Douglas HOWE

Biographical note
Douglas Howe is Vice President, Travel & Transit Development & Innovation, Mastercard. In his role Douglas is responsible for establishing urban mobility partnerships, working with technology partners to jointly develop cutting-edge smart city solutions with an end goal of providing consistent, efficient, cost effective and globally-interoperable transit fare payments.
Prior to joining Mastercard Douglas was Director, Planning & Development within the Ticketing & Concession Branch of Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW). During his time at TfNSW Douglas was instrumental in the success of the Sydney Electronic Ticketing System (ETS) program – the city’s transit smart card known as the Opal card. Having held roles as Chief Operating Officer and Global Head of Rail Development for Onerail and Amadeus, Douglas has also led the strategy, architecture & product development of reservation, distribution and ticketing solutions to SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, ATOC, Swedish Rail, CountryLink and Queensland Rail.  Douglas holds a B.Eng (Hons.) in Electronic Engineering and PMP certification

Presentation: Global open standards for urban transportation fare payments
Mobile and contactless technologies have transformed the retail environment, allowing simple and convenient purchasing experiences for consumers. However, for the world’s increasingly connected citizens the public transport environment remains full of friction with an array of cash, paper tickets and location specific smart cards hindering interaction across multiple locations and networks. For cities promoting livable cities and positive environments for employment, business and tourism, alternative digital fare collection models that enable global interoperability are providing users with easier access to public transit services and unlocking operator economics.