HanseCom Forum 2024
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Michael Beer – Head of Sales at Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) – has worked as a manager for the public transport company in the area of sales and marketing for many years.

Michael studied business administration at the TU Dresden, specializing in transport economics/logistics and transport policy. After a brief stint at Deutsche Bahn, Michael moved on to BVG in 2000, where he managed the sales communication as well as the strategy and market research teams. During this time, he was responsible for the creation and introduction of the multi-award-winning “Because we love you” campaign, among other things.

Michael has been in charge of sales at BVG since 2021. In addition to ticket sales via customer centers, ticket machines and sales partners, he and his team support the 1.2 million long-term customers who hold season tickets and job tickets. His passion is the further development of the sales landscape, such as the modernization and digitization of conventional sales. Mr. Beer developed the idea of account-based ticketing (ABT) for BVG in Berlin, where he implemented Germany’s most advanced system.

Benjamin Bock has been an Authorized Signatory and Member of the Management Board at Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) since 2015, where he is in charge of marketing, fares, sales and public relations. He has also been holding a management position at VBK and Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG) since 2017 that puts him in charge of revenue management and marketing, focusing on sales-related end customer relationships and transport contract issues with the public transport authorities in regional rail transport and local public transport.

After joining Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (VBK) in 2009 as Assistant to the Managing Director, he held numerous positions at VBK, AVG and KVV, including Head of Sales.

Mr. Dahlmann-Resing has been a member of the Management Board of VAG Nuremberg since July 2012 and has been acting as Spokesman of the Management Board since October 2022. He is currently responsible for the Technology & Market division, which covers the business areas of Operations Management, Bus Workshop, Rail Workshop, Route, Planning, Marketing, Sales and Controlling/Business Planning. He has also been Managing Director for the public transport section of Städtische Werke Nürnberg StWN since October 2022. In addition, he is Vice President of the VDV, a member of the VDV Executive Committee and Board, a member of the VDV Scientific Advisory Board, Chairman of the VDV Committee for Planning and Climate Protection and the VDV Tram Board of Directors, Chairman of the Shareholders’ Meeting of the Greater Nuremberg Transport Association, Deputy Chairman of the CNA Board of Directors and Deputy Chairman of the STUVA Board of Directors.

He started as a trainee at VAG Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg in 1996 after completing his studies in civil engineering with a focus on transportation. Between 1998 and 2012, he held various management positions at VAG and was also appointed Managing Director of PB-Consult Planungs- und Betriebsberatungsgesellschaft between 2001 and 2007. Since 2013, he has been working part-time as a lecturer on “Transit Agency Management” as part of the “Urban Mobility” course of studies at Georg-Simon-Ohm University of Technology in Nuremberg.

While on the job, he acquired qualifications as a quality management auditor in accordance with DIN 9001 and as a BOStrab operations manager, among others. He also successfully completed a postgraduate course in project management as well as an in-house course in business administration.

Dipl. Ing. Klaus Dechamps (58) studied general electrical engineering in Nuremberg. In 1994, he joined Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg GmbH, where he has been Head of Markets and Sales since 2005. In this role, he is responsible for marketing, pricing, digitization projects and IT. Milestones in these areas of activity include various digitization topics and management of the “HandyTicket Deutschland” project.

He has been Chairman of the VDV Task Group for Network Fares and Cooperation since 2023.

Paula holds a M.Sc. in Operational Research in Applied Mathematics by the Autonomous University of Lisbon and a post-graduation in Operations and Logistics Management by ISEG Executive Education. She is also a certified Transport Management professional by the Portuguese Mobility and Transport Institute. Paula started her professional career in the Academia, but in 2005 switched to a more technical role in a private transport operator. Most of her activity focused on operational planning and training drivers for the public service and in 2018 she moved to account for management and budget control to the board of administration. Her vast experience in public transport planning, operation, and management brough her to Cascais Próxima in 2021, the internal operator of the municipality of Cascais. In 2022 she took the position of Director of the Transport Department where she has collaborated in the design and execution of public policies to promote the usage of more inclusive transit systems, on the development of new transit lines, on the evaluation of the impact of inclusive measures such as the Fare Free Public Transport program and achieving energetic independence through the production and usage of green hydrogen.

