Transport Ireland 2023

Derval Cummins is a Director and the European Advisory Leader, Transportation Consulting at AECOM. Derval has worked as a consultant in the transport sector for over 30 years, assisting clients in Ireland, UK and Southeast Asia across many different facets of their businesses including economic and financial analysis, governance, risk management, customer service, contracting, operations, planning and engineering. She is committed to the improvement of public transport, the promotion of walking and cycling, and the efficient use of our resources across all aspects of transport.

Anne Graham is Chief Executive Officer with the National Transport Authority (NTA). She previously worked with the Authority as Director of Public Transport Services on the regulation and provision of public transport services nationally. Prior to joining the NTA, she worked in the Dublin local authorities as a chartered civil engineer in the drainage, roads and traffic divisions; as a Project Manager on the redevelopment of Dublin’s O’Connell Street area and as an Area Manager in the South West area of the city.

Aimée is in charge of leading work on System’s Thinking and Transformative Change with a focus on NetZero in the Environment Directorate, at the OECD. Analysis builds on systems thinking, focusing climate action on the redesign of socio-technical systems so that they lead to early mitigation and improved well-being. Aimée and her team have provided support and policy recommendations for national and sub-national authorities. Other relevant projects include work on health and climate in the frame of the Pathfinder Initiative; for which Aimée is a Commissioner. Before joining the Environment Directorate, Aimée was an Economist at the International Transport Forum at the OECD, and before joining the OECD she worked in WRI-EMBARQ Mexico. Aimée holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics (CIDE, Mexico), an MA in International Political Economy (Warwick University, UK) and a ‘Maitrise’ in Sustainable Development and Business Social Responsibility (Dauphine University, France).

Stuart Greig is Director of Low Carbon Economy at Transport Scotland. Having joined the Scottish Government in 2009 he has led policy and reform in the fields of energy, economic development and the environment. Prior to this he worked in research and regulation, with an emphasis on contemporary environmental challenges and sustainability – a journey that took him from the valleys of Wales to the lakes of Western Alaska. Stuart joined Transport Scotland in 2018 and his team is now at the centre of the Scottish Government’s commitment to net zero, alongside an equally bold agenda to secure Scotland’s place as a global destination for innovation and investment in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

Stephen Kent is Chief Executive Officer of Bus Éireann. Prior to his appointment in November 2018, he was appointed as Acting CEO in Autumn 2018, having previously served as Chief Commercial Officer since joining Bus Éireann in 2013. Stephen joined from C&C Group where he was Sales and Marketing Director, and previously worked in a number of senior management roles in Waterford Crystal and Waterford Foods (now part of Glanbia plc). Stephen holds a BBS from the University of Limerick and MBA from Herriot Watt University and is also a graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

Aleksandra Klenke is a Policy Officer in Sustainable and Intelligent Transport, DG MOVE at the European Commission. Here she is responsible for the implementation of policy initiatives for sustainable alternative fuels and low and zero emission mobility in the context of implementing the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. Previously she was Policy Officer in charge of interinstitutional relations with the EU Council. Aleksandra has a Master’s in Applied Economics from Lille University of Science and Technology and a Master’s in Business Management from the Warsaw School of Economics.

Paddy Comyn is the Head of Communications for AA Ireland and a former Head of Communications with Volkswagen Group Ireland. Prior to that he was a Motoring Journalist with publications such as The Irish Times. He is a regular commentator on all things Transport on TV, Radio and in print and online media..

Jim Meade was appointed Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann / Iarnród Éireann in in May 2018. He had previously been Director, Railway Undertaking since 2013 responsible for all passenger and freight services. Jim began his railway career as an apprentice fitter in 1979, joining the company as a fitter in Limerick Locomotive Shed upon completion of his apprenticeship in 1983. Since then Jim has worked in a range of roles including fleet maintenance management, strategic change programmes, District Manager in Limerick, and Regional Manager in the west of Ireland, before becoming Director of Train Operations. Jim leads the management team in ensuring that the railway is operated and maintained in a manner that prioritises safety for passengers, employees and third parties; provides a quality customer service to all who use the rail network; strengthens the productivity and performance gains that have been achieved in recent years to secure a sustainable financial position; and delivers rail’s contribution in support of the Government of Ireland’s policies on sustainable development.

Dr Aoife O’Grady is Principal Officer in the Department of Transport. Since joining the Department in 2009, she has worked in the areas of sustainable transport, strategy and analysis, and Corporate Support and Communications with a recent focus on the Covid-19 crisis. Aoife recently became the head of the Climate Change Unit in the Department; her work will encompass key transport elements of the next Climate Action Plan. Aoife previously worked in the UK Department for Transport from 2004-2009. Her academic background is in sociology, research and evaluation. Aoife graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA She also holds an MA and PhD from the University of Warwick.

