Speakers
Click on each speaker’s name to view their detailed profile and learn more about their expertise and contributions to ALBUM 2025.
Claire Ward is Mayor of the East Midlands, representing 2.2 million people across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Mayor Claire has responsibility for transport, skills and adult education, housing and land, net-zero and economic development.
Before being elected Mayor in May 2024, Claire Ward was the Chair of Sherwood Forest Hospitals in North Nottinghamshire, as well as other roles at the Pharmacists’ Defence Association and the Institute of Collaborative Working. From 1997 to 2010, Mayor Claire was MP for Watford and served as a Justice Minister under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
You can follow Mayor Claire on social media @MayorEastMids
Simon Lightwood was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Transport in the Department for Transport 9 July 2024.
Previously Simon was Shadow Transport Minister, appointed first in October 2022 and re-appointed in September 2023 with an expanded portfolio.
Simon was first elected as MP for Wakefield in a by-election in June 2022 and was re-elected as MP for Wakefield and Rothwell in July 2024.
Prior to being elected, Simon was a proud NHS worker, a Labour councillor and cabinet member for public health. He studied theatre acting at Bretton Hall College in Wakefield after moving to the city in the late nineties.
His wider interests involve spending time with his husband and two young children and supporting his local Rugby League team, Wakefield Trinity.
David is Managing Director of this years’ ALBUM Conference hosts, Nottingham City Transport.
His career ‘on the buses’ started at the age of 18, some 42 years ago (that gives his age away!) as a Junior Traffic Clerk with National Express in its former chartroom based in Trent’s Nottingham garage, next door to where David is based now in NCT’s head office!
After a brief spell in the public transport team at Nottinghamshire County Council, David joined PMT Limited in the Potteries, having graduated from the University of Westminster with a master’s degree in Transport Management.
Having subsequently worked for Badgerline and FirstGroup in such exotic places as West Midlands, North Staffordshire & Crewe, Chester & Merseyside and Greater Manchester, David recalls an early career highlight as being managing director of Pennine Blue in Tameside at the age of just 29. He returned to his home city and joined NCT in 2007 and achieved his childhood dream when appointed managing director of NCT in 2021.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport & Logistics, David is a board member of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, vice-chair of the Bus Commission and currently chair for the East Midlands region of CPT.
He was humbled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Centre for Bus Excellence in 2024.
David stepped up to the role of chair of ALBUM in January this year and finds himself with his team, hosting the ALBUM Conference too!
Guillaume Chanussot is the Chief Executive Officer for Transdev UK and Ireland, overseeing public transport operations with a multimodal portfolio including urban and interurban bus, tramway, and airport services. With extensive experience in the transport industry, Guillaume has led major organisations, including Manchester Metrolink, where he was instrumental in supporting Greater Manchester’s tram operations enhancements.
An inspirational leader, Guillaume excels in strategic planning, financial performance, and stakeholder management. His vision for the future of transport combines operational efficiency with a strong commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, and the ability to challenge status quo and implement transformational change with integrity.
A French Foreign Trade Advisor, Guillaume is also deeply involved in public and private sector collaborations, making him a valuable member of the Liverpool-Manchester Partnership Board, dedicated to enhancing regional transport and connectivity.
Alison Edwards is Director of Policy and External Relations at the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the trade association for the bus and coach sector in the UK. Alison joined CPT in May 2019 after over a decade in the Civil Service as well as time spent working on policy in the charity sector.
Daniel has over a decade of experience across local government transport, having worked for a number of authorities in roles related to engineering, project management, and transport planning.
As Leicester’s City Transport Director, he leads on all operational and strategic transport matters across all modes of transport – including passenger transport, where the council operate as part of the award-winning Leicester Buses partnership.
Caroline Wilson is the Head of Engagement at Intuitive Talent Solutions, a boutique search consultancy specialising in the UK transport sector. With a focus on talent executive-level and interim recruitment, Caroline leads client engagement in the Bus and Coach sectors, leveraging her extensive network of industry experts at all levels.
Her dedication to fostering diverse talent pools and inclusive work environments has made her a respected figure in the transport recruitment sector. Caroline’s leadership continues to drive positive change, ensuring that organisations benefit from a wide range of perspectives and expertise.
