His father was a first-generation immigrant to the UK who served as a station supervisor at Redbridge for London Underground for 38 years. Now, Rikesh Shah is head of commercial innovation at Transport for London, sits on the Mayor of London’s Smart London Board and is a non-executive director at the London Transport Museum. And recently, Rikesh has been recognised as one of the top five Asian Stars in Tech for sustainability in 2020. Perhaps, Rikesh’s story best tells the spirit of London as a city where ethnic minorities foster integration and multi-culturalism. But there are not many British Indian who have succeeded in climbing up the ladders in this industry much less become recognised for their work.
Discussing the positive work culture of Transport for London, Rikesh said, “There is an under-representation of the black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) individuals in senior tech and innovation roles. While there is much more to be done to ensure greater representation of BAME staff and that there are diverse and inclusive workspaces. But, awards such as these illustrate that there are people like us doing incredible things for the UK. More fundamentally, we need greater awareness and encouragement among South Asian families to steer their children in the right direction such that they are able to pursue their career in tech and innovation right from when they are in school.
Paying tribute to his father’s efforts he further continued, “My father arrived in the UK back in late 70s and was conscious of passing the integral values of hard work, passion and dedication onto me. I grew up with London’s community spirit and with constant encouragement from my team, this award belongs as much to my father as to my team members.”
Rikesh is accountable for TfL’s engagement with market innovators that includes start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, academics, R&D institutes, accelerators, venture capitalists and large corporates. He was previously responsible for TfL’s world leading open data strategy and set up a digital and data partnerships function. As a result of TfL’s open data, there are nearly 700 apps used by 42% of Londoners with over 14,000 registered users, mainly developers. This also resulted in shaping innovative partnerships with leading platforms including Apple, Google, Waze and Twitter aligned to the city’s goals. A recent study illustrated the overall value of open data to London to be worth £130m per annum.
Speaking about the strides that TfL has made over the last few decades with the help of digitisation and open data networks, Rikesh said, “Design and innovation is in the DNA of TfL. Whether it is the first traffic light that was developed and built in London, the first metro train. Or whether it is more recent innovations like smart ticketing such as the Oyster card and contactless ticketing, or the open data policy, we have always been innovating. So, with our open data, we essentially release that data, and in return, innovators have developed products — primarily customer information products — and now there are 700-plus apps out there that use that data. So, you might be Apple or Google, using TfL’s data to tell people where a bus is, when a train is coming, or where there is heavy traffic on a road network. Or you might be a start-up using our data for something innovative.”
Additionally, Rikesh is also conscious in delivering the Mayor’s vision of a smarter, cleaner and greener London. Among the projects that he oversees, he is also instrumental in running a trial with German multinational Bosch as TfL works on improving air quality modelling to assess the impact of different traffic measures.
“With Bosch, we thought why don’t we try something where we share problem statements along with some data and subject matter expertise while they have their best R&D folk look at those problems and also give them an opportunity to test them on our network,” Shah said.
Based on the experience from the Bosch trial, TfL is developing the new framework to use as a blueprint for partnering with other firms on new co-innovation projects. Achieving its vision zero targets – the elimination of all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility – is one of the key areas the transit operator wants to address through the scheme.
Rikesh also is a member of the Smart London Board which is charged helping the Mayor shape his vision and strategy for London’s smart city agenda and investment in data infrastructure.
