerships, and seek investment with partners across government departments, local authorities, key commercial partners and globally.

Alisdair has previously been part of the management team of the PETRAS National Cybersecurity Centre, led the development of mobility testbeds at the University of Warwick and has provided management consultancy services across a number of industries including media, telecoms and transport.

Through BJR Solutions Ltd, Brian’s main focus is on policy mechanisms in support of zero emission technologies and alternative fuel pathways for commercial and heavy-duty vehicles. His clients include the Department for Transport, Zemo Partnership, the University of Exeter, Transport & Environment and BSI. Brian is BSI’s Technical Author supporting the development of a code of practice for public eHGV charging infrastructure design and was on Innovate UK’s assessment panel for the ZEHID projects. Brian authored T&E’s 2023 report “HGVs on the road to net zero”, based on research that firmly indicated a battery-electric future for all new HGVs is an achievable objective, well ahead of the existing 2035 and 2040 UK phase-out dates. Brian is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist experienced in transport, energy, climate change, sustainability and vehicle safety. Before forming his own consultancy business in 2014, Brian worked in increasingly senior roles at TRL Ltd, mostly on HGV-related research, and spent several years at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, including time as Head of Energy.

Mark Robinson is MD of Chrome Angel Solutions and has spent over 30 years successfully transforming business performance in railways and engineering. After starting at London Underground as a graduate electronics & software engineer, he spent the first half of his career working across a wide range of engineering management positions and major projects until he was Train Systems Manager, accountable for the engineering of rolling stock, signalling and control & information assets. He then joined AEA Technology plc and as Director of Rail Products, led the development and international distribution of condition monitoring, decision support and asset management systems. An experienced Chartered Engineer and MBA, he has extensive experience of leading organisational change and large-scale transformation programmes.

In 2006 Mark founded Chrome Angel Solutions, a SME specialising in building powerful partnerships with advanced technology experts, asset maintainers and operators. We deliver transformational solutions that make a significant and measurable improvement to performance, safety, cost and customer experience for railways, maritime and other asset intensive industries. His key areas of focus are Virtual Reality Serious Games, Remote Condition Monitoring, Data Analytics, AI & Machine Learning.

Professor Tony Roskilly is Chair of Energy Systems at Durham University and has 30 years of experience in the design, control, and operational optimisation of energy systems. He is a Director of Durham Energy Institute and Director of the UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub. Professor Roskilly is the UK lead for the European Energy Research Alliance Joint Programmes for Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes and Energy Systems Integration, and the Academic Lead for the Teesside Industrial Cluster. He is Principal Investigator for the National Network+ for hydrogen fuelled transportation, and jointly coordinates the Growing Teesside’s Hydrogen Economy and Catalysing a Just Transition to Net Zero project. Professor Roskilly leads a large group conducting research which includes high efficiency power and propulsion systems and oxygen-hydrogen closed power cycles; integrated hydrogen fuelled energy hubs; thermo-chemical energy recovery, storage and trigeneration systems and energy system modelling and analysis.

Andrew Roughan is CEO at Plexal, the innovation company building clusters around science and technology to solve some of society’s biggest challenges.

A driving force in the government mission to regenerate the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Andrew leveraged his business transformation expertise to co-lead creation of the Here East campus, including the launch of Plexal as an innovation centre.

Andrew is a passionate tech for good advocate and under his leadership, Plexal has evolved into a UK-wide business with a robust innovation ecosystem that’s closing the collaboration gap between startups, government, big industry and academia to create economic growth and prosperity in communities across the regions.

Richelle’s innovation career spans both the public and private sector including setting up an innovation consulting practice within a global professional services firm and experience developing innovation policy as Head of Innovation in Leeds and London, managing investments and stakeholders within local and national government. Richelle has a unique perspective on how to develop a thriving regional ecosystem which works for both business and communities; connecting infrastructure, funding, skills and capacity to drive inclusive and sustainable growth.

