Brian Raven joined Heathrow Express in 1996 as engineering director, and after being promoted to operations director he became managing director of the company in June 2001.

Mr. Raven has extensive experience in engineering and, prior to joining Heathrow Express, spent 21 years with London Underground including working as senior projects manager and line engineering manager for the Jubilee and East London lines.

During his time at London Underground, Mr. Raven was seconded to commercial construction company, Mabey Construction for a period of 15 months during 1982/83. During this time he attained membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE).

Mr. Raven has used his wealth of experience in the transport industry to develop and maintain the Heathrow Express as an award-winning train service, recognised in 2006 by the National Customer Service as having the Customer Service Team of the Year. In 2007, the National Passenger Survey also revealed Heathrow Express as the nation's favourite train company.

Karen is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. She has had 20 years experience both in practice and with FTSE companies and is delighted to now be working with IARO.

Dr Aminuddin Adnan graduated from Loughborough University of Technology in Civil Engineering (B.Sc. Hons) and later received his Ph.D from University of Birmingham U.K. in Transportation and Highway Engineering in 1984.

He served 15 years in University Malaya holding various positions as Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering before joining the Renong Group as General Manager, Engineering Division in Pengurusan Lebuhraya Berhad. He was actively involved in the project management of the North-South Expressway project, Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing and the ELITE Expressway.

In 1993, he was assigned to set up of PUTRA to undertake the privatisation of the LRT System Two Project for Kuala Lumpur and later became General Manager in the Project Division.

In July 1996, he was invited to join Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd and was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer to negotiate the Concession Agreement with the Government, at the same time to lead and implement the Express Rail Link Project. He has been with ERLSB for the last nine years. The RM 2.4 billion Project has been successfully completed in April 2002 - on time and within budget. Since then, the operation is running smoothly and the Company is in a good financial position. Dr Aminuddin sits on the Board of ERL Maintenance Support Sdn Bhd - the Operation & Maintenance company for ERL.

In October 2003, he was awarded the Chartered Fellowship of The Chartered Institute of Logistic & Transport [UK].

Mr. Coogan is currently serving as Director of the New England Transportation Institute, and also continues his practice as a consultant in transportation specializing in the application of intermodal and multimodal planning techniques. Most recently, Mr. Coogan has been appointed as an International Advisor to a new EU project entitled "A Knowledge Base for Intermodal Passenger Travel in Europe".

Over the past decade he has focused on the deployment of integrated multimodal mobility strategies, and the use of new information technologies in the implementation of those procedures. He graduated from Harvard College in 1969, and later served as a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Between 1970 and 1972 he helped establish and served on the Boston Transportation Planning Review, the first major multimodal transportation study in the United States.

Between 1983 and 1991, Mr. Coogan served as Undersecretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and as Project Director of the Central Artery Tunnel Project. He was appointed by the National Academy of Science to both the Committee on High Speed Ground Transportation and the Committee to Critique the National Maglev Initiative. He has lectured on transportation issues throughout the United States, and in Europe and Asia. He has been featured in Engineering News Record, Architectural Record, The New York Times, Bloomberg News Service, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and has appeared on The Today Show, CBS News and National Public Radio.

In November of 2006, Mr. Coogan was invited by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission to testify at its Field Hearing, held in New York City on November 16, 2006.

Dick Dunmore is an Associate at Steer Davies Gleave with 30 years' consulting experience in the engineering, planning, regulation, economics and finance of transport services and projects. He has worked with the Travers Morgan Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Steer Davies Gleave's business strategy and policy group, which he joined in 2002.

His air-rail link experience includes demand modelling for Heathrow Express, forecasting and product design for Oslo Flytoget and a complete business review of Stockholm Arlanda Express. He also advises on airline and airport demand forecasts, airport business planning and cost reviews, competition and co-operation between air and rail services, and surface access and its impact on airport attractiveness.

Dick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Institution of Highways and Transportation, a Member of the Transport Planning Society and an Affiliate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He is also Secretary of the Transport Economists Group.

Peter Gertler is Vice President of the HNTB Companies in Oakland, California. Until recently he was an Assistant Vice President, Senior Project Manager and Senior Professional Associate with Parsons Brinckerhoff, a recognized leader in consulting, planning, engineering, program and construction management, operations and maintenance for transportation projects world-wide.

Peter is based in San Francisco, California USA and is the Manager of Railroad services for Parsons Brinckerhoff's U.S. Western District. He has over 18 years experience in transportation projects, particularly in the development, planning and implementation of rail and airport projects, and is a recognized industry leader in the area of rail links to airports.

Peter has lead or supported air-rail link projects in the US and abroad, including South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Between 1999 and 2002, he was in London, England with Parsons Brinckerhoff's program management team on the $10 billion West Coast Route Modernization Program for Network Rail (formerly Railtrack).

Peter is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Transportation Research Board Committee on InterCity Rail and has a BA in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a MS in Transportation and MA in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He has published and presented papers both in the United States and abroad.

Peter is a native of San Francisco and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and twin 12 year olds, and is an avid runner.

Sverre is currently the Commercial Director of the Airport Express Train in Norway. He has a Masters degree in marketing and a BA in Finance. He has held a range of different roles mainly within the hospitality industry in Norway.

He has a young family.

Paul Le Blond, is an independent consultant with over 30 years experience in the air and rail transport industries.

