What Moves Us: The People Business

In this episode Johannah and Liam are joined by Karen Camilleri, Founder and Managing Director of Camilleri Appointments. The Rail Innovation Group spends most of its time on how new ideas and technology reach rail. Karen works on the other half of that question, the people. She has recruited senior leaders across transport since 2008 and set up her own firm in 2019, placing directors and heads of function into rail, bus, aviation, ports and ferries. Her argument sits close to home for us: the richest source of innovation in an organisation, technology aside, is its people and the range of thinking they bring. The conversation gets into why so many strong candidates are staying put while Great British Railways and bus franchising take shape, and what that reluctance to move does to culture and fresh thinking. Karen makes the case for hiring on skills over sector, for bringing people in from outside rail, and for challenging a brief rather than filling it. She also talks about the brave leap of going solo, her work for women in transport, and why the hardest experiences tend to teach the most.   Links: camilleri-appointments.co.uk, womenintransport.com