Recognised as a thought leader on public innovation, Rikesh works as an open data, open innovation and future of mobility expert at PA Consulting, in global consulting delivering end-to-end innovation. Previously Rikesh led Transport for London's award-winning innovation team to create new value for London by working with start-ups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists. He was responsible for creating TfL's first Innovation Hub which has delivered some pioneering projects on areas such as air quality, road safety, active travel, enhancing customer experiences to retail and property development. The Hub set out the organisation's key challenges and problem statements, bringing in the best innovators from across the world, piloting and scaling innovative solutions with the potential to commercialise, as well as establishing the right culture in the company focusing on agility and design thinking to work with market innovators by doing things better, quicker or cheaper. Rikesh was also responsible for TfL's world leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users, 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners which an independent review stated that it's worth to London is 130m per annum. He also was actively in involved during the 2012 Olympic Games and TfL's response to COVID-19. Most recently, Rikesh has been recognised in the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2019 - 2021, being named one of the top five for sustainability in 2019. He was also recognised in the Top 100 Influencers for the Drum Digirati in 2018. Rikesh sits on the London Transport Museum Board as a Non-Executive Director, as well as a Civic Innovation Director (Non-Executive Director) at Cities Today, the global public innovation think tank. He has also been an Ambassador for London Tech Week since 2020. In academia, he Co-Chairs the Institute of Civil Engineering Data and Digital Advisory Board as well as Guest Lecturing on Open Innovation at the Royal College of Arts, Harvard University and the University of Oxford. Rikesh also served on the Mayor of London's Smart London Board from 2016 to 2023.