Eye has been sent an invitation to the 'Intelligent Mobility Summit' at The Royal Society on the 25th April.
Hosted by the Automotive Council UK the event is in response to the 'increasing demands being made on the UK’s road transport system' and will attempt to 'explore the business opportunities arising from innovative solutions, to address:
- increasing the capacity of the UK’s existing transport infrastructure;
- enhancing road safety;
- improving air quality; and,
- reducing carbon emissions.
But who is chairing the event and hosting our very own Captain of Netball, as well as senior players from the likes of Ford, BMW and Nissan?
Why, step forward Ricky Jim-Jams, Network Rail's new designate chairman and now a non-Exec of the Infrastructure Controller!
But obviously not wearing a Network Rail hat... oh no.
According to the blurb on the ACUK website, Professor Richard Parry Jones CBE or 'RPJ, as he’s better known' is co-chairman of Automotive Council UK and 'is one of the most influential auto engineers of his generation'.
The site continues, in similarly enthusiastic petrol-head tones:
'He rose to become group vice president product development and chief technical officer of Ford Motor Company... led the development of the Ka, Fiesta, Puma, Focus and Mondeo, models... most recently RPJ has chaired the cross-industry new Automotive Innovation and Growth Team (NAIGT)... is Pro-Chancellor and visiting professor in automotive engineering at Loughborough University'.
But of his future role leading Britain's railway... sadly there is not a word.
No doubt Jim-Jams will put this right next Wednesday, by telling delegates at the 'Intelligent Mobility Summit' to take the train?
UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...
So RPJ led development of the Ford Puma? .
This pocket rocket was the last and best of the seven Ford cars I have owned to date.
But it means that at the next press briefing he attends he will get the question that I used to bounce at Network Rail's first Chairman Ian McAllister, who had been Chairman and Managing Director of Ford, and presumably RPJ's boss, when the Puma was being developed.
"What does it say about your attention to detail when every time the hatchback is lifted on a Puma on a wet day water runs off the hatch straight into the boot?"
