Mayor appoints new members to refreshed TfL board
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced his appointments to a refreshed Transport for London (TfL) Board. The TfL Board provides stewardship and oversight for TfL’s delivery of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and approves TfL’s budget, business plan, annual report and other major and strategic issues and policies.
In addition to himself and the Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, the Mayor has reappointed seven existing Members and seven new members, with a further member to represent workers to be nominated by the Trade Union Congress.
The reappointed members are: Ross Garrod, Anurag Gupta, Marie Pye and Peter Strachan (for four years each), Mark Phillips (for two years) and Professor Greg Clark CBE and Anne McMeel (each for a further year).
The new Members are: Zoë Billingham CBE, Deborah Harris-Ugbomah, Tanya Joseph, Arthur Kay, Keith Richards OBE, Omid Shiraji and Sara Turnbull. The new members include champions of diversity and inclusion, and further expertise in finance, communications, consumer advocacy, urban design, sustainable development and in technology and data.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “My appointments to the TfL Board have always brought together a huge range of talent, experiences and backgrounds that have successfully supported TfL in its world-leading work and overseen the delivery of its operations. I am grateful for the contribution of all members who are leaving. The new members have a wide range of experience in the public and private sectors which, along with those reappointed, will build upon the delivery and expertise of the previous Board and address the needs of TfL now and in the future. Together we will ensure that TfL continues to deliver the world-class transport system that supports the economic success of London and the UK.”
Notes to editors
· The Mayor has held the Remuneration for Members at the same rate as he set in 2016, which was itself a reduction on the fees paid by the previous Mayor.
· The appointments of the new board members began Monday 9 September 2024.
· The new members are:
Zoë Billingham CBE
Zoë Billingham CBE, a lawyer by background, has 17 years’ experience of promoting improvement in policing and other public services through inspection. A seasoned broadcaster, she advocates to stop male violence against women and girls. As Chair of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust she is focused on ensuring better care for people with a mental health diagnosis.
She is Chair of the national Police Remuneration Review Bodies, a Member of the Senior Salaries Review Body and a Trustee of SafeLives, a charity committed to stopping domestic abuse.
She was awarded a CBE for public service in 2022.
Deborah Harris-Ugbomah
Deborah Harris-Ugbomah trained as a chartered accountant in financial services with PwC before moving into investment banking and venture capital. Deborah has extensive executive and Non-Executive Director experience in risk, assurance, IT transformation and corporate/regulatory compliance in financial services and the public sector, including NHS and non-profits.
Deborah is an Independent Member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Crown Prosecution Service, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and Governor of Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and a Trustee of the Children’s Society and Chair of its Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. She is an Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales(ICAEW) elected member of Council, and was the first black person in 152 years to be successfully elected as President of the London ICAEW chartered accountants.
Alongside consulting for BuckStop Digital/AI and media agency, Deborah is co-founder of InspiringTomorrow, an initiative focused on establishing industry connections and contacts for female students pursuing STEM careers. She is also founder and President of Lean In UK, a network that promotes women’s empowerment.
Tanya Joseph
Tanya Joseph is a public and corporate affairs expert who started her career as a journalist before becoming press secretary to a Cabinet Minister and then a Prime Minister. Since then she has held senior communications roles across a wide range of organisations, providing counsel to senior leaders across the private, public and non-for-profit sectors, helping them protect and enhance their reputations, manage their risks and communicate effectively to their audiences. She was the architect of the multi-award-winning This Girl Can campaign, which in its first year inspired 2.8 million women in England to get active.
She is chair of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, which works with women entrepreneurs in lower- and middle-income countries and holds other non-executive roles at Creative UK, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Ballet and Opera. She has a special interest in equality, diversity and inclusion issues supporting leadership teams to navigate their way through this increasingly vital space with credibility, helping them build trust as they progress. She works with clients to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces, engage with authenticity with diverse audiences and develop products and services for diverse customers and consumers.
Arthur Kay
Arthur Kay is an entrepreneur, urban designer and advisor, building solutions for sustainable cities. His work on building solutions for sustainable cities has been recognised by the UN as a Sustainable Development Goals Pioneer, The Guardian as Sustainable Business Leader of the Year, MIT Technology Review as a 35-under-35. He is a Board Member of the Museum of the Home and Fast Forward 2030, and as an advisor to Innovo Group and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Arthur is the founder of several urban design and technology companies, including the clean technology company – Bio-bean (acquired 2023), the design, technology, and development company – Skyroom, and the £100m private equity fund – The Key Worker Homes Fund. He studied architecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, and entrepreneurship at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Keith Richards OBE
Keith Richards OBE is a barrister and CEDR-accredited mediator specialising in equalities and consumer rights. He has served as an independent member and non-executive director on bodies in the public, private and third sectors in a variety of industries and professions, delivering challenge and specialist expertise on consumer advocacy / representation, equality and inclusion, dispute resolution and redress. Other current roles in the transport sector include as a Non-Exec Board member of Transport Focus, Co-Chair of the Heathrow Access Advisory Group (HAAG) and Chair of the Board at the National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat). He also serves as an independent member of the General Chiropractic Council, and as a Board member of the Private Healthcare Information Network. Keith is currently a Panel Member at the Competition and Markets Authority and Chair of the Renewable Energy Consumer Codes (RECC) Non-Compliance panel.
He was awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to access and inclusion in the transport sector.
Omid Shiraji
Omid Shiraji is a portfolio Chief Digital and Information Officer, advisor and non-executive director with a career spanning both the public and private sectors. He has enabled international growth, complex mergers and acquisitions and led significant organisational change, always focused on creating socially beneficial outcomes. He is a non-executive director for the East of England Ambulance Trust and a board trustee for P3 Charity, where he provides critical expertise in digital, technology, data and innovation. He holds a regional role as a member of the Mayor of London’s Data for London Board and set up the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI). He is passionate about improving diversity in the tech and data sectors and contributes to the future of technology and data-driven innovation, working in a consulting and advisory capacity with a range of London boroughs and businesses.
Sara Turnbull
Sara Turnbull is a Chartered Environmentalist with an MSc in Environmental Architecture with a focus on establishing and transforming a wide range of social enterprises in the community, environment and creative sectors. Sara is currently Director of WorkWild and ReStage and a trustee of the Cyfarthfa Foundation. She was also Chair of the Mayor of London’s Workspace board, a non-executive director of Covent Garden Market Authority and Interim CEO of the Creative Land Trust and CEO of Bootstrap Company. Sara is the co-author of Better Off Working Wild.