Transport Ireland 2022

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.

Dr Lorraine D’Arcy is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Transport and Mobility in TU Dublin bringing interdisciplinary perspectives from her research and practice in transport, health and climate. She is a Civil Engineer with a PhD in exercise and environmental psychology which focused on how streets, neighbourhood design and social determinants influence our transport and health behaviours. She is Conference Lead for Walk21 Ireland 2022 – the International Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities being hosted by TU Dublin in September 2022, funded by the Departments for Transport, Health and Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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.

Kevin McPartlan is the CEO who led the former Irish Petroleum Industry Association through a transition to Fuels for Ireland. This new brand and vision reflect the sector’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality while powering Ireland’s today and tomorrow. Fuels for Ireland’s core position is that fossil fuels cannot be the basis of Ireland’s long-term energy plans or the sector’s long-term business strategies. He previously led industry associations in the food sector and gave public affairs and communications counsel to start-ups, multinationals, NGOs and Governments.

Jim Meade was appointed Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann / Irish Rail 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.

Dr Hilda Rømer Christensen is Head of the Coordination for Gender Studies at the University of Copenhagen. She is a member of the committee for Welfare and Innovation at the Sino-Danish University Centre in Beijing, Co-ordinator of the research network Gendering Smart Mobilities in the Nordic Region 2017-2018 and scientific coordinator for the Horizon 2020 project: TINNGO focused on gender, transport and smart mobilities in the EU (2019-2021). She is involved in expert research committees at Nordic and European levels, the latest in the EU Commission to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Advisory board. By 2022 Dr Rømer Christensen is Head of the project Green transport – technology and diversity in Danish municipalities, financed by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. She has written extensively on gender in transport in comparative perspectives and broader contexts of welfare, culture and citizenship.

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.

Iain has extensive transformation experience both in the Private and Public Sector, and has led on some of the UKs largest Transformation Initiatives from ftse 100 companies such as Centrica, to leading as CIO the technology required to deliver the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and the separation of the Royal Mail and Post Office. Iain became a key figure in the implementation and delivery of the UK Government’s Government Digital Services (GDS) initiative.

Iain was seconded from GDS to the Department for Transports Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency as their Chief Technology Officer. The transformation refactored all the Departments services; to ensure that the internal and external users needs were taken into account. The services and processes were redesigned for maximum efficiency, together with a technology mapping exercise and an internal skill-set review leading to the exit of legacy contracts and monolithic technologies. Still today, this is viewed by many Governments as the exemplar of user centric, data driven public sector Digital Transformation at its best.

Iain returned to GDS at the end of 2015 where he was responsible for establishing standards and technologies to create a Common Technology landscape across the whole of the UK Government. After leaving the Civil Service, Iain’s experience has been called on by Governments in other countries, and he has recently been assisting the Arab League with the Launch of their digital strategy, as well as being a key speaker for other Nations seeking to establish their Digital ambitions and specifically how to engineer their delivery through modern methods and disciplines. Iain still advises the UK Public Sector and was recently directing the transformation of the Department for Education’s Student Loans Company.

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