Speakers

Louise Batchelor - Conference Chair

Freelance Transport Journalist / Former Transport Correspondent, BBC Scotland

Louise Batchelor, freelance journalist and broadcaster, has long specialised in transport and environment issues, from her early days on the Milton Keynes Gazette and Oxford Mail newspapers to her career with the BBC.

Louise was a founder member of BBC Radio Scotland's reporting team when the station was launched in 1978. She has worked as a presenter/reporter on many TV programmes, including Reporting Scotland, Newsnight in London and Newsroom South East. She was BBC Scotland's Environment and Transport Correspondent from 1994 to 2008.

Louise has twice won the British Environment and Media Awards for her news and current affairs work and was also shortlisted for a series of radio documentaries about the future of car travel. Other activities include being a Director of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust and membership of the executive group of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime in Scotland.

John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth

Born in 1964, John Swinney MSP joined the Scottish National Party in 1979 and went on to graduate from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons) in Politics. He has worked for the Scottish Coal Project, Development Options and Scottish Amicable.

Prior to his election as Westminster MP for North Tayside in 1997, he held a number of posts in the SNP at local and national level. In 1999, he became the MSP for Tayside North, remaining as the constituency's MP until standing down from Westminster at the 2001 General Election.

Having served as the SNP's Deputy Leader since 1998 and became Leader in 2000. After relinquishing his post in 2004, Mr Swinney became Convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee.

He was re-elected as an MSP at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and appointed Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.

John has two children and is married to Elizabeth Quigley. He lives near Blairgowrie in his constituency and his hobbies include cycling and hill walking.

Frances Duffy, Director Strategy and Investment, Transport Scotland

Frances joined the Scottish Executive moving from the Inland Revenue, in 2002. As a fully qualified HM Inspector of Taxes, she has worked across many areas of taxation, finally specialising in the taxation of Scotland's largest financial institutions. Frances worked with the then Scottish Office in preparing the Inland Revenue and Scottish employers should the Scottish Parliament use its tax powers to change the basic rate of income tax for Scottish taxpayers.

On joining the Development Department in the Scottish Executive, Duffy became Head of Housing Division, responsible for the transfer of housing stock from local authorities to social landlords, including advising on the transfer of Glasgow Council's housing stock. In 2004, Duffy joined Transport Group as Head of Roads Policy and Group Finance Division, advising Ministers on issues such as congestion charging, tolled bridges, including the Skye Bridge tolls and oversight of Transports financial management of its £1billion annual budget.

Since 2006, Frances has been Director of Strategy and Investment in Transport Scotland, which is responsible for advising Scottish Ministers on investment priorities for both the rail and trunk road networks across Scotland. Responsibilities have included directing major feasibility studies including the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) which sets out a £6bn investment plan for the next 20 years. Packages range from large infrastructure projects such as the new multi billion pound Forth crossing and a £1bn investment in the Edinburgh – Glasgow rail network to strategic park and ride sites across Scotland.

Brought up in Gourock, a graduate of Strathclyde University, she now lives in Falkirk with her husband and teenage daughter.

Graham Porteous, Deputy Project Director – Construction, Transport Scotland

Graham is a Chartered Engineer and is a member of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Highways and Transportation.

His early experience during the 80’s was gained with a small contractor in the Edinburgh area, before moving in 1983 to the north east of Scotland where he worked for a Consulting Engineer on a wide range of projects both in the design office and on site.

A move to the south of Scotland in 1990 provided an opportunity to become involved in motorway construction, again on both the design and construction sides.

In the later part of the 90’s Graham moved to work at Edinburgh Airport but after some 4 years took up the opportunity to join the Scottish Executive.

Currently the Construction Project Director for the M74 Completion and Glasgow Airport Rail Link – Branch Line Phase 1, his career with the Scottish Executive and now Transport Scotland has seen him involved in some prestigious contracts ranging from the £120 million Upper Forth Crossing,  to the £5 million Harthill Footbridge.

Rodger Querns, Project Director, Transport Scotland

Rodger was born in Glasgow.  He gained an MSc in Project Management from Heriot-Watt University.

Rodger worked in both the private sector and Local Government and was Head of Project Management in Highland Council before joining Network Rail (then Railtrack) in 2001.  He held a number of high profile Project Management positions in Network Rail, including leading the team on the successful £150 million Waverley Project.  Rodger joined Transport Scotland in 2008 and is Project Director for the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvements Programme.

He is a member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Association for Project Management, as well as a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building.

Professor Alfred Baird, Professor of Maritime Transport, Transport Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University

 

Alfred Baird is Professor of Maritime Transport, and Head of the Maritime Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute (TRI), a position he has held since 1998.

