National Highways representative joins Transport + Energy editorial board
Dr Joanna White, the Acting Roads Development Divisional Director at National Highways, has joined Transport + Energy’s editorial advisory board.
Dr White leads a division focused on environmental policy and standards, intelligent transport systems, energy and road design.
Speaking about joining the board, she said: “I’m really pleased to join this board. I’ve joined because I think having the transport and energy sectors collaborate more closely will deliver fundamental outcomes to achieve decarbonisation and mobility goals across the sectors, ultimately delivering benefits for all.”
National Highways is the government company charged with operating, maintaining and improving England’s motorways and major A-roads.
Last week Transport + Energy announced that motoring broadcaster and transport campaigner Quentin Willson had joined the editorial advisory board.
Jo will sit on the board alongside Quentin and other representatives from the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce, Energy Systems Catapult, Zemo Partnership, EVA England, BEAMA, UK 100, REA, Energy Networks Association, Britishvolt, TRL (Transport Research Laboratory), National Grid and Elmtronics.
Her teams have successfully delivered electric vehicle charge points near to the strategic road network to enhance existing infrastructure and support take up of electric vehicles.
Transport + Energy Editorial Director Alec Peachey said: “National Highways have a key role to play in decarbonising transport. The development of a reliable and accessible network of charging infrastructure is essential for the successful adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) on UK roads. We are delighted to welcome Jo onto the board so that we can hear first hand about the progress that they’re making towards decarbonising England’s motorways and A-roads. National Highways recently set out a comprehensive roadmap to rapidly decarbonise the strategic road network (SRN). They plan to achieve this by putting roads at the heart of Britain’s net zero future through three key commitments; achieving net zero for its own operations by 2030, delivering net zero road maintenance and construction by 2040; and supporting net zero carbon travel on its roads by 2050. We look forward to supporting them on this journey. Having Jo join the editorial board adds further credibility to an already strong group which will be working together to try and accelerate change.”
Jo started her career in 1999 at TRL working as a Researcher. Six years later she joined the Highways Agency as a Senior ITS Engineer in the Traffic and Travel Systems Group.
She led the M42 Active Traffic Management Monitoring, investigated how speed management could be used to manage emissions and set up the ITS Radar information service. Jo was promoted in 2007 to the Team Leader of the Technology Programme Performance team, responsible for managing performance of the Agency’s £250m Technology Programme. In April 2012 she took up a new role, leading the National Operational Systems team in Traffic Technology Division, looking after all the systems that the Traffic Officers use to manage traffic and incidents.
In 2014 she returned on promotion to the standards and research part of the organisation leading the Intelligent Transport Systems group. She led teams who develop and maintain standards for operational technology, improve operational systems and research future vehicle technology and energy solutions. This included delivering successful connected and automated vehicle trials in collaboration with industry partners to inform the connected services roadmap, one of the elements of Highways England’s Digital Roads vision. In February 2020, she became a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering and Technology. This has been an excellent foundation for her to step up to lead the Roads Development Division.
Jo joins the following representatives on the editorial board: Gill Nowell, Director, EVA England; Philip New, Chair of Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce and CEO of Energy Systems Catapult; Jacob Roberts, Transport Policy Manager at REA (The Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology); Jonathan Murray, Policy and Operations Director at Zemo Partnership; Jeremy Yapp, Head of Flexible Energy Systems at BEAMA; Paul Kirby, electric van expert and former head of LCV and EV strategy at Vanarama; Ross Easton, Director of External Affairs at Energy Networks Association; Dr Anthony Velazquez, Head of Environment and Decarbonisation at TRL (Transport Research Laboratory); Sara Sloman, Head of Future Mobility Partnerships, Elmtronics; Dr Russell Fowler, Senior Project Manager – Decarbonisation of Transport, National Grid; Jason Torrance, Assistant Executive Director, UK100; Ben Kilbey, Head of Communications, Britishvolt; Quentin Willson, motoring broadcaster and transport campaigner.
You can find out more information about the background of our editorial board members here.
