JUDGING PANEL

The judging panel for the 2024 National Transport Awards


Anthony Smith

Anthony Smith
Chair of the Judging Panel

Anthony is currently Chair of Independent Rail Retailers and the Heathrow Area Transport Forum. He is also a member of the Affinity Water Independent Consumer Challenge Group.

Formerly Anthony was chief executive of Transport Focus and its predecessor bodies. He also worked at Consumers' Association and Consumers International. Having studied law Anthony is also a qualified solicitor.


Stephen Fidler

Stephen Fidler
Co-Director for Local Transport
Department for Transport

Stephen is Co-Director for Local Transport at the Department for Transport. He leads, with Jessica Matthew, the DfT directorate responsible for policy and funding on local road maintenance, buses, taxis, light rail, inclusive transport, active travel and local authority transport funding and strategy.

Stephen has worked in government on transport issues for over 25 years, including in the then Department for the Environment and the No 10 Policy Unit. Before starting his current role in 2019, Stephen headed DfTs client team for Highways England. He received an OBE for services to transport in 2019, is the UK's First Delegate to the World Road Association (PIARC) and chairs the UK Roads Leadership Group.


Daisy Narayanan MBE

Daisy Narayanan MBE
Head of Placemaking and Mobility
The City of Edinburgh Council

Daisy Narayanan is the Head of Placemaking and Mobility at the City of Edinburgh Council where she leads on delivering a city-wide integrated approach to transport and placemaking.

Daisy is on the Board of Architecture & Design Scotland and a member of the Evidence Group for Scotland's Climate Assembly. She was on the Active Travel Task Force set up by the Minister for Transport and the Islands and is a member of the Scottish Transport Awards judging panel. She recently won the Civic Servant of the year award from the Academy of Urbanism.

Drawing on her previous experience working as an architect and urban designer in India, Singapore, England and Scotland, Daisy believes passionately in the importance of creating places for people: places that reflect and complement the communities that live in them.

A music aficionado, a bookworm and a linguist, Daisy spends her time enjoying the Scottish outdoors with her husband and two children.


Jo Field

Jo Field
President of Women in Transport & Chief Executive of JFG Communications

Jo is the President of Women in Transport and Chief Executive of JFG Communications, a consultancy specialising in stakeholder engagement, political communications, diversity and decarbonisation for the transport sector. Named among the 100 most influential women in Westminster and the top ten most inspirational women in public affairs, Jo has almost 20 years of experience in helping companies engage their stakeholders, build advocacy for their plans, and inform and influence public policy.

Before founding JFG Communications, Jo spent almost a decade at Transport for London where she built and led the company's award-winning stakeholder engagement team, building stakeholder support and advocacy for London's transport infrastructure and the funding to deliver it.

Jo is hugely passionate about addressing women's under-representation in the transport sector, is the co-author of Women in Transport's Gender perceptions and experiences working in transport report (published 2021), and led Women in Transport's engagement with parliamentarians to set up the first ever All-Party Parliamentary Group for Women in Transport in 2016.


Iain Stewart MP

Iain Stewart MP
Chair
Transport Select Committee

Iain Stewart was first elected as Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes South in May 2010. Soon after he was elected by fellow MPs to sit on the Transport Select Committee (TSC). He was the longest serving Member of the Committee until he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Transport, Sir Patrick Mcloughlin. Following his successful re-election in May 2015 he was moved to the Scotland Office to serve as PPS to David Mundell MP. Following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister, Iain was moved to the newly formed Department for International Trade as the PPS to Dr Liam Fox MP.

Iain has also Chaired of a number of All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) including those on Smart Cities and the Future of Rail. In December 2017, Iain was appointed as the Government's official champion for the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge corridor.

Iain was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes South in the 2019 General Election. He received 32,011 votes, taking a 50% share of all votes cast; he was returned with a majority of 6,944.

On Wednesday 16 November, Iain was elected as the Chair of the Transport Select Committee.

Iain is passionate about transport, specifically the Railway Industry, and is taking a keen interest in the development of the East-West Rail link, high speed rail, electric vehicle technology and driverless automation.


Caroline Stickland

Caroline Stickland
Chief Executive
Transport for All

As CEO at Transport for All, Caroline works to ensure the organisation is making an impact and delivering on its goals: challenging and removing the barriers to travel that are faced by Deaf, disabled and older people across the UK. Caroline brings her lived experience as a disabled person, and an academic interest in health, impairment, and disability, to her role. Alongside driving forward the organisation's advice, community and policy work, Caroline has led on the development of Transport for All's Access Partner consultancy service – providing disabled led consultancy support to the transport sector and leading a transformation of how disabled people are engaged with by decision makers.

Transport for All is the only disabled-led group striving to increase access to all modes of transport, and streetspace, across the UK. It is a pan-impairment organisation, advocating for every disabled person. Transport for All works with its members to fight for transport access, championing disabled and older people's rights and providing an unrivalled community of support.


Max Sugarman

Max Sugarman
Chief Executive
ITS (UK)

Max Sugarman is Chief Executive of Intelligent Transport Systems UK, the national voice of the transport technology industry. He has around a decade of experience working in transport, innovation and communications. He has previously worked at the Catapult Network, where he supported the nine Catapult innovation centres on cross-cutting policy issues and political engagement, and as Public Affairs & PR Director at the Railway Industry Association (RIA), the leading UK trade body for rail suppliers, where he led an award-winning communications function.

He has previous experience at the Institution of Civil Engineers, at a corporate communications agency in the City, at London City Hall and at the House of Representatives in the US. He has a diploma in professional PR, is a Chartered PR Practitioner and has been Chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Public Affairs Group since 2021. Max is passionate about transport and the role it plays in people's lives, in supporting economic growth and reaching net zero.


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