Richelle recently co-founded Creaticity specifically to help more cities and regions use innovation to leverage new partnerships, develop impact-led programmes and explore alternative funding models to overcome the challenging situations they currently face.

Dr Wolfgang Schuster is an internationally recognised executive leader with over 27 years of experience across multi-modal transport, smart cities, space and digital. Wolfgang has a wealth of experience leading complex company strategies as well as major national and international delivery programmes for industry, academia and government, including Department for Transport, Defence, European Investment Bank and European Commission. Wolfgang is currently Executive Director at the Connected Places Catapult, where his focus is on strategically enabling, accelerating and scaling ecosystem and cross-ecosystem innovation for cities, transport and place leadership.

A visionary leader on a mission to revolutionise our approach to achieving net zero. Marc goes beyond conventional methods by integrating systems thinking into the development process. Passionate about fostering change, Marc strategically designs developments that not only reduce energy and carbon but also inspire individuals to embrace low-carbon lifestyles. Through innovative thinking Marc aims to create a meaningful impact, driving a shift towards a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future.

Recognised as a thought leader on public innovation, Rikesh is the Head of the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre hosted by the Connected Places Catapult focused on driving more innovation value through public procurement.

Previously Rikesh led Transport for London’s award-winning innovation team to create new value for London by working with start-ups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists to solve some of London’s key challenges. Rikesh was also responsible for TfL’s world leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users, 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners which an independent review stated that it’s worth to London is £130m per annum. He also was actively in involved during the 2012 Olympic Games and TfL’s response to COVID-19.

Rikesh also previously worked at PA Consulting shaping their open data and open innovation practice.
Most recently, Rikesh has been recognised in the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2019 – 2021, being named one of the top five for sustainability in 2019. He was also recognised in the Top 100 Influencers for the Drum Digirati in 2018.

Rikesh sits on the London Transport Museum Board as a Non-Executive Director, as well as a Civic Innovation Director (Non-Executive Director) at Cities Today, the global public innovation think tank. He has also been an Ambassador for London Tech Week since 2020.
In academia, Rikesh is Guest Lecturing on Open Innovation at the Royal College of Arts, Harvard University and the University of Oxford.
Rikesh also served on the Mayor of London’s Smart London Board from 2016 to 2023.

Rubina is an early-stage VC investor focusing on deeptech and climatetech most recently as Principal at Octopus Ventures, where she also established and led Octopus Springboard to support and accelerate sustainable deeptech companies. Previously, she established and led the innovation group at British Gas and led early-stage investments and technology strategy at Centrica Ventures. With a BEng and MEng in sustainable systems engineering, Rubina’s career kicked off at Fraunhofer, where she worked as a solar engineer before heading up Fraunhofer TechBridge, a division dedicated to validating and backing early-stage cleantech. Rubina has more than a decade of experience as an engineer, operator and investor across technology development, commercialisation and investments across Europe, North America and Australia. Rubina also holds a number of advisory roles, with organisations including the European Innovation Council and the Solar Impulse Foundation. Rubina is also passionate about empowering people of all backgrounds, and sits on the board of POWERful Women. Over the years, she’s won a number of awards for her contribution to the energy sector, including the Innovator Award 2022

Robert Singleton (MRTPI, MCIHT) is a chartered spatial planner with over 18 years in the profession.
He has a wide range of experience in the public sector including leading an innovative sustainable
design and construction team, acting as planning lead for major regeneration projects and
Development Consent Orders, and more recently heading up the National Infrastructure Team at the
then DLUHC. Following a move to the DfT in 2019, Robert has established a centre of excellence for
engaging with the transport and spatial planning systems for the Department capable of providing
expert and specialist input to the full range of modal policy areas. The key driver of the Planning
Policy Team at DfT is to foster a step change in the Departments approach to planning and better
align the spatial and transport planning systems to drive truly sustainable patterns of development
served by the right infrastructure, delivered in the right place and at the right time

Caroline brings lived experience as a disabled woman and over 15 years of professional experience in the charity sector. In 2018-2021 Caroline completed an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics of Health with a particular focus on epistemic justice within the disability benefits system (whether and why disabled people are believed). As CEO she works with our staff and Trustees to ensure the organisation is making an impact and delivering on our goals. Outside of work Caroline’s interests include her over-enthusiastic passion for policy and current affairs, and a love of dinosaurs, board games, quizzes and cats.

