South West Who's Who

CIHT South West

Here you will find details of our committee.

Question?

Get in touch with the local committee e: southwest@ciht.org.uk

Hannah Clark

Chair, CIHT South West

Hannah is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Transport Strategy Manager at Devon County Council, leading on multi-modal transport schemes across the south of the county.

Hannah graduated in 2013 from Exeter University with a degree in Mathematics, before completing the MSc Transport Planning and Engineering at Southampton University. Originally specialising in transport modelling, Hannah now works on a range of transport schemes, from inception to implementation.

Hannah has been an active member of the CIHT over the past 5 years, previously sitting on the Exeter Young Members Group and awarded the CIHT South West Emerging Professional of the Year Award in 2017.

Outside of work, Hannah is a keen cricketer and loves exploring the great South West outdoors.

Cameron Smith

Vice-Chair, CIHT South West

Cameron was formerly the Chair for the CIHT Emerging Professional's Group (CIHT EPG) in Bristol, where he led a group of Transport Professionalsto put on CPD and Social events. Cameron is a Senior Engineer at Systra and has been working in the Transport and Highways Industry for 7 years. He specialises in providing advise on cycling and walking infrastructure and highway design, mainly to public sector clients.

Graham Parry

Honorary Secretary, CIHT South West

Chartered Civil Engineer with over 30 years’ public and private sector experience in infrastructure, transport and construction with a background in Geological and Ecological Sciences. Currently the Highways & Infrastructure Design lead at Sweco UK in their Bristol office.

Holly Moon 

Honorary Treasurer, CIHT South West

Coming soon

David Watkins

Immediate Past Chair, CIHT South West

David is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) who will continue as chair into a second term. David first joined CIHT in 2005 and was elected to the South West committee in 2014, subsequently holding a number of officer roles.

An Associate Director at Ove Arup and Partners Ltd in Bristol, David manages a team undertaking work across Wales, the West of England, the Solent region and Channel Islands.

David graduated from the University of Bath in 2002 and joined Arup in 2005 to work on the design and specification for the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system at Heathrow Terminal 5 as well as Transport Assessments for wide range of public and private sector schemes including airports, housing developments and distribution centres.


From 2009-2011 David lived and worked in Qatar undertaking transport planning on Msheireb Downtown Doha, a major sustainable urban regeneration project, and Sheraton Park, an underground car park and at-grade amenity park. He has subsequently spent significant periods in the Gulf supporting the delivery of projects, including major new stadia for the FIFA 2022 World Cup.


Since returning to the UK full time David has led a wide range of transport studies including business cases for active travel and railway schemes, planning applications for a wide range of land uses, car park design (basement, MSCP and major surface schemes), transport interchange design and asset release and depot studies for Network Rail.


David is interested in encouraging sustainable transport by making it the mode of choice and he regularly works with clients and design teams to integrate sustainable transport into projects. To support this work David has undertaken pedestrian and bicycle route audits and developed new public transport services in conjunction with operators.


A recognised industry expert in PRT and Automated People Mover (APM) feasibility David has authored a number of outline business case studies and concept designs, and he has authored guidance for the industry body, ATRA.


Away from work David is a passionate cook, loves reading about medieval history and is a huge sports fan – including coaching junior rugby at his local club each Sunday.

Nik Bowyer

Regional Representative to Council, CIHT South West

Nik is a Chartered Transport Planner (CTPP) and a past Chair of the CIHT South West region (2019-2020) and has held various other Officer roles. He is also a Director of the Appian Trading Board, one of CIHT’s Strategic Boards.

Nik is a Strategic Transport Projects Manager at Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES). Before joining B&NES in August 2022, Nik was an Associate Director at AECOM, where he worked in the Bristol office for over 9 years and, for 6 years before that, in London and the South East. He has led and delivered projects across the South West of England and South Wales, as well as serving clients elsewhere in the public and private sector throughout the UK. He specialises in transport planning, traffic modelling, and business cases, where he brings over 15 years of experience. His past clients include National Highways (where he has experience at DCO as a Witness), Transport for Wales, Transport for London, the DfT, and Local Authorities throughout the UK.

His interests and specialisms are focused on strategic transport planning, modelling and economics, and the role and impact of the transportation sector in climate change. He has a personal interest in active travel and the rail and aviation sectors. In addition to his roles with the CIHT, since 2019 Nik has volunteered as the Mobility lead on the Devon Net-Zero Task Force, helping to provide independent advice on how Devon can develop a credible and achievable Carbon Plan that ensures the county can meet its net-zero aspirations.

Nik graduated from the University of Exeter in 2006 with a BSc in Geography. During his studies, he specialised in climate change, palaeoclimates and sustainability – all of which fostered a keen interest in the role of the transportation sector. He achieved the Transport Planning Professional (TPP) accreditation in 2018, through the CIHT, and has held the Chartered title (CTPP) since it was available. He is also a PRINCE2 accredited Project Manager. Additionally, Nik is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and a Chartered Member of the CILT.

Nik has been a full member of the CIHT since 2009, joining the CIHT South West region committee in 2015. He was Honorary Secretary for two years (2016, 2017), subsequently serving as Vice Chair (2018), Chair (2019), and Events Coordinator (2020, 2021). Since 2020, Nik has served in the role of a Director of the Appian Trading Board.

