Worksop man awarded OBE in New Year's Honours for services to public transport and charity

Mark Fowles, who held the position of managing director at Nottingham City Transport for 20 years until April 2021 has been given an OBE in the New Year’s Honours.

He is credited with having the “strategic vision, determination and passion” to take NCT from an loss-making bus company with a poor reputation and transform it.

Mark, who was born in Liverpool and lives in Worksop, said: “I am pleased and delighted to receive this honour, it was a great privilege and honour to serve as managing director of Nottingham City Transport.

"I am proud of the company’s achievements, and of my involvement within the bus industry and I’d like to thank employees, past and present, along with friends throughout the bus industry for their support”.

Under Mark’s leadership, NCT is the only bus company to win UK Bus Operator of the Year a five times.

NCT has one of the youngest fleets in the country, and more recently has brought the largest number of gas-powered double deckers to Nottingham.

His success with NCT is only part of Mark’s contribution to Nottingham and the industry as a whole.

For over 10 years he was on the Confederation of Passenger Transport bus commission, more recently as the vice chairman – the lobbying group that liaises with the Department for Transport on issues important to the industry, and he was chairman of the East Midlands division from 2003-2005.

In 2009, Mark was appointed to the board of Traveline UK to represent the Bus Industry and lead the change on behalf of the industry.

In 2013 he became Chair of Traveline. Mark was also a non-executive director of EMTIS from 2001.

Mark was the Chairman of ALBUM 2017 to 2019 – the body representing municipal operators and the independent sectors of the bus industry, and also the president of the Omnibus Society in 2018.

He was also active in the Campaign for Level Boarding to help achieve a pathway for greater accessibility on the UK rail network.

Current NCT managing director, David Astill said: “Mark Fowles was an outstanding leader of our business for twenty years, and all that worked closely with him know how deserving he is of this recognition and congratulate him on this marvellous award.”

Mark and his wife also set up a charitable body to raise funds for research into Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

This is a highly complex muscle wasting disease and is a condition Mark’s daughter, Kate, suffers from.

He regularly co-ordinates activities such as charity golf days in order to raise money for this charity, and to date has raised more than £125,000.