Each year a senior industry figure serves as Omnibus Society President. The Presidents give an Address to the Society on a topical theme at the start of their Presidential year, normally to the meeting in London on the last Tuesday of January.

The Omnibus Society is pleased to announce that Roger French OBE DL, managing director of Brighton & Hove Bus & Coach, is to be its president for 2012.

He will succeed François Xavier Perin, latterly of Transdev, who is President for 2011.

Roger French is well-known for managing one of Britain’s most successful bus operations over more than quarter of a century. Working in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council the company has achieved notable successes over many years and is held up as one of the best examples of a bus company and local authority working together in voluntary partnership.

Accepting the role of president of Britain’s longest-established bus interest organisations — it was formed in 1929 and boasts a nationally-recognised archive — Roger French said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to be taking on the role of President of the Omnibus Society in 2012 – a very auspicious year for public transport in the UK with buses set to play a pivotal role in front of a watching world taking hundreds of thousands of spectators to and from the Olympics’.

Roger has been a keen supporter of the Young Bus Managers’ Network, and this will be reflected in the programme of London meetings in 2012. Roger himself will give the Presidential Address on 30 January at 55 Broadway, London SW1 at 18.45hrs. He will also host a Presidential Weekend in Brighton in October.