Tony Hansley has been an integral part of the Lawton Area Transit System (LATS) for the past five years. With 15 years of diverse experience in the transportation industry, Tony Hansley brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Lawton Area Transit System (LATS). His extensive background in various facets of transportation has been instrumental in his impactful contributions to the organization. As Head of Marketing and Innovation Tony plays a pivotal role in shaping the public image of the Lawton/Fort Sill community. Through strategic advertising, a robust digital presence, and active community engagement, he ensures the transit system's visibility and impact. Tony is also an accomplished photographer, using his expertise to capture compelling images of public transit and its riders. His work not only highlights the vitality of the transit system but also enhances its public image by showcasing the community it serves at its best.

Sascha Heyer studied software engineering and media IT at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and Uxbridge University West London. He started his career at INIT GmbH as a software developer in 2008 and has worked for the company in several roles since then. Among other things, he oversaw software development for ticketing background systems as the team lead. He also participated in many national and international projects across the globe at the customer’s premises in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and other places. Sascha Heyer has been Product Manager TaaS (ticketing as a service) at INIT since 2022.

Alok is the CEO and Managing Director of Trans-consult, a management-consulting firm, specializing in advisory services for technology driven public transport operation and management. He has a long portfolio of experience in the transportation sector and is an international expert trainer with International Association of Public Transport (UITP). He is a fellow of Civic Exchange and serves in the Council for Decarbonizing Transport in Asia. He is a Senior Advisor to IoTSG/AllThingsConnected, Singapore.

He served as Deputy Operations Director of The Kowloon Motor Bus Co. (1933) Ltd. (KMB) between 2013 and 2016, leading the strategy and planning for improving efficiency, instilling process management, restructuring the network and implementation of new technology, which resulted in a HK$1billion turnaround in the profitability.

Prior to KMB, he was Director of Trans-consult Asia, Hong Kong, and MVA Asia, Hong Kong, and led the design and planning of many large-scale transport infrastructure projects.

Alok has also worked for MTR Corporation / KCR Corporation, Hong Kong for 12 years. His last position was General Manager-Marketing prior to which he also worked in the areas of railway/metro project planning and management, operations planning, testing and commissioning of new lines, revenue management, financial appraisals, and strategic planning.

Alok played an active role in a number of other business organizations and worked in many countries in a career spanning over 30 years. With several publications to his credit including contributions to a book on best practices in railways operations and management, he is a regular speaker on multi-modal integration, public transport operations & management, SMART mobility, and clean vehicle technologies.

Anna-Theresa Korbutt, a business graduate born in 1979 in the Hanseatic city of Gdansk, has been Managing Director of Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (hvv) since 1 April 2022. She is a passionate manager in the field of local public transport, developing innovative and sustainable public transport concepts ever since entering this career path.

Mrs. Korbutt held various positions in the areas of strategy and marketing at Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) from 2004 to 2012. This was followed by appointments in Switzerland and Austria, where she most recently worked for the holding company of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) as Head of Group Strategy and Corporate Development. For three years, she was Managing Director of Austria’s largest general cargo forwarder BEXity GmbH in Vienna. In March 2023, Anna-Theresa Korbutt received the Federal Passenger Award from the passenger association PRO BAHN e.V. for her strong commitment towards creating a simple fare system with the Deutschlandticket.

Ryan Landers is the general manager for LATS and has been with the system since 2015. He has more than 10 years of transit experience in operations and management contracts for fixed route and paratransit. Prior to LATS, Ryan was the operations director for Mountain Metro Transit in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Ryan has always been involved in transit since he graduated with a Business Administration degree from Texas Wesleyan University in Ft. Worth, Texas. After college Ryan interned at Trinity Metro formerly known as the T in Fort Worth.

Frank Niggemeier-Oliva studied Applied Computer Science at the University of Essen-Duisburg and earned his Executive MBA at the renowned Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has been Managing Director of Bahnen der Stadt Monheim since 1 April 2021. Current focal points in the company’s development include its digital transformation, the further development of autonomous driving and the technology transfer of new drive systems. Previously, Mr. Niggemeier-Oliva worked in the energy sector for many years, where he held various management positions at national and international companies.

Mrs. Reinagl is CEO of Wiener Linien. She studied law in Vienna and started to work at the municipality of Vienna in 1997. There she was - among other things - responsible for financing public transport in Vienna. From 2008 to 2011 she was CEO of Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region GmbH – the authority organizing public transport for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Since 2011 she has been the first woman on the management board of Wiener Linien. Her goals include developing Wiener Linien corporate culture and employer branding as well as raising productivity and efficiency. One of her major topic is “Mobile Flexibility”. Wiener Linien is a designer of mobility and thus of mobile flexibility in Vienna. The umbrella brand “WienMobil” is the linkage of public transport, sharing and mobility services. The overarching structure, WienMobil, includes the digital, fare and physical world. The „WienMobil“ mobility app offers services from different mobility providers and is the key to efficient planning. WienMobil stations, for example at PT stops, offer sharing services such as bike and car.