Dan joined West Midlands Growth Company as Chief Investment Officer in September 2020. Dan leads the region’s Business and Capital Attraction programmes, overseeing the company’s sector leads, and the development and rollout of the region’s global strategy for
inward investment. Formerly Business Development Director at MIDAS – Manchester’s strategic inward
investment promotion agency – Dan led Manchester’s sector investment teams, and created and directed the Manchester India Partnership. Prior to MIDAS, Dan spent five years working for Rolls-Royce Plc in both its Marine and Aerospace businesses. His most recent role was as International Sales Director, Civil Aerospace, where he led sales campaigns in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Other previously held positions include a range of internationally stationed leadership roles at Anglo-Dutch shipping company, Royal P&O Nedlloyd.

Philly Strahan is manager of the Freeport Innovation Network (FIN), a centralised bespoke environment that empowers UK Freeports to drive their innovation programmes, leading to commercialisation. She works closely with the Freeports to support their long-term objective of economic self-sufficiency. The FIN is supported by Connected Places Catapult, Innovate UK KTN and Maritime UK.

Max Sugarman is Chief Executive of Intelligent Transport Systems UK, the national voice of the transport technology industry. He manages the strategy and direction of the organisation, representing the sector to government and stakeholders and making the case for the value of intelligent transport. He is also a member of the Connected Places Catapult Freight Innovation Cluster Advisory Board and Innovate UK’s BridgeAI Programme Advisory Board.

He has around a decade of experience working in transport, innovation and communications. He has previously worked at the Catapult Network, where he supported the nine Catapult innovation centres on cross-cutting policy issues and political engagement, and as Public Affairs & PR Director at the Railway Industry Association (RIA), the leading UK trade body for rail suppliers, where he led an award-winning communications function.

He has previously worked at the Institution of Civil Engineers, at a corporate communications agency in the City, at London City Hall and at the House of Representatives in the US. He has a diploma in professional PR, is a Chartered PR Practitioner and was Chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Public Affairs Group from 2021 to 2023. In 2023 he was recognised as one of the Outstanding Leaders of the Year in the CIPR Volunteer Awards. Max is passionate about transport and the role it plays in people’s lives, in supporting economic growth and reaching net zero.

Raj Tadepalli is the Founder & CTO at Ecavia, a tech start up developing Intelligent mobility solutions and providing strategic consulting support across industry sectors. Raj has a career background of nearly 2 decades now in new product development in electrified transportation, power and ICT industries and is a part-time researcher at the Cranfield centre for autonomous and cyber physical systems as well .
Raj has been a close witness to the rapid advances in these industries, their interplay opportunities and challenges . With his vision , Ecavia as a tech start up is developing a solutions portfolio and is currently exploring opportunities to launch some of these advances to meet various market needs across industries. Raj will provide an overview of their portfolio and why Ecavia is looking for an investment partner to support one of the more interesting business cases to progress its journey to market.

Melissa is a data and digital leader with almost 3 decades of experience in the water industry. Prior to setting up her own company last year, Melissa spent nearly 28 years at Anglian Water Services. There she experienced a variety of roles from operational front line to asset management, strategic change management and in the later years leading their Data and Digital Services function where she modernised the practices and technologies. Melissa has a passion for facilitating change with people, processes, data and technology in order to drive positive business outcomes and is currently engaged in facilitating open data for the water sector.

