Speakers

Nicola Bell MBE

Nicola Bell has been responsible for major projects at National Highways since July 2022, having joined the agency six years earlier as a divisional director of asset development. Reporting to the chief executive, she oversees the development, sponsorship, delivery and close-out of enhancement and other significant projects across the strategic road network.

Before joining National Highways, Bell was director of highways and transport at West Sussex County Council and head of local infrastructure and street management at Cambridgeshire County Council. She began her career a senior transport planner and programme manager at Argyll and Bute Council. She holds an MSc in Transport Planning and Engineering and Civil Engineering.

Lisa Constable

Lisa Constable leads development of the national strategy and the framework for delivery of climate change resilience and adaptation across regions and national functions at Network Rail. She plays a leading role in building resilience across the wider rail industry, collaborating closely with government, infrastructure managers, train operators and others. 

Constable’s experience in climate change spans 25 years and includes climate risk and adaptation consultancy for private- and public-sector organisations in South Africa and around the world, as well as emissions trading and flooding policy analysis, development and implementation for the UK government.

Dr Jacob Kam

Dr Jacob Kam leads MTR Corporation’s board in ensuring effective management and oversight of the company’s business affairs. Prior to his appointment as chairman in January 2026, he served as chief executive officer, having held various management positions since joining the company in 1995.

Dr Kam is an honorary chairman of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and a board/council member of several Hong Kong and international professional, business and community institutions. He is also a chartered member/fellow of professional institutions in engineering, transport and logistics, business management and occupational safety and health, including the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering.

David Porter

David Porter is director of engineering with the Department for Infrastructure, which is Northern Ireland’s highways authority. In this role, he is also the chief highways engineer and head of the civil engineering profession in the Northern Ireland civil service.

Porter is responsible for the development of the department’s professional and technical staff, engineering policies and standards, and health and safety. He also leads on procurement and the internal consultancy.

Previously, he was chief executive of the Rivers Agency, Northern Ireland’s flood defence and drainage authority.

Porter has served on the ICE Council three times, twice as the Northern Ireland representative and once as a general member. He is a trustee who, until recently, held the learning society portfolio. He has also served on several institution committees and panels.

A fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering, Porter was awarded the Poskitt Medal by ICE Northern Ireland in 2017 and the President’s Award by Engineers Ireland in 2018.

Arfa Shahid

Arfa Shahid is a climate adaptation and resilience specialist with experience spanning disaster risk management, international development, local government, and national infrastructure. She currently works as a Senior Advisor at National Highways, leading strategic climate adaptation and resilience initiatives across the Strategic Road Network.

Before joining National Highways, Arfa led climate adaptation programmes within local government in the UK. She also contributed to the development of Pakistan's National Adaptation Plan and represented Pakistan as a Party Delegate at COP-UN climate negotiations, supporting discussions on adaptation finance and climate justice. Her work focuses on driving strategic adaptation at organisational and national levels, helping institutions embed climate resilience into policy, investment decisions, governance, and long-term planning.

Alison Walker

Alison Walker is a pioneering leader in climate change, carbon management and sustainability with over three decades’ experience of driving transformative change. At HS2, she leads on climate change adaptation and resilience, ensuring one of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects is prepared for a changing climate. 

Walker co-founded the Infrastructure Operators Adaptation Forum (IOAF) and is involved in shaping national standards as part of the BSI committee on greenhouse gas management. She also serves on the oversight board for DARe – the UK’s national hub for decarbonised, adaptable and resilient transport infrastructure – helping to create transport systems that are fit for the future.

Simon Blainey

Simon Blainey is a professor of sustainable transport with almost 20 years’ experience in research and teaching. His interests include passenger demand and behaviour, transport infrastructure resilience, geospatial analysis, and whole-life cost and carbon modelling for transport infrastructure systems. 

Blainey has led and contributed to major UK and European research projects including SAT4DARTS, which developed a transferable whole-life costing tool for transport resilience interventions for the DARe hub, and is a co-investigator on the EU-funded QuieterRail project and for the Healthy Low-carbon Transport Hub. He has produced over 120 journal papers, book chapters and conference presentations and is editor-in-chief of Transportation Planning and Technology. He also chairs the UIC International Railway Research Board’s Academic Board for Innovation.

Abstract submission

Philippe Bouillard

Philippe Bouillard began his career as a work manager for French major construction contractors, before becoming a teaching and research assistant at the Brussels School of Engineering (ULB), where he was promoted to professor in 2005. He holds an MSc in civil engineering and a PhD in engineering (ULB) and a habilitation diploma (Paris VI).

Bouillard’s main research activity is sustainable urbanism, with a focus on infrastructure and mobility. He has co-edited three books, co-authored more than 75 refereed journal papers and 100 conference proceedings, and supervised 23 PhD theses. He is a Chartered Engineer, an ICE Fellow and chaired the editorial board of the ICE Journal of Civil Engineering (2017-21).

Abstract submission

John Donaghy

John Donaghy is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 13 years’ experience in delivering railway stations, transport interchanges and line-of-route rail projects from feasibility to detailed design. His work explores how inclusive design strengthens transport resilience by creating systems that adapt to changing users and needs. He is an advocate for treating exclusion with the same importance as safety risk, helping to deliver infrastructure that is more inclusive and effective for the communities it serves.

Abstract submission

Yu Han

Yu Han is a research associate in the department of land economy at the University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in urban and regional planning from the University of Florida. His research focuses on how cities and regions can plan for climate change while advancing sustainability, resilience, and equitable development. He develops human-centred computational approaches that combine geospatial analysis, agent-based modelling, machine learning and scenario-based simulation to examine interactions between climate risk, land use and transport systems.

Abstract submission

David Jenkins

David Jenkins has led the IPWEA since December 2019, having spent more than a decade in senior roles at professional accounting body CPA Australia.

Jenkins has become recognised as a thought leader in infrastructure asset management, speaking at the Sydney Morning Herald Infrastructure Summit and other international events of interest to civil engineers. He has written for the New Zealand Herald, the country’s most widely read newspaper, and contributes regularly to the online publication Government News.

As host of the IPWEA’s Infrastructure Matters podcast, Jenkins has interviewed several international experts in the field.

He is also a board member at the International Federation of Municipal Engineering and chair of its technical committee. 

Abstract submission

Dr Ning Pan

A distinguished researcher with over 10 years’ experience in performance monitoring, intelligent analysis and decision support for infrastructure asset systems, Dr Pan serves as the WP3 coordinator of the Research Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe). 

Her research focuses on enhancing resilience across transport networks and asset lifecycle stages, leveraging emerging computational methods to adapt ageing infrastructure, while balancing budgets and risks. She also serves as a reviewer for journals including Computer-aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering.

Abstract submission