Simon Turner (Chairman)
I’ve been self employed since I was 19. Within months of starting work, I knew my passion was to help businesses operate more effectively and so I’ve now had 30+ years in business development and strategic communications, with the last 15 years doing that role exclusively in the field of fleet and road risk management.
I’ve always been passionate about cars. My first Saturday job as a teenager was sweeping the workshops and serving petrol at the local garage. Once I graduated to ‘proper’ work, I did marketing and communications work for half a dozen Formula 1 teams plus teams involved in F2, World Rallying and Le Mans.
This work gave me an appreciation of the importance of driver training to improve my skills and I was lucky enough to find opportunities to learn high performance driving from some of the best. I was taught to race on tarmac by a two-time British Touring Car champion, on gravel by a British national rally champion, on ice by a Swedish World Rally Championship star and I was taught to drift by Top Gear presenter Chris Harris in a Caterham. I subsequently went on to race Caterhams for two years including a cherished win at one of my favourite tracks, Castle Combe.
In the early 2000s I found myself working for a number of companies that either offered advanced driver training, or were employers that used driver training including one called The Segrave Club. This was a supercar club that put its members through an intensive training course before they were allowed on the road in the club’s collection of Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis.
This grounding in road risk management led me to found Fleet21, a unique fleet and road risk management company working with strategic partners such as Honda and Volvo. I left Fleet21 in 2015 to work more closely with RoadSafe and Highways England in developing the Driving for Better Business programme.
My consultancy company Turner Kenworthy provides services to a small number of select companies involved in road risk management, however, my primary role is as the Campaign Manager for Driving for Better Business. I sit on the rail industry’s Road Risk Group and Highways England’s Work-Related Road Risk Delivery Group. I also sit on the Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Awards judging panel.
I became AIRSO Chairman in late 2018 and led the restructuring and rebranding programme to form ARRM. I represent ARRM on the PACTS Road User Behaviour Working Party.
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