Before embarking on an academic career, he worked for the Leith liner shipping company George Gibson/Currie Line, followed by a position as Shipping/Transport Manager in TK Valve Ltd, a manufacturing company. His doctoral research undertaken in collaboration with Sea-Land Service Inc. investigated the subject of strategic management in the global container shipping industry, thereby giving him an insight into the complex decision making processes of senior management and investors in the intermodal shipping and transport industry. Professor Baird also has an honours degree in Business Studies and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.

Professor Baird has researched, published and taught in a number of areas in the maritime transport field, covering issues such as port competition and privatisation, strategic management in shipping and transport, market analysis in the shipping and ports industry, ship cost modelling, and assessing the feasibility of new shipping transport services/routes and associated port developments. His clients in over sixty funded research projects have included ports, shipping lines, other transport firms, enterprise agencies, local and central government, and the European Commission.

Councillor Alistair Watson,  Chairman, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport

 

Alistair Watson was brought up in the Crookston and Cardonald areas of the south-west of Glasgow and was educated at Govan High Secondary School in the south-west of Glasgow.

After leaving school at 16, he worked for approximately two years within the building trade before entering the railway industry in 1976 at 18 years of age. In 1979 he qualified for the post of train driver in British Railways, based at the Hyndland Depot in the west end of Glasgow.  In his employment as a train driver, he has driven various amounts of traction and gained extensive knowledge of the railway industry. He left ScotRail on 18 October 2003 and commenced employment with Virgin Trains on 20 October 2003 as their Station Liaison Manager, ending employment with Virgin Trains in March 2006.

Alistair was first elected to local government in 1995/96 - post government reorganisation.  The political posts he has held are Deputy Chief Whip of the Labour Group in Glasgow City Council, the Vice-Chair of the Roads and Transportation Committee from 1996-1999, Chair of the Land Services Committee 1999-2003, this post included political responsibility for transport, waste management and the maintenance and enhancement of Glasgow’s parks and green spaces.  He was also Chair of the West of Scotland Transport Partnership from 1999-2003 and has been a member of Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority and its successor body for the past 13 years.

He was also appointed Chair of the new Regional Transport Partnership for South-West Scotland, which is the successor body to Strathclyde Passenger Transport on 1 April 2006 and was re-elected to that post after the elections in May 2007.

Alistair's overwhelming desire is to improve the environment through better integrated energy efficient public transport network, particularly the enhancement of the country’s rail and bus network.

He is married to Christine and has two children, Cheryl, aged 21 and Jordan, aged 16. He currently represents the Cardonald area of south-west Glasgow, the area he has represented since entering local government. Hobbies include gardening, cycling and watching football, particularly Scotland.

Sustrans is the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity. Our vision is a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. We do this by working everyday on practical and imaginative solutions to the transport challenges affecting us all.

Our aim is to transform Scotland’s transport system and culture so that the environmental impacts of travel, including its contribution to climate change and resource depletion, are significantly reduced. We want to do this by helping people to choose more often to travel in ways that benefit their health, by ensuring people have access to essential local services without the need to use a car and by designing local streets and public spaces as places for people to enjoy.

John cycles every day and fell in love with cycling aged seven when a red, three-speed Vindec offered freedom and adventure across the Berwickshire Merse.

John Scott, Chief Executive, Glasgow 2014

John Scott is the Chief Executive of the Glasgow 2014 Ltd  the Organising Committee responsible for delivering the Commonwealth Games. Among his responsibilities will be delivering the sports programme, monitoring the development of new and improved infrastructure, managing the staff of the Organising Committee which will rise to around 800 people by Games time, and recruiting and training the 15,000 volunteers needed for the Games. He was previously the International Director and Director of Drug Free Sport at UK Sport where he was responsible for major events, international relations and lead the UK national anti-doping organisation.

John has worked on high-level major events programmes for over 20 years and has a diverse portfolio of experience within this field including membership of numerous organising and bidding committees at a global level. His first involvement in this line of work began in the 1980’s when he was seconded to the Federal Government of Canada to set up a new division managing the governments’ support for major events and international development.  He led the ministry’s investment in the Victoria Commonwealth Games (1994) and was a member of the bid committee for Canada’s successful bid to host the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games and for the unsuccessful bid by Toronto to host the 1996 Olympic Games. 

John was a Director of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and has also served on numerous international committees and working groups for organisations such as the IOC, UNDP, UNESCO and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He was also the Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee for the Development of Sport and was latterly Vice President of the Association of National Anti Doping Organisations.

Stuart Deed, Chair, Sustainable Transport Group

 

Stuart is currently Head of Business Partnering for SSEVC. His role is to implement investments and develop the relationships between SSE investment partners and investee companies. Stuart sits on the Board of a number of early stage investee partners including Smarter Grid solutions, Onzo Limited, Logan Energy and IE CHP Limited.

Stuart is also acting Chair of the Sustainable Transport Group and is involved in transport initiatives with Scottish Enterprise, London First, Transport for London and Enterprise Ireland.