Barbour to head GMPTE Corp Comms

John Barbour

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive  (GMPTE) have announced the appointment of John Barbour as Corporate Communications Departmental Manager.

Barbour, 42, joins from the Cheshire Building Society where he established and headed up the first Corporate Communications function for the £4.7billion business.

In a career including 14 years at British Nuclear Fuels – where he progressed from Political Liaison Officer to become the youngest ever Head of the Press Office at the controversial Sellafield nuclear fuel waste management site – Barbour now faces up to the challenge of leading a 18-strong team communicating the transport policies and aspirations of Greater Manchester’s transport bosses.

Speaking about his appointment, Barbour said: “The topic of public transport has been rapidly working its way up the news agenda in recent years. As roads continue to become more congested, more attention is inevitably going to be focused on ways and means of combating that congestion.
“I am relishing the challenge of promoting an integrated, accessible and safe, high quality public transport network which provides an attractive alternative to the private car.”

Barbour succeeds Liz Micklethwaite who leaves GMPTE in order to return to independent communications management consultancy .