By Karen Peattie
THE former chief executive of P&O Ferries, Janette Bell, is to succeed Giles Fearnley as managing director of First Bus in October.
Ms Bell led P&O through its Brexit preparations and its response to the coronavirus pandemic. She joined the ferry operator in 2012 as commercial director, becoming chief executive in 2018.
Mr Fearnley, who is retiring after a long career in public transport and has been managing director since 2011, is credited with transforming First Bus by investing in fleets and systems, including digitisation. In 2018, it was the first major operator to offer contactless payment and in July announced its commitment to operate a zero-emission fleet by 2035.
FirstGroup chief executive Matthew Gregory noted Ms Bell’s experience and track record in “creating and delivering successful customer and commercial strategies, making her the right person to build on the progress achieved so far as we work towards our ambition to be the partner of choice for innovative, sustainable transport”. He said that Mr Fearnley’s leadership during the coronavirus crisis has “helped ensure First Bus can continue to provide essential services and emerge from the current situation in the most robust position possible”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here