Speakers at Google Prism

WEDNESDAY 19 APRIL

Speakers
Wednesday 19 April 2023


Event moderator: Antony Oliver

Infrastructure writer and communicator

Antony is a writer and facilitator, working with a range of clients across the infrastructure sector to boost communication and marketing strategies and to stimulate discussion and action in the industry. He spent the last two decades working as a journalist and editor with New Civil Engineer magazine, and more recently was creator of the website Infrastructure Intelligence. He is a chartered civil engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.


Chacasta Pritlove

Head of Transport, Google Cloud

Chacasta is a passionate and creative thought-leader, driving digital transformation across transport, infrastructure and the wider industry - with 25 years’ experience in enterprise technology, and a focus on the public sector for the past 15. Leading with vision, innovation, and technology expertise, Chacasata helps customers better understand their objectives. Harnessing the power of Google to focus on data, analytics, security and the customer experience, is taking the transport and infrastructure industries somewhere new; meeting business challenges head on. In recent years, as the transport sector has evolved, Chacasta says she has had the opportunity to help customers with topics close to her heart like sustainability, accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion. Above, she says, her instinct is to work together to achieve change.


Florence Broderick

Chief Marketing Officer, Carto


Lauren Sager Weinstein

Chief Data Officer, TfL

Lauren leads TfL in using vast amounts of system data to transform how TfL plans and operates transport in London. In a single day, TfL collects 19 million ticketing transactions, 4.5 million bus location events, and vast amounts of additional data. Under Lauren’s leadership, her team of developers and data scientists transforms that flow of data into tools for action. She recently led the pilot that studied how depersonalised WiFi connection data from customers’ mobile devices could be used to better understand how people navigate the London Underground network, allowing TfL to improve the experience for customers. Lauren joined TfL in 2002 as a Senior Business Planner and since then, she’s had a variety of roles and worked on a range of projects, including the launch of the contactless payment system across London’s transport network.


Chris Hillcoat

Future Mobility, KPMG

Chris is a geographer and transport planner with experience in working to use data, information and tools to shift customer behaviour. He pioneered new ways of delivering and measuring Travel Demand Management in London using different data sources and innovative products. More recently he led the development of the UK’s first multi-city Mobility as a Service platform – Breeze, with sustainable travel choices at its core. Now as part of KPMG’s Future Mobility team, he works on projects to use technology to solve challenges faced by customer and freight transport.


John Abel

Technical Director, Office of the CTO, Google Cloud

John is a developer turned innovator. His focus is driving customer success blending new technologies such as Blockchain, AI, Internet of Things with existing, deployed, systems to help make ideas become not just reality, but commercially relevant.

John works within a diverse team drawn from multiple backgrounds and skill sets to ensure synergies of different perspectives working together comes to the fore.

John began his technology career nearly 30 years ago, working on early AI and even distributed ledger technologies that were deployed to great impact in private and public sector environments. His expertise across many roles within Oracle and now Google in security and data technologies have led to him being a renowned industry speaker, author and commentator on technical and business innovation issues.


Annette Smith

Head of Future Mobility, Mott MacDonald

Annette is Head of Future Mobility at Mott MacDonald working for UK and international clients. She is at the forefront of thinking on the opportunities of vision-led transport planning and the emergence of new technologies such as Mobility as a Service and Connected Autonomous Mobility. She is passionate about harnessing a mobility future that delivers global positive societal outcomes whilst navigating the social, economic and environmental uncertainties that lie ahead.


Nick Bec

City Modelling Lab Business Lead, Transport Consulting

Nick is an analytics professional with over 15 years of experience, with an academic background in Maths, Computer Science, and Operational Research. He has worked as a consultant in a wide range of industries, and in transport planning for the last five years. He is currently the business lead for Arup’s City Modelling Lab where he focuses on delivering cutting edge transport simulations that help clients answer their most pressing questions about modal shift, decarbonisation, and equity.