Roger French retired from a lifelong career in the bus industry in 2013 having worked with bus companies in London, West Yorkshire, Kent and South Wales before moving to Brighton in 1982, staying at the helm of that city’s buses for 31 years. He was part of the management buy-out team of the Brighton & Hove Bus Company in 1987 and its subsequent sale to the Go-Ahead Group in 1993, continuing as Managing Director of the company as well as playing a leading role in the community including charing the city’s Local Strategic Partnership and the Martlets Hospice.
He was awarded an OBE for services to public transport in 2005, an Honorary MA by the University of Brighton in 2007, became a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for East Sussex in 2007 and was awarded the ‘Freedom of the City of Brighton & Hove’ in 2013.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and been a member for 50 years.
In retirement Roger travels extensively by bus and train all over Britain relating his experiences as an ‘informed passenger’ in a thrice weekly popular online blog at busandtrainuser.com
Louise is a Director at Transport Focus, the transport user watchdog. Since joining in 2011 she has been involved in a variety of areas including getting the best for passengers from rail franchises, helping motorway services operators make improvements and working closely with bus partnerships.
In her current role she leads the organisation’s work to make things better for bus passengers and road users.
With over 25 years of experience in creative technology roles, Tom has specialised in transport innovation and behaviour change through digital technology for the last 15 years.
As founder and CEO at Passenger, Tom has worked with over 100 UK public transport operators and authorities to refine tech product ideas (websites, mobile apps, IoT, wearables, APIs) through prototypes, user testing and the development of commercial models, production versions, and marketing strategies that make them successful in the real world.
Tom launched Passenger in 2015, a digital customer experience platform for public transport operators and authorities. At a pivotal time for public transport, Passenger’s technology combines digital ticketing, real-time departures, network information, journey planning, and disruptions management into a single platform. The SaaS platform has been instrumental in transforming traditional services, helping agencies to meet ever-increasing customer experience expectations.
Tom is a strong advocate for shared, sustainable transport, currently serving as a trustee on the board of the charity Bus Users UK and as Supplier Representative on the board of the Association of Local Bus Managers.
David Leeder is Founder and Managing Partner of TIL Transport Investment Ltd, which is a strategy and economic consultancy focused on bus and rail transport. He was previously a Main Board director of FirstGroup plc, an executive director of National Express Group plc (now Mobico), director of Greyhound Lines, USA, Chairman of Midland Metro, and CEO of West Midlands Travel.
He has a degree in Transport Operations & Planning from Aston University, and as a student worked for London Transport. After starting his career as a Senior Management Trainee at British Rail, he served as a transport planner for The MVA Consultancy, and Assistant to the CEO of Transit Holdings Group (Harry Blundred), before joining WMT, and then FirstGroup, where he became CEO of UK Bus.
He has held directorships at many UK train operators. He is a past President of CPT, and spent 11 years as a strategy advisor to the UK Department for Transport. Since 2010 he has advised a variety of transport operators, local government organisations, and investment funds in relation to bus and rail strategy, regulation, economics, capital investment, rolling stock finance, due diligence and company acquisitions.
TIL clients have included Portsmouth City Council, Arriva, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, Goldman Sachs Infra, DWS Infrastructure, Basalt Infrastructure, ComfortDelgro, keolis, Go-Ahead Group, EBRD European Bank, Hansea Bus, Adventure Travel, Oliver Wyman, and John Laing Infrastructure Fund. TIL has completed projects in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, and USA. David Leeder is an external advisor to McKinsey & Co.
Prior to joining UTG in July 2023, Jason was Head of Public Affairs for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority for over three years and he also worked for Transport for Greater Manchester for four years. During both roles, Jason was actively involved in working with partners on buses, specifically the Bus Services Act (2017) and its impact on the future of transport in Greater Manchester, supporting the early development of Greater Manchester’s Bee Network and rail projects including HS2, and on innovation and devolution.
Before joining TfGM in 2016, Jason worked for a Member of Parliament, supporting on key policy areas of transport and energy.
