Diploma Programme for Managers in Public Transport (3 Modules) 2026-2027

Mr Xavier Arrufat is CEO of Awaait Artificial Intelligence, S.L., an AI company based in Barcelona, and President of its US subsidiary, Awaait Inc. Originally trained as a civil engineer, he spent 12 years at GE Plastics and GE Healthcare, rising to EMEA Service Logistics Manager, before pivoting into artificial intelligence in 2012. His first AI project — a fare-evasion detection system for FGC in Barcelona — became the founding product of AWAAIT, which he co-founded in 2014. Beyond FGC, AWAAIT’s systems have been tested and deployed with multiple transit agencies across the USA, EU, and Middle East. Mr Xavier represents the AI Working Group of UITP.

Guido Bruggeman is an urban transport expert with 40 years of experience. After he graduated in 1975 as a transport engineer at the Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, he started his career at the Municipal Transport Company in Amsterdam.

In 2000, he joined the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London as an Urban Transport Specialist and was involved in many transport projects in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Since 2007 he is acting as an independent consultant and advising international clients on the planning, organization, regulation and operation of urban transport. Among others, Guido acts as project advisor for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. He is also a Lead Trainer at the UITP Academy. As an international expert he has worked in over 30 countries worldwide.

Gonzalo FERNÁNDEZ Infrastructure Director PhD. MSc. Civil Engineer. He is an expert in sustainability project management and low carbon technologies. He has collaborated in several international congresses and conferences, national and international R&D projects, has published in different scientific and technical journals and is part of different scientific committees related with sustainable infrastructures and urban planning. He is vicechair of the Sustainable Development Committee and currently leading the UITP working group on Renewable energy and energy transition in public transport. He is currently the Infrastructure’s Director of EMT Madrid

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.

Rachel has a BA (Hons) in Geography from University of Oxford and holds the inaugural Masters in Carbon Management from University of Edinburgh Business School. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Since graduating from Oxford, Rachel worked as a consultant beginning her career as a transport planner with WSP then worked for a start-up advising companies in the transport sector on how to reduce their carbon emissions. She then set up her own firm (Surbon Consulting) in the UK supporting transport operators such as Keolis, Go-Ahead, Serco and MTR on  business development and contract mobilisation  covering contract management, sustainability and customer experience. She has worked across all modes of transport: rail, metro, bus, ferry and cycle hire and more recently electric scooters. She set up a UAE branch of Surbon Consulting in 2017 and has delivered work in UAE, Qatar and Saudi.

She has been a member of UITP since 2015 and has found the conferencing and training courses offered by UITP extremely valuable. She has been an UITP trainer delivering training to TGA (Saudi), RTA (Dubai) and LTA (Singapore).

Alok is the CEO & Managing Director of Trans-consult. He is an international expert in public transport operations and management, with specialisation in new technology, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and clean fuel technologies. With 30 years of experience in the industry, Alok has worked with an array of international consultants and leading transport operators such as MTR Corporation Hong Kong and Kowloon Motor Bus Hong Kong.

He is an international expert trainer and a Fellow of Civic Exchange, a Hong Kong-based non-profit independent think tank. He regularly teaches at the University of Hong Kong and serves as a Member of the Transport Policy Committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong. He has several publications to his credit, including contribution to a book on best practice in railways operations and management.

Alok is a civil engineer and holds post-graduate degrees in transportation engineering and management.

Alok Linkedin

Alok Twitter @alokjainhk

Graduating university as a civil engineer, Yo joined RATP in 1980. He began in the marketing team and was duly put in charge of Passenger Information. Over the ensuing years, Yo worked to build up RATP’s Design Management function – progressively integrating all the creative disciplines related to transport environment design – product design, information design, architecture, arts and culture management – becoming Head of Design Projects Management in 2011. Yo retired from RATP in December 2023 after 35 years with the company.

Yo’s department steered many of RATP’s infrastructure investment projects, coordinates policies and ensures the inclusion of Design Quality in RATP Group’s corporate strategy.

He serves on the boards of several organizations focussed on design promotion and design education in France and is a former Chair of the UITP Design & Culture Committee.

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.

Lilli is leading our work to make the capital safe and attractive for all journeys, and to achieve our goal of Vision Zero, where no one is injured or killed on the transport network.

Lilli joined TfL in 2006 and has been Chief Safety, Health and Environment Officer since September 2019. One of her many passions and responsibilities is working to address the climate crisis and to achieve a net zero carbon railway by 2030 and to ensure TfL’s environmental performance is exemplary.

Her career has included being a member of the UK Government’s Commission for Integrated Transport and running her own transport consultancy where she led major projects on sustainable transport for a range of clients.

She is an alumnus of Imperial College, having gained her MSc in Environmental Technology at its Centre for Environmental Technology.

Lilli was appointed to the Board of the Environment Agency in 2021.

Graduated from the Institute of Technology of Turin and Lausanne (EPFL), Stefano developed mobility studies for prof. Bovy for the Olympics in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Turin 2006

In 2003 he joined the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee, as specialist on urban mobility, public transport, rail services between urban and mountain clusters, and venue transport operations.

In 2006 Stefano co-founded Citec Italia, the Italian branch of our Swiss based transport and mobility engineering firm where, almost 20 years later, he still serves as the Managing Partner, as well as member of the Board of Directors and Head of the Events Department.

During his career, he worked as consultant for Organizing Committees and Host Countries on numerous transport projects of the Winter and Summer Olympic Games Biddings such as Annecy 2018 and Istanbul 2020; he produced strategic mobility assessments for Sochi 2014, FIFA World Cup 2018, while he led the Transport teams of the Ryder Cup of Paris 2018 and Rome 2023.

Since 2007 Stefano has been working as mobility and transport advisor for UEFA contributing to the following projects: UEFA Euro 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, as well as UCLF UEFA Champions League Final in Milan 2016, Kiev 2018, UELF Seville 2021 and UCELF Prague 2023. He also worked with FIFA, where he developed the Transport Bidding Requirements and the evaluation methodology to evaluate the candidatures and assign  the FIFA World Cup 2026.

From 2012 to 2015 he worked as advisor to the IOC-International Olympic Committee as member of the Evaluation Committee working group for the 2020 and 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games then assigned to Tokyo and Beijing respectfully. Stefano was also involved in the early transport planning phases of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games of Pyeongchang 2018.

In 2015 Stefano was appointed as Transport expert by the Bidding Committee for Paris 2024, to manage and develop the mobility concept, coordinating local public partners and authorities. Since 2018 he has been the director of the transport technical assistance mission of Citec to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee.

During the last part of the bidding phase of Milano-Cortina to win the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Stefano was the Bidding Committee Transport Expert. Since 2020, he has been the Head of Transport for Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026.