Stagecoach has today (18 February 2022) announced that Janine Summers will be taking up the role as Regional Director North from 1 March 2022. She will replace Michelle Hargreaves, who will be retiring in the summer after a 35-year career with the company.
Janine joined Stagecoach in early 2021 as Commercial Operations Director leading Stagecoach Solutions, the company’s bespoke transport solutions packages covering business bus services, corporate ticketing, on-demand services and education bus services.
Janine is a leadership professional with experience in retail, media and now transport. She has held senior positions at Virgin Media and Sky. As Retail Director at Sky she played a fundamental part in transforming the look and feel of the Retail portfolio of stores to a more customer centric approach. She was also responsible for the organisation’s Women in Home Service programme, offering female engineers career and development opportunities. At Stagecoach, Janine is Executive Sponsor of the recently launched Women’s employee network, reflecting her passion in encouraging diversity and inclusion.
Janine, originally from Manchester, now lives in Preston with her daughter. In her spare time, she is a volunteer at NHS Chorley Hospitals Dementia Ward as a ‘Saturday tea girl’ helping to provide the patients with another friendly face. It’s important to Janine that she gives something back to the NHS and her community.
Carla Stockton-Jones, UK Managing Director for Stagecoach, said: “I’m delighted to be announcing Janine’s appointment as new Regional Director for the north.
“Janine is passionate about people and customers and with her breadth of experience and knowledge across a range of different customer service businesses, she will be absolutely central to helping to move our business forward and delivering on our business strategy.
“At the same time, we are sorry to be saying goodbye to Michelle Hargreaves, who is a well-respected and valued member of the Stagecoach team. Michelle will be really missed and we wish her all the best for a relaxing and enjoyable retirement.”
On her appointment, Janine said: “I joined Stagecoach just over a year ago and feel passionate about making a difference for our people, our customers and our operation.
“My personal mantra is to help make Stagecoach a better place by building a culture where we inspire extraordinary performance to unlock growth for today and tomorrow. I believe that this role will give me the best opportunity to deliver on that mantra and vision.”
Stagecoach has a team of four Regional Directors covering its bus operations in the North, South, Scotland, London and Wales, alongside each of its bus company managing directors.
The Stagecoach north team covers operations in Cumbria & North Lancashire, Merseyside & South Lancashire, the North East (including Tyne & Wear, Sunderland, Newcastle, South Shields, Teesside, Stockton and Hartlepool), Manchester, Yorkshire and the East Midlands.