Prior to working in politics, Jason held a variety of positions in the private and third sector. He was a business development manager in the field of welfare to work for nearly five years. He was also an operations manager for a third sector organisation across the North of England.
With an Academic background in Politics, Sustainable Development and Public Administration. Richard has led on bus decarbonisation for the city of Nottingham for the past 10 years and also leads the local transport authorities’ bus partnership work.
This has incorporated the latter stages of the original Statutory Quality Partnership Scheme, the forerunner to Enhanced Partnership, through to the development of the Greater Nottingham Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and the establishment of the current Greater Nottingham Bus Partnership Scheme. Richard also acts as the client for the current Greater Nottingham BSIP Capital and Revenue programme.
Julia Meek is Director of Business Development on the EV fleet team at Zenobē. Julia’s career has included a range of senior roles at mission-driven start-ups and scale-ups. Prior to joining Zenobē she was Head of Business Development for a UK social enterprise bus operator, Chief of Staff at a microfinance organisation in China, and co-founder of a social investment resource. She has an MBA from London Business School. Recently leading the successful ScotZEB consortium bid, Julia and the rest of the Zenobē business development team works with bus and coach operators of all sizes and across the sector to define and deliver their electric fleet requirements. This includes providing financing, technical expertise and operational support, with an increasing focus on minimising operating costs for operators and reducing the total cost of ownership of electric fleets.
Tony Depledge has a long career in the transport industry with experience in both the public and private sectors. Starting in operations (bus and tram driver and conductor in Blackpool and bus driver for Midland Red in the West Midlands), Tony worked through a range of administrative and managerial roles until returning to Blackpool Transport as Traffic Manager (and subsequently Deputy General Manager) in 1977.
Tony was Managing Director of Blackpool Transport from 1986 until he joined Arriva in 2001 to manage public affairs and transport policy work both in the UK and the EU. Tony was President of CPT in 2000/1 and Chairman of the European Union Committee of the international trade association UITP from 2009 until 2013. He has held non-executive directorships with Lothian Buses and Universitybus and was for 10 years a non-exec director of Translink, Northern Ireland’s bus and train operator. He has provided policy advice to ALBUM since 2022.
Away from transport, Tony is Vice-Chairman of the trustees of the Grand Theatre Blackpool. Tony was appointed OBE for services to public transport in 2002.
Ian has been in the bus and coach industry for 44 years, starting as a timed served apprentice with Leyland Bus. He then spent a number of years with Volvo, with over 20 years at Director level in roles such as Dealer Principal, Aftermarket Director, Business Controller, Product Director and Coach Sales Director. He then joined Wrightbus as their Managing Director, responsible for sales and aftermarket before joining Pelican several years ago. Ian has been responsible for our bus division and grown the sales from zero to over 1000 in a short period of time. He is now responsible for Yutong UK.
Alex Warner has 32 years’ experience in the transport and logistics industry.
He has undertaken senior management roles at London Underground, Strategic Rail Authority, British Airways and South Central Trains as well as board level posts heading up the Stansted Express rail business, and at South Eastern Trains and Midland Mainline. He moved over to the bus sector in 2008, as Business Director UK Bus for First, a role he combined with creating and running as Managing Director, its Greyhound UK company.
Alex joined Royal Mail in 2011, initially running its Wales & Borders operation, then as Managing Director, Specialist Services overseeing two large businesses across the country, predominantly in the B2B sectors. He spent 8 years at Royal Mail and combined this in 2012, with setting up and running his own consultancy company Flash Forward Consulting in the transport sector which he sold in 2021 to AIM-listed business, Tracsis PLC. Following this, he went into business with long-standing transport professional Giles Fearnley, setting up AJW Experience Group, which provides strategic and practical support to the transport sector, as well as promoting Great Scenic Journeys.
Alex is a renowned customer experience commentator and for over 13 years has been a fortnightly columnist for ‘Passenger Transport’ magazine, commenting mainly on customer service and employee well-being and engagement. He is Business Development Director for the 102-year old, Transport Benevolent Fund and Board Advisor to CMAC Group, the large contingency management provider to the rail, aviation and other sectors. He chairs their Executive Board and is also Chair of Great British Rail Replacement, CMAC’s start-up business established in 2024.
