Service and Quality Excellence in Public Transport

He is a public transport professional with over 25 years of experience in different phases, fields, and modes.

Currently, working for uitp as senior advisor to academy and head of Eurasia, responsible for peer review and assessment services as well as content management for training programs.

He completed the Ph.D. program in Business Administrations, with a thesis “Effects of Formalization of Informal Transport System on Stakeholder Satisfaction”.

He started his public transport journey in METRO ISTANBUL in 1999 and worked for six years in different positions such as signaling engineer, maintenance planning, software development engineer, risk management, etc.

He was head engineer for Kayseri rail system construction project in which later became managing director of the operator company, Kayseri Transportation. Under his management the company took over the operation of bus system including rural transport, bike sharing system, electronic fare collection, city car parking system, fiber communication backbone of the city, R&D center that developed smart traffic management and enforcement systems. Under his mandate, with his innovative approach the company received several national and international awards.

During his public transportation carrier, he worked in different fields and took different management roles like fixed installation (communication, power, track, signaling, overhead catenary) manager, RAMS&EMC manager, R&D manager, corporate development manager, construction manager, vehicles, and maintenance manager.

He was a member of the policy and executive board, and chairman of light rail division of UITP between 2015-2019. He was chairman of UITP informal Transport working group and member of presidential committee between 2019-2021. He was the president of Rail System Operators Association TÜRSİD, in Turkey. Vice president of Anatolian Rail Transportation Systems Cluster, ARUS. He was the Member of higher advisory board of Kayseri Industrial Chamber, Vice president board of Turkish quality association of Kayseri, and Member of the Advisory Board of İstanbul Technical University, Railway Safety and Security Application & Research Center.

Christiane is passionate about creating organizational performance by using lean management and coaching tools. Born in Germany, she started her international career at the UITP in Brussels.  Since then she has worked and lived in the US, UK, Germany and is today based in Paris, France. She fluently speaks German, French and English.

She is a senior leader with an over 20 year career in the mobility sector, she has worked as general manager as well as in corporate leadership functions for a private mobility operator. Notably she was in charge of the lean transformation of the group Transdev achieving notable performance improvements.

As companies are facing multiple and more complex challenges today, they are forced to transform and change in order to respond to those challenges. Although AI and automation/ digitalization are important aspects of companies today, people are the driving forces and therefore her center of attention. She finds ways to accompany people to align processes, strategies and their leadership whilst companies use new opportunities and adjust.

Aside from her expertise in Lean management, she is a certified executive and team coach using a systemic approach. Her company Contexture offers coaching, consulting and training services for clients in Europe and the world.

Büşra Buran received the M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from Galatasaray University, in 2012 and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Management Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). She is working for ten years. She worked in different departments of IETT such as planning, BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), and service improvement. She currently works as a strategy development manager at the IETT that is the bus transportation authority for Istanbul. She is responsible for the strategic plan, key performance indicators, project management, quality management, energy management, innovation, benchmarking.

MSc Antti Vuorela has since 2010 been specializing in digitalization and customer experience. He believes that one must listen to the needs of customers and work together with the customers from the beginning. He has over thirty years of varied experience in public transport and transportation systems. The new concept of Digital Dialogue enabling passengers, operators and authorities to work together is truly unique.

Antti Vuorela managed the developing of the Quality Monitoring System of Public Transport (Jola) that was the first modern real-time fleet quality operations management system in the world. He has spoken at various world conferences and UITP training programs. Expect the unexpected is his motto.

Dr. Kaan Yıldızgöz is currently responsible for overseeing Merger & Acquisition activities and providing strategic support for Modaxo’s ventures related Organic Growth in the AMEA Region. Previously, he worked at UITP as Senior Director of Membership & Global Operations and Management Board member, Senior Director in charge of Membership, Marketing & Services, and earlier as the Director of UITP Academy in Brussels, Director of MENA Centre for Transport Excellence in Dubai at Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai, Loyalty & CRM Director of Turkish Airlines, and Quality & Development Director at Metro Istanbul. Dr. Kaan Yıldızgöz is currently serve as Adjunt Professor at Antalya Bilim University. Previusly He served as part-time teaching staff at Istanbul and Bahcesehir Universities, and he was a guest lecturer at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Kaan Yıldızgöz holds the distinction of being the first student from Istanbul Technical University to graduate in 2.5 years from the four-year-long Management Engineering Program. Additionally, he holds a master’s degree from Marmara University in the field of International Business Administration and completed the «Infrastructure in a Market Economy: Public Private Partnerships» Executive Education Program at Harvard University. Dr. Yıldızgöz has completed his Ph.D. studies with a thesis titled «Emergence of Transportation Network Companies: An Analysis of Urban Mobility, Regulation, and the Future Role in Urban Mobility Ecosystem.» Furthermore, Dr. Yıldızgöz is the author of the books «Taxis in the Era of Digitalization» (2018) and «Taxis in the Era of Coronavirus» (2020).