Isabela has 25+ years of shipping and trading expertise, specializing in metals, fuels and renewables. With a strong focus on the shipping industry, she has held various leadership and managerial positions during her career with several blue-chip organizations; one of her greatest accomplishments was managing a team of equal gender and diversity.
For the past seven years, she has collaborated closely with ship owners to support their decarbonisation efforts. During this journey, she discovered her deep passion for hydrogen fuel technology, which ultimately led to her co-founding Clean Marine Shipping. This innovative company specializes in state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell technology designed specifically for marine applications with the long view in empowering communities around the world to use the technology.

James is a trained biochemist who has held a range of science and technology roles across Government Departments, covering R&D sponsorship, equipment type approval, and science strategy. James Currently leads the Emerging Technologies Team in the Department for Transport, which ensures the organisation grasps the key opportunities and risks of most impactful techs – AI, Quantum, Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) and 5/6G. James’ time in DfT has seen him set up the Transport Research and Innovation Board, which brings together senior leaders from UKRI, DfT and transport delivery organisations to cohere transport RD&D; oversee the enduring Catapult Collaboration Programme which helps grow transport technology markets; and develop the first Transport AI Strategy to set the sector off on its AI journey. Outside of work James is a Gooner and keen gardener.

Ms Anna Carolina Tortora, an Italian/Colombian/Canadian MIT alumna with a background in Aerospace Engineering, heads the Department of Innovation Strategy for the ESO.

Her mission is to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK system to meet the country’s ambitious Net Zero targets by leveraging new digital solutions, grid technologies and services. She currently
also heads up Virtual Energy System, to develop the first Digital Twin of the entire energy system in the UK.

Prior to NGESO, Carolina held the equivalent position in Rome at the Italian TSO, Terna Spa, where she successfully led the deployment of the largest high voltage connected Storage plants (batteries)
in Europe.

Today, Carolina is a senior advisor to some of the world’s most promising battery start-ups and the recipient of numerous honours including being a featured speaker for 2017 TEDxRome, as well as
being elected as one of Italy’s Top 40 under forty managers in 2016.

Dr. Yashraj Tripathy leads the product portfolio at About:Energy. Acting as the voice of A:E’s customers, he collaborates closely with engineering, customer and commercial functions to digitalise the battery value chain for emerging industries in electrification.

With over 10 years of technical leadership experience in battery research and product development across the automotive and aerospace sectors, Yashraj has held engineering management roles at Rolls-Royce, specialising in propulsion batteries for electric aviation, and at WMG, where he excelled as a Principal Engineer for battery safety, earning several merit awards. Yashraj has actively contributed to EuroCAE working groups and has served on Faraday Institution’s select committees focused on EDI and early career researchers. In recognition of his academic and professional achievements, he was appointed as an Honorary Associate Professor with the University of Warwick in March 2022.

Yashraj holds a PhD from the University of Warwick, where he championed the benefits of isothermal testing platforms for parameterising lithium-ion battery models. He also graduated with a 1st Class B.E. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani. Hailing from the coastal plains of Eastern India, Yashraj firmly believes that progress in batteries is a crucial step towards achieving global net zero ambitions. He advocates for the democratisation of battery development, making it accessible to all, including new SMEs, large OEMs, and companies from the global south.

Steve is based at the Connected Places Catapult where he is Director of 3Ci – the Cities Commission for Climate Investment. Working with the Advisory Board he has overall managerial responsibility for the implementation of the 3Ci’s strategy and operations working closely with leaders from cities, industry, finance and government.

As a recognised leader in innovation and sustainability he has over 25 years of experience working in both the public and private sector. Previously, he was Digital Cities Leader for Arup where he delivered sustainability focussed technology strategies for some of the largest developments in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, representing £billions of investment.

He has held several senior positions across local government, primarily in London and Manchester. As Head of Low Carbon Economy in Greater Manchester he established the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area and a joint venture alongside the Green Investment Bank. He also established the city’s widely admired sustainability innovation programmes, Triangulum and CityVerve.