Working with BAA from 1970 to 2001, Paul was involved with many public inquires into airport development, and latterly with Heathrow Express as Rail Strategy Director.

From 2001 until February 2003 Paul was Eurostar's Director of Strategy. He is experienced in planning and developing transport projects, managing them through the approval stages and in their implementation and management. Since becoming an independent consultant he has undertaken commissions for the UK government, rail franchisees, airports and international airport rail operators.

Mr. K.Y.Leung is Operations Manager - Airport Railway, with over 28 years of experience for the highly reputable Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong. He acquired a breadth of experience spanning safety and quality, planning and development, and station operations and maintenance in Hong Kong, as well as consultancy projects in Bangkok, Taiwan and mainland China.

In Hong Kong, K.Y has earned a reputation for quality management through his work as president at Six Sigma Institute and as member at the advisory board of Ivac, ISO certification body.

As Operations Manager - Airport Railway, K.Y is currently responsible for the operations and maintenance of the airport express line, Tung Chung Line and Disney Resort line. As an Executive Consultant, K.Y acts as an expert in the railway and mass transit industries and supports the company's business development internationally.

Bob Longworth is Ground Transport Manager for Manchester Airport PLC. Bob is a Chartered Engineer and has been with Manchester Airport for 16 years where he has worked in engineering and terminal management before taking up his current position as Ground Transport Manager. His role is to promote and develop surface access links to Manchester Airport, in particular to develop public transport access where rail is the key public transport mode for air passengers.

As Ground Transport Manager, Bob is closely involved with developing rail, bus and coach services to Manchester Airport and managing relationships with transport operators, authorities and stakeholders. He is actively involved with development of the Manchester Airport Station into a multi modal transport interchange. This ground breaking project to combine all public transport modes at the Manchester Airport Rail Station completed its first phase in 2003 with the opening of a new bus and coach station alongside the rail station. Future phases include platforms light rail (Metrolink), additional rail platforms and a dedicated check-in area for Interchange users.

Paul is Head of Olympic Family & Surface Transport for the OTA. Until 2005, he was with Booz Allen Hamilton (International Management Consultants) who he joined in 1999, working from their London and New York offices, leading on all airport rail link strategy and related projects. He has direct experience of a number of airport rail link schemes in both Europe and North America, and previously worked for BAA plc, where he was Operations and Customer Services Director for Heathrow Express (1994 - 1999), during its construction and first year of operation.

Paul also specialises in light rail operations, and was previously Operations Director for Greater Manchester Metro Limited, General Operations Manager for the Tyne and Wear Metro, and Traffic Manager for Docklands Light Railway.

Per Thorstensen is CEO of Arlanda Express in Stockholm. Previously he worked in various leading positions at major companies including IBM, DHL and Electrolux.

He tries to stay in shape by doing some sports: he describes his tennis fore-hand as rather good!

Mark Walbrun has been leading major North American transit planning, design and construction programs since 1971. He has successfully completed hundreds of planning studies, concept designs, detailed construction documents, and management of construction activities for public transportation and commercial clients across the country.

Mark is currently a Principal and a Vice President of the Passenger Rail and Transit division of TranSystems. He began his career at Amtrak where he spent 24 years managing redevelopment projects such as the massive reconstruction of Chicago Union Station, the master plan for New York's Penn Station, design work on Washington Union Terminal, major track and yard facilities in Chicago, and high speed rail studies in Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Mark joined TranSystems in 1996 where he has since completed program planning and design work for commuter and InterCity passenger facilities at Denver and Kansas City Union Station, managed track and signal improvements for commuter rail facilities in Chicago, completed planning for improvements to the CTA Blue Line rapid transit and a proposed Airport Express service, produced a GIS rail plan for the City of Chicago, supervised reconstruction of the Cleveland Blue/Green Line Light Rail connection, completed value engineering for the PATH World Trade Center replacement station, and designed eight freight intermodal yards for CSX, BNSF, and NS.

Mark Walbrun is a key participant in industry forums for the advancement of knowledge in passenger rail transportation. He has been a major contributor to Transportation Research Board, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association's Manual for Railroad Engineering, and has taught seminars in Railroad Engineering for the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, the City Colleges of Chicago, and AREMA.

Mike Welch began his career with Continental Airlines twenty years ago as a Operations Agent in Boston, Massachusetts and has held various positions within the organization leading Managing Director - Operations for Continental's hub in Newark, New Jersey. After a spell as General Manager, Toronto Hub for Air Canada, he moved to a similar position with Jet Blue at their New York JFK hub and subsequently to manage Delta's hub at Boston Logan Airport.

During his twenty year career with Continental, Mike has been the General Manager for Continental at New York's LaGuardia Airport; General Manager for Continental at Nantucket, Massachusetts; Manager of Airport Services Training; Manager of Training for Europe and the eastern part of the United States as well as System Director of Airport Operations. Mike was part of the primary design team that brought Amtrak and New Jersey Transit to Newark Liberty International Airport. Prior to his election as Chairman of IARO, he served as Vice Chairman and a member of the Board.

Mike obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics Education from North Adams State College in Massachusetts and continued his graduate studies at Fordham University in New York City obtaining a Master's degree in Secondary School Administration where he also did his doctoral work in the field of Private School Administration. Presently, Mike resides in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey with his wife Christina and his three children; Moira, Macklin and Mackenzie.