An engineer by training, Billy Hann holds a degree in electronic engineering, a master’s in operations management from DCU, a master’s in executive leadership from Ulster University, and has completed a programme for leadership development with Harvard Business School. A native of Ballymun, Dublin, he is an “avid sportsperson”, playing golf and badminton at a casual level. Hann’s sport of choice, however, is open water and pool swimming. He continues to compete at masters level, completing the Liffey Swim on many occasions.

Eamon Ryan TD is the Minister for Transport and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. He was appointed to these roles in June 2020. Eamon Ryan was elected to represent Dublin Bay South in the 2020 general election. He was born in Dublin and raised in Dundrum and Dartry. He studied commerce in UCD before taking a job managing a marketing course in the university’s School of Business. He went on to found a cycling tourism company, Irish Cycling Safaris, in the late 1980s and in 1996 won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He was the founding chairperson of the Dublin Cycling Campaign and began his political career as a Dublin City Councillor for the Rathgar-Rathmines ward. He then went on to serve both as a TD for Dublin South and as a Government Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. In recent years he has worked for a European climate organisation and chaired the digital policy group in the Institute of International and European Affairs. He is currently leader of the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas.

Alan Ewing is a Partner at Org. He is a highly experienced Programme Director with over 30 years of strategic and hands-on transformation delivery and C Level and key stakeholder management experience. As a former Economist, Finance Director and Programme Director, Alan has a combination of complex operational business, technical and transformational change management experience enabling him to engage effectively across all programme domains. He has a demonstrated ability to engage successfully with clients, partners and suppliers including offshore and outsourced contractors. Employed either directly or via an SI Partner; finance, resourcing, technology including environments and development, key stakeholder engagement and reporting; governance and assurance; third party relations; delivery; PMO; matrix team management support planning and service management. He has recently been involved in the inception and delivery of a number of leading edge digital and technology programmes – incorporating Cloud based ERP with AI, Machine Learning and social media platforms to provide an integrated user accessible solution.

Russell Vickers is Chief Executive of Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI). Prior to his appointment, Russell was an Engineering Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, where he led a team focusing on the new revenue opportunities that are enabled as vehicles move towards an increasing automated and connected future. Based in Shannon, he is also the Chair of the Testbed working group as part of the CAV Ireland initiative, this work led to the proposal for FMCI. His background is in ASIC Design and Communications, and his previous companies include Parthus Technologies, Texas Instruments, Ericsson and Intel.

Peter Walsh was appointed Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s CEO on 1st October 2020. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer with more than 40 years’ experience and worked for a building contractor and a consultant engineer, but mainly for Local Authorities in road construction, prior to joining the NRA in 2000. With the NRA, he worked on the delivery of the motorway network until 2015, when the NRA was merged with the RPA to form TII. In the newly formed TII, he took up the position of Director of Capital Programme Management. In that position he was involved with light Rail and Metro capital projects along with national road projects.

Rachel Cahill is Head of Chief Executive Office with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and leads key strategic cross organisational initiatives and programmes; most notable being TII’s sustainability and climate action strategy. Rachel is a chartered accountant with over 25 years’ experience working in complex and demanding financial and operational environments including the last 15 years in the transport and mobility sector. Prior to joining TII, Rachel spent 10 years working in the banking industry in both operational and financial roles.

Following her degree in economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Verena Ehrler worked for over 15 years in logistics and the transport industry in Switzerland and in the UK. This industry experience was followed by a PhD in Transport Research from the Technical University, Berlin, in 2011. In 2010 Verena joined the DLR Institute of Transport Research. She joined Université Gustave Eiffel in 2018. Verena's main fields of research are sustainable supply chains and the analysis of complex logistics structures. Recent project work focused on emission calculation standardisation of transport chains, electric vehicles for commercial transport, the impact of digitalisation on logistics structures and urban transport. Verena is coordinator of the TDA Community of Interest on Urban Transport and chairs ISO 14083 works on Greenhouse Gas emissions of transport operations.

Declan Meally is Director of Business, Public Sector and Transport and a member of the Executive Leadership Team in SEAI. Declan joined SEAI in 2005 and has been involved in the successful delivery of many of the organisation’s programmes. Declan has served as Head of Department across a number of areas at SEAI including Industry, Marine/Ocean Energy, Smart Grid, Transport, Communities and more recently National Retrofit. He is a chartered mechanical engineer and has worked for over twenty years in management in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining SEAI, Declan worked in management in Xerox Europe Limited and Aer Rianta as well as the Defence Forces.