Nicolette is Head of Projects and Programmes: Strategic Accounts within the Connected Places Catapult.  With a diverse background in sustainable transport consulting, R&D regulatory and test management, lean and six sigma practices, she is particularly interested in the development of innovative solutions that are both sustainable and deliver excellence, whilst ensuring that human factors are central.  She has a keen interest in the role of smart technology to and data integration in improving public sector efficiencies.  

Nicolette has several years’ experience in developing innovative public sector solutions to address the needs of sustainable transport planning and strategies within government.  She has experience across multiple transport areas including decarbonisation of transport, business planning aspects of public transport systems, smart cities and data integration solutions for public transport, paratransit and traffic management.

In addition to consulting, Nicolette also has 10 years of corporate industry experience, where she lead and managed technology teams across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, driving them to excel in the global market.  She holds a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Loughborough University in England, majoring in Systems Theory, Ergonomics and Behavioural Science, and Business.  Nicolette is also Six Sigma (black belt) and Lean trained.

Dr Alison Vincent is a Non-Exec Director and Technical Advisor to multiple private and public companies. She has held senior technical positions in Cisco, HSBC, NDS, Micro Focus and IBM. Her roles span experience in Cybersecurity, Research and Development, Strategy Execution, Product Management and Business Development, with particular expertise in digital strategy, innovation and Mergers and Acquisitions. She is an Ambassador for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and is a passionate supporter of the STEM agenda in Schools.

Alison has a PhD in Cryptography from London University, and a 1st Class honours BSc in Maths and Computer Science. She is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the IET.

Julie Wagner is president and founder of The Global Institute on Innovation Districts (GIID), a global reaching, not-for-profit organization. The mission of GIID is to accelerate the growth and evolution of innovation districts worldwide. She leads a multidisciplinary team that undertakes novel empirical research across dozens of districts worldwide to elevate their distinction from other economic models. Julie has shaped and led a global network of nearly 50 districts across five continents and 16 countries.

Julie is a prolific researcher and writer. Her most notable research includes, “The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America” and “The Evolution of Innovation Districts: The New Geography of Global Innovation.” Her most recent paper was released in late 2023, titled “Why Governance Matters,” which boldly proclaims that the long-term success or failure of innovation districts, hinges on their ability to organize.

A trained city planner from MIT, Julie was a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution for nearly 15 years. served as a deputy planning director for Washington DC, where she managed the development of plans to aid that city undergoing significant economic and social transformation.

Duncan Walker is CEO and Co-founder of Skyports, and leads on both the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) infrastructure arm, Skyports Infrastructure, and the drone logistics and inspection business Skyports Drone Services.

Duncan formed Skyports in 2018 after identifying the need for safe, regulated, vehicle-agnostic landing infrastructure for the emerging AAM industry. The company is founded on the belief that electric aviation has the potential to deliver measurable benefits to people, businesses and the environment, and that Skyports’ vertiport infrastructure and drone services capabilities will enable it.

Duncan has 20 years of commercial real estate experience. Prior to founding Skyports he was a Main Board Director at Helical Plc, a FTSE listed investment and development company. He holds Master’s degree in Economics and Management from Oxford University.

Duncan lives in southwest London with his wife, three children and two dogs. When he is not in one of Skyports’ offices in the UK, US, Asia or the Middle East, Duncan can be found playing or coaching sports.

Jenny Ward is the Deputy Director of Future of Aviation in the Department of Transport. This is forward looking and includes leading on Future of Flight (particularly drones and advanced air mobility) and commercial spaceflight policies for the Department. She has a decade of experience in the civil service working with industry and other Governments to develop and deliver complex policies across energy, environment and transport. Prior to joining the civil service Jenny worked in technical consultancy and the private commercial sector.

Bevis has spent his whole career working in sustainability in public, private and voluntary sectors.