Ella Dahan

City Modelling Lab Insights Lead, Associate,  Digital and Analytics

Ella is the Insights Lead in Arup’s City Modelling Lab. She is responsible for deriving actionable insights from large scale simulations of people’s travel choices. The simulations consider multimodal trip choices at a human scale, enabling clients to understand the complex behaviours that emerge as people interact with the transport network and each other. Through this work, she helps clients shape transport policies that are equitable and sustainable. Ella has over 10 years of consulting experience, specialising within data-driven products, analytics, dashboarding, simulation and operations research.


Nathan Koren

Founder & CEO, Podaris

Nathan began his career as an architect in America and India, focusing on mixed-use, sustainable, transit-oriented development. In his subsequent role as a transport planning consultant with expertise in autonomous transport systems, Nathan led feasibility studies in over a dozen countries, becoming a recognised expert in the emerging technology of Automated Transit Networks (ATNs), and frequently lecturing on the subjects of automation, transport innovation, and urban design. He has most recently worked as a digital entrepreneur, as the technical co-founder of Futurescaper -- a collective intelligence system for crowdsourced scenario planning, and the founder of Podaris.


Daniel Ruiz

Daniel Ruiz, Smart Cities and Mobility advisor, Non-executive Director, Office of Rail and Road


Bruno Sussat

Director for Emerging Technologies, Plexal

As Plexal's Director of Emerging Technologies, Bruno works with industry and the public sector to solve mission-critical challenges. Bruno leads Plexal teams to help clients and partners understand emerging technology trends, and collaborate with the start-ups and capabilities that are driving them. Prior to joining Plexal, Bruno was part of EY's Strategy practice, working with clients across industry but with a particular focus on Automotive and the Future of Mobility.


Milda Manomaityte

Innovation Director, Railway Industry Association

Milda was appointed RIA’s Innovation Director in April 2022 and leads its Unlocking Innovation programme, advocating for continuous support of rail research, development and innovation as well as identifying and overcoming barriers to innovation. 

By background Milda is an events and marketing professional specialising in the aviation and rail sectors. Having started her carrier as a transport journalist, she used those skills to co-found and run the Global AirRail Alliance, promoting rail access to airports.

Joining RIA as a consultant in July 2018, Milda joined as full-time member of the team in April 2019, working within both the Technical & Innovation and Public Affairs & Policy functions.


Subu Kamal

Head of Product Management, TRL

Subu Kamal, Head of Product Management, TRL


Mike Guerin

Head of Business Development, Swarco

As Head of Business Development for SWARCO UK&I, Mike is a proven and dynamic commercial leader with seventeen years’ international experience; creating high-performance teams, developing strong customer relationships and exceeding targets. Mike has previously worked at Gladstone Software and TRL Software and is chair of ITS UK’s Urban Authority Forum, which works to drive collaboration and networking in the UK ITS Industry.


Kevin Stevens

Kevin Stevens, head of SHEQ, FM Conway

An experienced, innovative and creative health and safety professional with a foundation in industrial engineering and manufacturing within the United Kingdom and Europe. I have an exceptional knowledge, understanding and implementation of health and safety legislation and management systems with the ability to apply practically to new and diverse industries across multiple locations.


Simon Laker

Simon Laker, Global Head of Mobility Payments, Consult Hyperion

Simon is head of Consult Hyperion’s Global Mobility Payments practice, leading engagements in public transportation, micro-mobility, EV charging and all mobility.

He is a leading authority on the implementation of open payments systems in public transport, using payment cards as a token for travel. He worked with Transport for London (TfL) and the major payment schemes to define the operational and transaction models to support the use of payment cards in place of transit tickets in the UK. His work has subsequently been adopted and deployed globally and he has helped many transit authorities, including Boston (MBTA), New York (MTA) and Philadelphia (SEPTA) refine their requirements for a new ticketing service.