GARY CONNEL

What is your role at Transport Design International?

As the Chief Financial Officer for TDI, I am involved in all aspects of the company, from finances and accounts, to working closely with the sales and marketing, People Experience, design, manufacturing and supply chain teams to understand the products and commercial drivers. Collaborative work between these teams is crucial for bringing our products to market. I enjoy being able to support all of the teams throughout the business.

What experience do you bring to your role?

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and have 30 years of experience working with leading oil & gas and technology companies carrying out acquisitions, disposals and bank funding. My experience working in the US and with private equity-based SMEs gives me a firm understanding of funding and growing businesses. This allows me to work closely with our shareholders and lenders to promote business expansion.

What is your focus for TDI?

The immediate focus for TDI is our transition from a design-led organisation to a manufacturing one.  This challenge will require careful planning, collaboration and teamwork. Leading TDI in this new phase requires everyone to work to an agile methodology and I will be spearheading this within the company.

Agile processes involves breaking projects into phases and smaller work packages and emphasises continuous collaboration, modification and improvement. It’s a very hands-on approach, which the teams have in-depth experience of and an incredible record of success. This will enable the larger scale production of RVLR, which is something all our stakeholders are wanting to see.

I am incredibly proud of the recognition TDI have won for the demonstrator products we have built so far. We won the RIA Rise Award for Innovation this year and the Global Light Rail Award for Product Innovation in 2022. This industry recognition is a great foundation for TDI as we start to focus our efforts on large scale production.

Where do you see TDI in the next three years?

We will continue to focus our efforts in the UK with our partnership with Eversholt Rail to grow the UK market for RVLR. This is an exciting time for TDI and there is a great deal of interest in our lightweight vehicles and supporting infrastructure.

In parallel, TDI will be looking to expand further into the international market in the coming years and I am looking forward to helping the business grow. We have considerable international interest across all our products including Lync and Orbit, our next generation of urban very light vehicles for both road and rail solutions.