Rick Robinson Email Address

Director of Smart Places

In 2010, Amey won the Birmingham Highways Maintenance and Management Service contract to manage and maintain the city's roads over the next 25 years. The contract will see a huge investment into the city's road network and Amey is working in partnership with Birmingham City Council to deliver the contract. The works include refurbishment and improvement of the city's roads, footways, bridges, tunnels, street lighting and traffic control systems. Across the city, this includes 2,500km of road network, 95,000 street lights, 76,000 trees, 850 highway structures and bridges. Amey is a leading UK infrastructure services provider with more than 11,000 staff. The company works across three main markets - Inter Urban, Local Government and Built Environment, which are supported by our award-winning consultancy division. Amey delivers services in the highways, roads, schools, waste, rail, fleet solutions, workspace, street lighting, commercial, housing and aviation sectors. By offering a complete life-cycle solution for services, we maximise efficiencies for our customers.

For 25 years, I've delivered projects and strategies at the leading edge of technology for some of the world's largest institutions, often in multi-£100million programmes. Over the last 10 years, I've developed a passion for using technology to improve the social, economic and environmental outcomes of our communities and society, first as IBM UK's Executive Architect for Smart Cities, then as Director of Technology for Amey, one of the UK's largest providers of public and regulated services and infrastructure. Amey's services and infrastructure support the lives of about 1 in 4 of the UK's population every day. Most recently, I've joined Arup as their Smart Cities, Infrastructure and Property leader for the UK, Middle East and Africa. Over the past three years, I built a team at Amey that's now delivering a multi-£million portfolio of projects that are using advanced technology to improve the effectiveness of transportation, environmental services, infrastructure maintenance and social care; and that are supporting communities by giving local residents and businesses more influence on the services they depend on and by providing support and Open Data to local innovators. Most recently, we won a role supporting the UK's West Midlands testing centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. I deliver my work in partnership with local authorities, communities, universities, and agile, innovative technology companies. I'm passionate that new technologies can make a significant contribution to both improving business performance, and to creating better places to live, work, travel and play: improving transport systems, stimulating job creation, reducing crime and alleviating social issues. I share the ideas I develop with thousands of readers around the world through my blog theUrbanTechnologist.com.