Dubbed by some media as ‘the first environmentalist to run a UK bank’, Bevis has led Triodos Bank UK since April 2016. The bank is widely regarded as a global pioneer of sustainable finance and recognised as the UK’s most sustainable banking provider by several consumer watchdogs and rankings. He has also been a leading challenger in efforts to change the banking system and direct money as a powerful force for good and has appeared in recent high-profile WWF campaign films such as ‘‘Our Planet Too Big To Fail’ and ‘Banking on a Wilder Tomorrow’. He also has a regular column in the Metro newspaper on how to green your money. He has held numerous Directorships and Trusteeships as well as national advisory roles in banking and impact investing.

He has a first-class business degree, a PhD in Management Science, is a Chartered Environmentalist and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate for his leadership in sustainability.

Alex is a specialist in the commercialisation of innovation with nearly 20 years of experience in complex markets, from medicine and devices to transport and cities. He is a specialist in intellectual property, commercial and public procurement strategies, and has supported hundreds of high-growth potential technology businesses with varied products and services.

As Executive Director of Academic Engagement at Connected Places Catapult, Alex is responsible for supporting the Connected Places innovation supply chain, working for small businesses and researchers to maximise the development and implementation of innovations and support growth and jobs. With his team, he understands the regulatory and practical barriers to new market entrants to support hundreds of high-tech, high-growth businesses, operating at board and senior operational levels, helping them to win commercial traction, enter new markets and raise over £160m in investment in the last four years and much more in GVA. He has also played a role in pioneering improvements of public sector innovation procurement and supported the creation of new investment funds.

John has led the Liverpool City Region innovation agenda for 9 years. His primary role is to catalyse partnerships, policies, and programmes to maximise the LCR’s distinctive, world-leading innovation assets and capabilities, realise the headline annual target of investing 5% of GVA in R&D by 2030, and drive transformational economic growth.

This includes coordinating the LCR Innovation Board (1st in the UK) and wider innovation ecosystem; leading strategic initiatives – e.g. 2 Science & Innovation Audits; Asset-Based Cluster Development; national UKRI Launchpad pilot; supporting development/delivery of £3B projects; driving major collaborations, notably the Partnership & Action Plan with Innovate UK, and innovation twinning with Busan in South Korea.

John also led the LCR’s first Digital Strategy & Action Plan, and initial development of the award-winning 214km “LCR Connect” fibre network delivered via a novel Joint Venture and “dig once” approach.

Previously, John worked at the Local Enterprise Partnership, Liverpool Vision, and St.Helens Council, where he led successful, pioneering, economic development programmes, e.g. national City Growth Strategy pilot, plus Dream by Jaume Plensa and local miners as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project.

Prior to local government, John spent 2 years working for the European Commission in Brussels. He has also lived and worked in Germany, the USA, and Canada, and speaks French and German.

Outside of work, John is a keen traveller and squash player, plus a certified Level 2 hockey coach.

Suzanne Winkels is the Technical Programme Manager for England’s Economic Heartland, Sub-National Transport Body, and is also the Roads and Freight Lead for the Heartland. Suzanne’s focus is on the redefining the future of roads in the EEH Region to ensure that they support the aspirations of EEH’s Transport Strategy while supporting economic growth and delivering a decarbonised transport system. Suzanne’s background in planning and transport planning means she places significant emphasis on integration of land-use and transport planning to create placed-based approaches and people focused solutions. Suzanne believes we will be able to deliver a transport system that enables users to have choice in the way they move and connect with people and opportunities. Suzanne’s background is in both the Private and Public Sector and prior to joining EEH was the Head of Transport Strategy for Buckinghamshire Council.

Ruth Wood is the CEO of Mersey Maritime, which is the UK’s leading regional maritime cluster, bringing together industry, government and academia to champion, grow and support the maritime sector across the Liverpool City Region and greater North West.

