Warneford to work alongside new Managing Director Robert Montgomery for a year
Les Warneford, Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, is to retire next year.
He will step down from his post on May 1, 2013, and is being succeeded by Robert Montgomery, the current Service Performance Director.
Montgomery becomes Deputy Managing Director from May 1, 2012, as part of the Group’s succession planning. He will work closely with Warneford over the next 12 months to help ensure a smooth handover.
Sir Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group chief executive, said: “Les has played a very significant role in Stagecoach’s success. He has headed a division which has provided consistently strong operational delivery, the best value fares to customers, huge levels of investment and industry-leading financial performance, as well as an exceptional track-record of passenger growth.
“Robert has spent a decade with Stagecoach and has overseen the strong growth of our bus companies in the south of England, as well as expanding our megabus. com budget coach operation in the UK. I am confident he will build on these strong foundations. We also have a talented and experienced wider senior management team at our UK Bus division and a strong network of regional bus companies with the power and flexibility to run their businesses locally.”
Montgomery – whose first job in the industry was as a seasonal bus conductor in Paisley, Scotland – has nearly 40 years’ experience of regulated and deregulated markets in the bus and coach sector.
After completing a degree at the University of Glasgow in 1974, he spent two years as a graduate trainee with the National Bus Company based in Darlington. He then held various management roles in the north before being appointed area manager Derbyshire with Trent Motor Traction in 1980. He then held senior management positions with Red Bus, North Devon; United Transport Buses; and South Yorkshire Transport.
Montgomery is a former managing director of Dublin Bus and ex-director (Scotland) with First Group plc. He has also worked as a non-executive director of GM Buses (South) Limited. He has been Stagecoach UK Bus service performance director since 2002.
Warneford is one of the UK bus industry’s longest-serving managing directors.
During his career, he has been a bus conductor, driver, clerk, traffic officer, traffic superintendent and operations director in Bradford, Leicester, Grimsby and Staffordshire.
In 1990, he returned to Grimsby as Managing Director of Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport which was acquired by Stagecoach in 1993. Under Stagecoach, he became General Manager Warwickshire (1994), Managing Director Cumbria (1994), Managing Director Manchester (1996), Regional Director Midlands and North West (1998) before being appointed UK Bus Managing Director in 2000. He has three adult daughters and lives with his wife, Aileen, in Buxton.
