First Bus hosts second edition of 'Our Way' awards to celebrate exceptional colleagues
Bus operator First Bus recently hosted its second annual 'Our Way' awards to recognise and celebrate exceptional colleagues across the business.
The event took place at The Queens Hotel in Leeds on Wednesday 7th May, where TV presenter Josie Gibson presented the awards. The winners were selected through a two-round judging process chaired by First Bus, Managing Director, Janette Bell.
The event recognised colleagues who embody the company's core 'Our Way' values - Always Care, Do What's Right, Shape the Future and Succeed Together. The awards also celebrated achievements in operational and engineering excellence, recognising the most improved depots across different size categories.
A special Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Linda McNeish from Scotland for her exceptional contribution to the business. Laura Mclean from the Commercial team received the Learning Excellence award for transforming learning across the network and scheduling teams,developing comprehensive training programmes, user groups and key resources. Her leadership has improved system usability and user groups she’s in led to a full
UI redesign of Prospective.
Additionally, nine colleagues received Special Recognition awards for their extraordinary actions going above and beyond the call of duty by saving lives and supporting vulnerable people.
First Bus Managing Director, Janette Bell, commented: "Following the success of our inaugural awards last year, it’s exciting to come together again and celebrate the incredible individuals who bring our values to life every day.
“We are a business operating at the centre of our communities we serve and celebrating our own people is a vital part of that. These awards reflect our culture where contributions are not just noticed but genuinely valued.
“A huge congratulations to all our winners and shortlisted nominees for their hard work and commitment.”
The 2025 'Our Way' award winners were:
Always Care: Keith Wakefield, East of England
Do What's Right: The Yeovil Relocation Team, South
Shape the Future: Matt Lycett, MMSY
Succeed Together: SPS/First East Sizewell Team, SPS/First East
Learning Excellence: Laura Mclean, Commercial
Lifetime Achievement: Linda McNeish, Scotland
Special Recognition Awards
- Adam Green, MMSY
- David Rowe, MMSY
- Michael Anderson, MMSY
- Sarah Gundry, MMSY
- Shelia Nantumbwe, Wales and West
- Jeff Easley, North & West Yorkshire
- John Fry, Scotland
- Roderick Brainard, South
- Jarek Kaczorowski, South
Operational Excellence
Most Improved Depot (Small): Weymouth, South
Most Improved Depot (Medium): Leicester, MMSY
Most Improved Depot (Large): Norwich & Scotstoun, East & Scotland
Engineering Excellence
Most Improved Depot (Small): Bridgend, Wales and West
Most Improved Depot (Medium): Leicester, MMSY
Most Improved Depot (Large): Halifax, North & West Yorkshire
-ENDS-
Notes to editors
About First Bus
At First Bus, we’re on a mission to grow bus usage – so we’ll get behind initiatives that move people out of cars and onto the bus.
We’re one of the UK’s largest bus operators, transporting more than a million customers a day. We serve over 20% of the population of Great Britain with our local bus services, and over half of the UK’s top 15 most populated urban areas.
Transforming our business for the better, we’re putting our people and customers at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we’re the UK’s largest national bus operator to achieve real Living Wage employer status, cementing our position as an employer of choice in the sector.
We’re all about making journeys easier for our customers, which is why we were the first national bus operator to roll out Tap On, Tap Off payment technology across our entire fleet of around 4,500 buses. Our First Bus app has also been voted ‘best in class’ amongst UK bus operators.
First Bus is committed to operating a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035. We already operate over 600 zero-emission buses.
We’re passionate about giving back to the communities we serve, which is why we’re helping local businesses to progress their own decarbonisation journeys – giving them access to our charging hubs while our buses are on the road.
We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland, Specialist Passenger Solutions, First Travel Solutions, York Pullman Bus Company and Ensignbus. First Bus is a division of FirstGroup.
Find more information on our website here: https://news.firstbus.co.uk/