SESSION 2 PROGRAM

MEET OUR SPEAKERS

THURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER | 15:45 – 17:45 AEST

SESSION 2 – In Real Time: Innovating For the Post-Pandemic Customer




Andy Byford
Commissioner, Transport for London

Andy Byford is a transport professional whose thirty year career has spanned three continents.

Andy joined London Underground in 1989 as a uniformed Station Foreman before working his way up to General Manager of the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria Lines.

After a spell as Operations and Safety Director of two mainline train operating companies, Andy’s career took him to Sydney as Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s largest railway network then on to Canada where he headed up the Toronto Transit Commission. Most recently, Andy served as President of New York City Transit, the busiest and largest transit system in North America.

Andy returned to Transport for London in June 2020 as Commissioner. He grew up in Plymouth and is a graduate of the University of Leicester.




Ben Gilligan
Area Director, East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) Go Ahead Group

Ben has worked in the bus sector since 2002 having done a variety of operational roles initially with FirstGroup, including 2 years as Managing Director of the South Yorkshire & York businesses as well as independent consultancy and a spell in local government as Director of Public Transport for South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. Under his more recent leadership of the East Yorkshire business, he has been responsible for the successful integration of this business into The Go Ahead Group, a wide ranging rebranding project and the award for the Just Go Demand Responsive Transport tender from North Lincolnshire Council. Ben’s current focus is on rebuilding the business following the Covid restrictions.




Michelle Batsas
Executive Director, UITPANZ 

Michelle Batsas is the Executive Director of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) in Australia and New Zealand, advocating for best practice public transport and sustainable mobility solutions for the region. Michelle is a senior executive with broad and diverse experience across management, strategy, governance, events, communications and policy. She has held senior roles at Public Transport Victoria and VicRoads, leading large teams through transformational change in order to realise the best outcomes possible for users of an integrated transport network. Michelle is a qualified lawyer and prior to entering the world of transport, she worked in the justice and emergency management portfolios of the Victorian Government. She is passionate about promoting urban mobility for the benefit of customers and broader communities. 




Emilie van der Graaf
Director, Elleeva Associates

Emilie has over 20 years’ experience across the spectrum of transport modes with significant knowledge of both public and private sectors. She has held strategic and operational roles, always pushing to improve customer experience and looking to innovate service delivery to the benefit of the customer.

Emilie founded her consulting practice, Elleeva Associates, in August 2020 and has been working across the transport sector over the past 12 months on a variety of projects including tenders, business cases, and operational readiness.

Prior to this, Emilie was the Director, Passenger and Network Innovation at Yarra Trams where she had responsibility for passenger experience, network planning, innovation, and marketing. She oversaw the interaction with key stakeholder groups including councils, accessibility groups and other interest groups in the development of the tram network.

From 2011 to early 2017, Emilie worked at Transdev, where she was initially responsible for stakeholder engagement, marketing, customer experience, later taking on the operations of over 500 buses and 8 depots.

From 2000 to 2010, Emilie worked in the UK, first at Worcestershire County Council where she was responsible for the sustainable transport strategy, and later with Integrated Transport Planning, working with a wide range of clients including Transport for London, Welsh Assembly Government and Transport for West Midlands.

Emilie has been a strong advocate for public transport throughout her career and this continues as she works with operators to bring customers back onto services post Covid.   




Carmelo Costa
Senior Vice President, NTT Data Services

Carmelo has over 35 years of industry experience and a proven track record of achieving goals and delivering results.

During his career, Carmelo gained valuable experience in delivery management, business operations, program management, business process improvement, business intelligence, service delivery and quality assurance.

He has held regional roles responsible for business operations across Asia Pacific and Japan and worked as part of worldwide a team to develop and deploy a global Project Management methodology for Hewlett Packard.

Since joining NTT DATA Services, he has successfully led Field Operations and Deployment teams to improve the overall maintenance process that has significantly reduced corrective maintenance and increased device availability and reliability. Currently CEO of NTT DATA Payment Services Victoria, Carmelo is a pivotal leader and integral mechanism of the long-standing partnership between NTT DATA Services and the Victorian Department of Transport.




Alexa Besson
Head of Customers, Products and CRM Marketing, Transport Public de la re region Lausannoise 

Alexa Besson is head of Customers, Products and CRM of tl, the public transportation company of Lausanne. Working since 2014 for tl, in Marketing, she’s in charge of Customers and Products Lifecycle and Strategy, CeCP, CRM solutions and programs. Prior to joining tl, she worked in Telecommunication industry in France, Europe, AMEA and Switzerland, in charge of the Portals Products portfolio and Audience. Born in Switzerland, holding a master’s degree in Molecular Biology, passionate about technology, innovation and convinced by sharing ideas, experiences, and knowledges to bring innovative projects and develop new solutions.




Trystan Eeles
COO & Co-Founder, Liftango  

Trystan Eeles is co-founder and COO of Liftango, a leading provider of demand responsive transport technology systems around the globe. Trystan is the proud holder of a master’s degree in engineering (unused to this day), 10 years in management consulting (we all have our dark periods) and is a lifelong transport nerd. He is proud of his label as the non-technical co-founder but is lucky enough to hide this fact by knowing a few buzz-words and having an incredibly strong technical team around him.




Mari Flink
Director of the Board, HSL Helsinki Region Public Transport 

Mari Flink is responsible for Helsinki Region Transport sales, marketing, customer experience and customer service. HSL transports 400 million people annually and over million a day. Flink has 25 years of experience in leading, managing and developing digital sales, marketing and communications processes. 

Her special expertise is in change management of transforming traditional processes towards digital and mobile era to meet the needs of customers and organisation's strategic targets. Flink has successfully led paradigm changes, where people's motivation and ability to learn new are crucial.