Josh Manning

Web/Communications Officer, CIHT South West

Josh works at Devon County Council in the Transport Planning team, with a particular focus on the South Devon region. Josh entered the industry in 2017 after graduating from the University of Exeter in Mathematics and gaining a PGCE from the University of Oxford. 

Josh has also completed a part time MSc in Transport Engineering and Planning from the University of the West of England. For his dissertation research project, Josh investigated the relationship between the reallocation of road space, efficiency and the need to tackle climate change.

Josh has good experience in transport modelling, but also works to deliver a broad range on interventions and strategies in the local authority context, often centered around active travel. Outside of work, Josh is involved in his local parish church, spends time working on his fantasy football team and cycles around the South West.

Will Wilson

Events Officer, CIHT South West

Will is a Senior Consultant with AECOM based in the Bristol Streets Team. He specializes in Traffic Regulation Orders and Road Safety Improvement Schemes and is currently working on the West of England Future Transport Zones Project, specifically working on the ongoing e-scooter trial. He joined the CIHT in 2019 and the CIHT South West committee in 2023.

He has had copious exposure to public engagement and consultation exercises which has instilled excellent communication and organizational skills. He has worked with numerous local authorities across England and Wales in the last 5 years, which has given him a real understanding of their functionality and how Private and Public sectors can work together to achieve real change. He is passionate about training and development and is looking forward to developing and supporting a quality programme of CPD webinars and events for CIHT South West. He is also aiming to re-establish the South West Conference as of Spring 2024. 

Dunstan Westbury

Recruitment Officer, CIHT South West

Dunstan is a Chartered Transport Planning Professional based in Bristol, and leads Atkins’ transport planning practice for the South West & Wales region. Dunstan specialises in transport strategy, business case & appraisal, and economics.

Yara Al Hamdan

EDI Officer, CIHT South West

Yara Al Hamdan is a Transport Planner with ATKINS. She has four years of experience in various transport disciplines, including pedestrian modelling, traffic impact studies, parking studies, active travel plans and spatial analysis. She is currently a member of the CIHT National Council, as well as CIHT’s Learned Society & Technical Strategy Board (LSTSB).

Sarah Hodson

Bristol Emerging Professionals' Chair, CIHT South West

Sarah is a Transport Planner at Arup with 6 years' experience in the industry. She was awarded CIHT South West Emerging Professional of the Year in 2023 and obtained a CILT Award for her Masters Project at UWE. Please get in touch with Sarah if you would like to be involved in the Bristol EPG: Sarah.Hodson@arup.com.

James Meredith

Exeter Emerging Professionals Chair, CIHT South West

James is a Senior Transport Planner with Jacobs with 4 years' experience in the industry. He was awarded CIHT South West Emerging Professional of the Year in 2023.

Felicia Bjersing

Committee Member, CIHT South West

Felicia is a passionate and enthusiastic Civil Engineer specialising in Transport Planning, with seven years' experience of working with both public and private sector organisations, in a range of local, national and international projects. She is currently pursuing her chartership with CIHT to become a CTPP. She will support the CIHT South West Events Coordinator and Regional Recruitment Officer.


Felicia has technical expertise and a well-rounded background that includes microsimulation modelling and development planning. However, most recent years has been spent working in a Dutch context, and developing expertise in high quality Active Travel design and delivery.

Felicia really enjoys working on projects relating to sustainable urban development and decarbonisation of the transport system, with multi-modal integration, and making sure that solutions that enhance wellbeing and equity for people and the economy are at the heart of all the work she does.

Felicia is keen to promote the transport planning profession for a wider audience, impact standards of delivery and to challenge the 'status quo'. As professionals, we are faced with both technical, political and social challenges. Felicia wants to shape CIHT to go even further in supporting their members in this transitional time. By raising to the occasion and finding sustainable solutions that will shape the lives we lead and urban environments we live in.

Jon Berry

Committee Member, CIHT South West

Jon is a Senior Associate with Stantec responsible for the design, implementation and project management of a range of multidisciplinary schemes. He has over 20 years of experience in delivering highway, transport and land development projects for a range of public and private sector clients. Jon oversees Stantec's South West Transport Planning Team across their Exeter, Taunton and Bristol offices. He is supporting the Events Coordinator.

Emma Hext

Committee Member, CIHT South West

Emma is a Senior Associate Director at Jacobs, based in Exeter. Emma joined Jacobs in 2005, originally working in the Reading office before relocating to Exeter in 2010 to lead the transport planning team.

Emma’s technical background covers transport policy and strategy, development management and smarter choices, along with extensive experience in project and programme management. Over the last few years, Emma has been heavily involved in sustainable travel programmes, helping to secure funding for local authorities and then successfully delivering active travel initiatives and infrastructure.

Emma is a Fellow of the CIHT and a Chartered Transport Planner (CTPP). Emma has been an active member of the Committee since 2013, also holding roles previously as Treasurer, Communications Officer and Events Co-ordinator.

Alex Bertram

Committee Member, CIHT South West

Share
Bookmark

Sign up to the APM Newsletter.