Wales Cymru National Transport Conference 2022

Ed McCann

Ed is an experienced project director and is the Immediate Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was fundamental in growing Expedition from a startup to Building Magazine’s Engineering Consultant of the Year in 2012. As a senior director at Expedition, Ed provides invaluable leadership and experience to our organisation.

He is technical, an excellent communicator, enthusiastic, and has a deep understanding of the construction process. He is particularly skilled in strategic consultancy, feasibility studies, and design.

Ed’s career has taken him to lead projects all over the world. He was the project director for the multi award-winning Infinity Bridge and the Olympic 2012 Velodrome. Environmental factors and efficiency are drivers for Ed’s current projects that see him work with infrastructure clients to improve processes and implement new technologies. Projects include creating and delivering a productivity workstream for HS2, designing the Rolls-Royce SMR Program Site Factory for BAM Nuttall, and helping develop the Berkeley Homes modular housing system.

Ed is a founder trustee and trustee board member, former chair of the USL Board.

He is passionate about developing talent in the industry with quality training and education, a passion that led him to become the co-creator of the Constructionarium. This non profit organisation delivers education and training to students and professionals across the built environment sector. He is also co-founder of the Get It Right Initiative which aims to reduce errors in the industry.

As a respected thought leader, Ed is often invited to speak at various events, write articles, and deliver lectures, and has also made television programmes on civil engineering.

Lee Waters

Lee Waters is the Member of the Senedd for the Llanelli constituency. He was born and raised in Carmarthenshire. He was educated in Brynamman and Ammanford and gained a degree in Politics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. His policy interests are wide-ranging, including the economy, climate change, provision for looked after children, digital policy and the media.
Before being elected in May 2016, Lee was Director of Wales's leading independent think-tank, the Institute of Welsh Affairs. He previously ran the sustainable transport charity Sustrans Cymru where he led the campaign for the Active Travel Act. He is a former Chief Political Correspondent of ITV Wales and BBC Wales producer.
On 13 December 2018, he was appointed Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport. Lee was appointed Deputy Minister for Climate Change on 13 May 2021.

Alison Thomas

Alison Thomas is a chartered transport planner and has spent the last 21 years working in Wales, delivering sustainable transport. Alison has a passion for developing and implementing policies and strategies to meet our necessary zero carbon commitments in a vibrant and inclusive way. Alison has spent the last 9 years working for the Welsh Government and has led on delivering a number of key documents including the new Wales Transport Strategy 2021.

Geoff Ogden

Geoff is Transport for Wales’ Chief Transport Planning and Development Officer. Prior to this, he has undertaken a number of roles, including leading the early operational development of TfW from its inception, developing the team that advised the Welsh Government on the procurement of the new Wales and Borders Rail Service and the South Wales Metro.

He has significant experience of the Transportation sector, particularly in Wales. His wider experience includes leadership and support of change programmes, including the introduction of innovative technology. Geoff has also been involved in a wide range of procurement and tendering exercises alongside service delivery: as client, client’s adviser, and tenderer.

Geoff is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Chartered Environmentalist and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). His wider roles have included Regional Member for Wales on ICE Council (2014-2020), Chair of ICE Wales Cymru (2012-13), Chair of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering in Wales (ACE Cymru Wales) (2014-16). He is currently a member of the ICE’s Initial Professional Development Panel.

Geoff is a graduate of the University of Nottingham and has lived and worked in Wales since 1993.

Kathy Wilson-Ellis

Kathy has over 16 years’ experience working for Greater Manchester Police running their Intelligence Unit and over 12 years working for National Highways– ranging from analysing regional and then national incidents on the SRN, to a senior programme manager in the strategic road safety team, before joining WSP to lead on their Human Factors Capability.

Throughout Kathy’s career Human Factors has been a golden thread, this relates to factors such as environmental, organisational, human health and characteristics that influence behaviours. This is the key to ensuring successful problem solving by providing intelligence insight into the root cause that can then be used to ensure the changes needed are successfully delivered.

Daniel Newall

Daniel specialising in delivering carbon management of major infrastructure projects. He has significant experience working on both major road and rail schemes in the UK, guiding effective low carbon design during project delivery. His experience also includes assessments of land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) carbon, recognising the importance of integrating nature-based solutions with traditional whole-life low carbon design.

Prior to his time at Atkins, Daniel studied a masters in sustainability at the University of Southampton, where his thesis focused on understanding the synergies and trade-offs between the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals and climate change as a core driver for global system change.

Emma Thomas

Emma is the Future Generations Manager with Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd, Chartered Waste Manager and CIWM Cymru Centre Councillor. Emma has recently complete a three year term as Commissioner with the National Infrastructure Commissioner for Wales. She is currently devising a long-term sustainability strategy for Griffiths which is paramount to changing the way civil engineering operates, creating a better tomorrow for future generations. Emma’s responsibilities vary from environmental management of recycling and water testing, protecting wildlife and habitats, to implementing practical measures which meet environmental legislation applicable to construction. Emma’s role is shaping the future of construction and civil engineering.

David Markham

David is a civil engineer by education but has worked in quarries and with asphalt over 25 years at Tarmac, where he is currently Senior Manager Asphalt Technology. He sits on various UK industry groups including BSI committee B/510/1 which covers asphalt products and recently chaired the working group revising PD6691 which is a core UK document for asphalt. He is actively involved with the increasingly important area of the carbon footprint of road construction and maintenance.

Patrick Warner

Patrick joined Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as their Lead Officer for Bus Decarbonisation in March 2021 after just over seven years as Head of Innovation Strategy at Go Ahead Group owned Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus in the southeast, where he led the successful project development for what will be the largest deployment of hydrogen fuel cell buses in Europe later this year at 54 buses.

Now overseeing the procurement and delivery of Liverpool’s first 20 hydrogen fuel cell buses due to start arriving in late 2022, Patrick is also charged with developing the strategy to deliver Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham’s vision of a zero-emission bus fleet of 1,200 buses across the city region over the next decade. A strategy which as you will see from the presentation sees Merseyside’s big bus fleet become a powerful enabling force for much wider decarbonisation of road transport.