Ruth is a commercial and marketing professional with over 15 years’ experience working specifically in the maritime and logistics sector. Prior to joining Mersey Maritime, Ruth worked at Peel Ports Group and was part of a team that delivered the business case, commercial strategy, and marketing for the Port of Liverpool’s £400m deep-water container terminal; Liverpool2.

Ken graduated from London University (Queen Mary) with a B.Sc(hons) in Physics and Astrophysics and later from Sussex University with an M.Sc in Astronomy.

He joined QMC Instruments Ltd. in 1983 and became Sales Director in 1988. He specializes in cryogenic detection technology for the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum and has spent his entire career at the interface between academic research and high tech commercial activity. He served for more than 15 years on the International Organising Committee of IRMMWTHz, the largest and most diverse conference on terahertz science.

He is co-founder of Sequestim Ltd., which was incorporated in 2016 as a collaboration to develop next generation security screening technology. He became CEO in 2020.

“Mark is a Chartered Civil Engineer and specialist in developing and commercialising innovative products and services in the maritime sector, as it faces the challenges of decarbonising and adopting new technologies around digitisation and autonomy. Mark provides strategic leadership to the maritime team who are engaged across our initiatives addressing challenges in:

DECARBONISATION
With Climate change being the challenge of our time and 95% of all UK trade reaching us through shipping, see how we are working alongside industry on its journey to Net Zero.

DIGITISATION
The advent of 5G, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data open up huge opportunities for the maritime sector, see how we are transforming the industry to drive efficiency in operations, save cost and enable safer working environments.

LOGISTICS
The maritime sector is at the heart of the UK’s supply chain, see how we are bringing together SME’s and industry from across all modes of transport to drive standardisation, efficiencies and innovation across the logistics sector.

Prior to joining the CPC, Mark spent 6 years with Innovate UK KTN, as a Knowledge Transfer Manager in the Infrastructure and Energy team, leading work on the transition to net zero in construction, defence, energy and maritime sectors. This built on his former role as the Regional Manager (South West) and Innovation Lead for the Built Environment at Innovate UK (2010-2015) after migrating from the world of sustainable development and regeneration as the Professional Services Manager at the SW RDA (2004-2010).

Prior to joining the public sector Mark worked as a projects manager for design consultants and civil engineering contractors predominantly in the water, power and infrastructure sectors.

“I thoroughly enjoy working with the diverse range of cutting edge technologies and approaches inching their way in to the mainstream and addressing some of greatest global challenges.”

Andrea Wu is Chief Operating Officer at Urban-Air Port (UAP) and co-founded Six Miles Across London (small), UAP’s parent company, in 2016 to become Infrastructure Pioneers in Urban/ Advanced Air Mobility by introducing an infrastructure solution for eVTOLs that is disruptive and technology focused. Extensive experience in successfully delivering large-scale infrastructure projects around the globe with the best architecture & design practices incl Foster + Partners, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has led to a UAM/AAM portfolio including clients such as Airbus, Skyports, GKN Aerospace and Supernal.

Emily is an accessibility consultant and journalist passionate about disability representation and designing inclusive end-to-end journeys for customers and colleagues.

She is Head of Accessibility and Inclusive Design at Mima and is a wheelchair user with a decade of experience as an accessibility consultant. Emily has most notably worked with MetroRio, the underground transport system servicing Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure both new and existing stations would be accessible to tourists, athletes, and locals alike. She has also worked closely with Heathrow Airport to update their Access and Inclusion Standards, and is the accessibility lead for the National Railway Museum’s Vision 2025 masterplan.

Emily frequently presents and writes on disability issues, including authoring the Lonely Planet Guide to Accessible Rio de Janeiro, endorsed by the International Paralympic Committee. She is keen to ensure that the end-to-end experience is considered for disabled passengers and staff members alike, including the ability to digitally pre-tool, physically access and engage, and operationally benefit from positive, equitable experiences.