Marco Foley is a senior architect at Oracle with over ten years of experience in complex IT projects. His industry experience covers financial services, aviation, trade finance and logistics across the private & public sectors, helping enterprises meet their strategic goals and evolve using technology. He has worked with Sungard Consulting, Expleo Consulting, Aer Lingus, and Deloitte Consulting during his career. His academic achievements are in technology and data, graduating from Trinity College Dublin with a BA in information systems and a postgraduate diploma in data science from the National College of Ireland.

Stephen Kent is Chief Executive Officer of Bus Éireann. Prior to his appointment in November 2018, he was appointed as Acting CEO in Autumn 2018, having previously served as Chief Commercial Officer since joining Bus Éireann in 2013. Stephen joined from C&C Group where he was Sales and Marketing Director, and previously worked in a number of senior management roles in Waterford Crystal and Waterford Foods (now part of Glanbia plc). Stephen holds a BBS from the University of Limerick and MBA from Herriot Watt University and is also a graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland

Jackie Keaney is Commercial Director of Indaver in Ireland & UK and has worked with the company for over 25 years focusing on policy, stakeholder engagement & business development opportunities. Indaver has been operating the Meath waste-to-energy facility since 2011 and has advanced plans to develop similar facilities on the Island as well as in England and Scotland. The company is developing a 10MW electrolyser at its Meath facility which will produce hydrogen from electricity which would otherwise be curtailed from the grid. Chris Conway is the Group Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company and its operating subsidiaries (Translink). He has extensive international business experience with Tata Steel Europe where he worked as Managing Director Tata Steel Distribution Ireland and previously as Vice President Operations for Nortel Networks in Europe. Chris graduated from Ulster University with a BSc in Engineering and also has an MBA from Ulster University. He is a Chartered Company Director and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Chris is Chairperson of NI-CO (Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas). He is also a member of CBI Northern Ireland Council and Business in the Community Advisory Board. Mark Rocky has more than 30 years’ experience in the Transportation market, with more than 20 in Indra. He has worked as Technical Director, Project Manager and is currently Business Development Director responsible for all new Mobility business in Europe covering road, rail, public transport, ports and airports. In Ireland he has been responsible for winning the rail Traffic Management project currently underway with Iarnród Éireann and the tolling Interoperability Management Platform for TII which recently went live. He is currently working on a number of other exciting transport bids across Ireland.

Jackie Keaney is Commercial Director of Indaver in Ireland & UK and has worked with the company for over 25 years focusing on policy, stakeholder engagement & business development opportunities. Indaver has been operating the Meath waste-to-energy facility since 2011 and has advanced plans to develop similar facilities on the Island as well as in England and Scotland. The company is developing a 10MW electrolyser at its Meath facility which will produce hydrogen from electricity which would otherwise be curtailed from the grid. Chris Conway is the Group Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company and its operating subsidiaries (Translink). He has extensive international business experience with Tata Steel Europe where he worked as Managing Director Tata Steel Distribution Ireland and previously as Vice President Operations for Nortel Networks in Europe. Chris graduated from Ulster University with a BSc in Engineering and also has an MBA from Ulster University. He is a Chartered Company Director and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Chris is Chairperson of NI-CO (Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas). He is also a member of CBI Northern Ireland Council and Business in the Community Advisory Board. Mark Rocky has more than 30 years’ experience in the Transportation market, with more than 20 in Indra. He has worked as Technical Director, Project Manager and is currently Business Development Director responsible for all new Mobility business in Europe covering road, rail, public transport, ports and airports. In Ireland he has been responsible for winning the rail Traffic Management project currently underway with Iarnród Éireann and the tolling Interoperability Management Platform for TII which recently went live. He is currently working on a number of other exciting transport bids across Ireland.

Freda is the Head of the National Transport Authority in Ireland’s Capital Programme Office, responsible for the financial management and governance of a €15+ billion capital programme over the lifetime of Ireland’s current National Development Plan. Prior to joining the NTA, she garnered diverse experience across a broad range of industries in both the public and private sectors – transport, management consulting, supply chain and operations, and retail. She recently graduated second in her class from Oxford University, having completed a master’s in major programme management in September 2022. Freda recently completed research with the University of Oxford on the institutional barriers and enablers to effective risk management across major public programmes in Ireland. She is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce first class honours degree from University College Cork.

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