About the Speaker:

Mr. Shashi Verma is a member of Transport for London’s Executive Committee. As Director of Strategy, he is responsible for TfL’s overall corporate direction. Mr. Verma established the Technology and Data team in 2017 and has been Chief Technology Officer since then. 

Upon joining TfL in 2002 Mr. Verma established the Corporate Finance team with responsibility for major projects and for the development of corporate strategy. He led on the development of Crossrail, a £16 billion project to build the next railway line in London. The work on Crossrail led to new theory of agglomeration economics that is now central in the analysis of urbanization. Innovative methods of funding the project brought about two-thirds of the project’s capital from local sources. Shashi also worked on other projects such as the East London Line and White City, which resulted in the building of the Westfield shopping mall, the UK’s largest. 

Since 2006 Shashi has been responsible for the operation of TfL’s revenue collection system including the Oyster card, the largest smartcard-based ticketing system in the world; and, advising the Mayor of London on fares and ticketing policy. In 2011 he added responsibility for integrating all customer facing activities and for running TfL’s customer service operations. Shashi has led the development of contactless payments since 2007 and implemented this successfully on TfL’s systems starting in 2012. Contactless payments remain the most successful FinTech innovation anywhere in the world. In the process he has developed capability for technology development and globally leading innovation in a public sector organisation. 

The creation of the Technology and Data team in 2017 led to further improvements in TfL’s technology delivery. 

Shashi came to TfL from consultants McKinsey and Company, where he worked with clients in the heavy industrials, mining, and petroleum sectors. 

Shashi has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He taught at the Kennedy School for a year and received an award for excellence in teaching.