João Pedro Silva started working in the transport sector in 2016 after joining Cascais Próxima to kick off its role as the internal transit operator for the Municipality of Cascais. He has previously worked on geospatial data visualization and urban mobility assessment R&D projects both at the Nova School of Science and Technology (1992-1997) and Instituto Superior Técnico (2005,2013). In between those periods he has also worked in private companies in the IT sector providing technical consultancy and project management. One of his first private projects was showcased at the Territory Pavilion of the Expo’98 (Lisbon): a real time 3D simulator of Portugal at 1 meter resolution providing access to statistical data for every point in the country. At Cascais Próxima his tasks involved planning transit services, budgeting, negotiating fares and documenting proposals of new transit lines to be presented to the municipality and designing and creating monitoring tools merging data from several sources. His present focus is using business intelligence for assessing, forecasting, and providing early warnings in public transport demand, fleet energy management, and correlation with external factors (e.g., COVID pandemic, air quality, weather, etc.).

Anna Sotschka studied international information systems management and has been working at Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg GmbH since 2020. In her role as Project Manager, she is responsible for innovation projects and digitization initiatives. Her focus is on the development and optimization of customer portals.

• Studium Verkehrssystemmanagement an der Hochschule Karlsruhe

• Seit 2016 in der ÖPNV-Branche tätig

• Aktuell Senior Sales Manager bei CarMedialab mit dem Fokus Verkehrsbetriebe bei der Elektrifizierung ihrer Flotte mit einem Lademanagementsystem zu unterstützen

Mr. Mika Varjola is the co-founder and Managing Director of Mattersoft Ltd., a member of the INIT Group. He holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Tampere. With over two decades of experience in the intelligent transport systems industry, he has worked on numerous projects in international software and consulting companies. He has extensive experience in intelligent transport systems, business development and management.

I have been working in the UK Bus Industry since joining a family run business in Nottingham in 1978 and progressing to driver in 1979.

In December 1980, I joined Nottingham City Transport as a driver, followed by progression within the Operations department to Inspector, Senior Inspector, Staff Officer and Garage Manager before moving to my present role as Commercial Services Manager in 2008 where I am responsible for the development of all on bus equipment used by our drivers. This includes all aspects of ticketing, radio, AVL/ITCS, RTPI and both on bus and site CCTV systems.

During my time as Garage Manager, I successfully launched NCT’s first use of RTPI for the Nottingham Skylink service in 2004, connecting Nottingham with East Midlands Airport. Following the success of this trial, RTPI and AVL/ITCS, supplied by Init, was rolled out to all NCT vehicles and routes in 2009 and remains in place today.

NCT decided to invite Init to become our partner for all of our ticketing requirements in 2012 – both on bus cash and smart travel with NCT’s Easyrider card for seasons, carnet and e-purse.

NCT’s desire is to make bus travel as easy as we can for our Customers and the decision was taken in 2019 to develop contactless transactions on bus with Init and this was successfully rolled out to the fleet in September 2020.

Quickly establishing itself as a preferred method of paying for bus travel for our customers, we are in the process of introducing ABT in our continued desire to make bus travel an easy option for customers and to reduce the amount of on bus cash transactions.

Alexander Witte studied industrial engineering in SW Germany and in the foothills of the French Alps. Just in time for the launch of the 9-euro ticket, he joined HanseCom in 2022 as a project manager with the mission to integrate HanseCom’s “Abo-Online” software at various transport companies. He was soon put in charge of coordinating the development of the new HanseCom student portal and is its product owner. Driven by the desire to digitize administrative processes, in this role he is responsible for requirements management, ongoing development and technical development control.

Christine Wolburg is Head of Marketing and Sales at Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). She is responsible for around €1 billion in sales per year across all sales channels with a focus on increasing e-commerce and further developing the BVG love brand. She drives the BVG brand forward with conviction and passion, constantly invigorating it with bold and fresh ideas. The well-known and multi-award-winning “Because we love you” (Weil wir dich lieben) campaign has become a nationwide benchmark. By consistently implementing the brand strategy, BVG has succeeded in retaining over one million passengers with regular subscriptions and significantly increasing the number of applications.

After graduating in business administration and marketing, she worked in various sales and marketing functions at Mercedes-Benz AG for 17 years before moving on to Germany’s largest public transit agency.