President 2017

James Freeman, Managing Director of First West of England.

We are very pleased to announce that James Freeman, Managing Director of First West of England, has kindly agreed to be President of the Society in 2017.

James has had an illustrious career in the bus business and was previously Chief Executive Officer of Reading Buses, winning awards for high customer service. This was linked to a programme aimed at radically changing ways that staff felt about themselves and their work. Prior to this he managed bus operations, at a senior level, with a number of undertakings in the Midlands area. James was also instrumental in leading an employee buy out of the Provincial bus undertaking operating in the Gosport and Fareham area, soon after deregulation of services in 1986. In 1990 James became Managing Director of Badgerline Transit Developments, pursuing various innovative transport systems, including deployment of rapid transit operations and use of alternative fuels.

His Presidential Address was made on Tuesday 31^st January in London and the Presidential Weekend took place from Friday 1^st to Monday 4^th September in Bath.