Iain Macbeth

Future Mobility Director at The Red Sea Global

Speaker

Iain is Director of Future Mobility for The Red Sea Development Company’s (TRSDC) portfolio of developments in Saudi Arabia, with a portfolio covering electric and autonomous vehicles, charging infrastructure, zero carbon maritime vessels and the development of low emission aircraft propulsion systems, including drones and urban air mobility concepts. He has a specific responsibility for the promotion and trials of hydrogen technology in the transportation sector, including production, storage and power train solutions for land, maritime and aviation.

Prior to joining TRSDC, Iain was Director of Electric Vehicle Strategy, Partnerships & Innovation (Europe) for Enterprise Holdings, the largest global vehicle rental business with a fleet of over 2 million vehicles. In this role, Iain was responsible for the role out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, training and business development pertaining to the uptake of electric vehicles across Enterprise’s key corporate markets in the UK & Ireland, France, Germany and Spain. He was also involved in broader mobility and sustainability projects for Enterprise, including a fleet of 16 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, drawing on his previous experience as Head of Foresight within the Innovation Directorate at Transport for London (TfL).

At TfL, Iain was involved in several innovation programmes where transport intersect with emerging urban challenges – such as air quality, road safety, population growth, economic and social issues, urban realm, climate change and energy. He set-up the London Automotive Forum, establishing a forum for local authorities and the automotive industry to share best practice and shared goals in the urban mobility sector. Iain has lectured on the future of mobility at the prestigious Royal College of Art and London’s Design Museum and was honoured to be one of the judges of the “Research Contest on Future Mobility in Cities” as part of the celebrations for car designer ItalDesign’s 50th anniversary that gathered together 88 projects from teams from 20 different countries. Iain also advised the Greater London Authority on the implications of urban air mobility and drones, working with EASA, the CAA, the security services and manufacturers such as Airbus.

Iain was a member of the UK Automotive Council Working Group on Autonomous Vehicles and has worked with a wide range of transportation and mobility bodies including the European Commission, the FIA (Formula E and Smart Cities programme), POLIS, the OECD, the World Bank and ERTICO.

He is a former chair of the Chartered Institute of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) Sustainable Transport Panel and was a Director and Company Secretary for the UK Association for Commuter Transport (ACT)