10 things with…James Payne, Principle UK Change Partner

James Payne is our Principle UK Change Partner and has been at National Express for almost eight years. We caught up with James to learn more about him…

About you

Describe your perfect weekend…
Relaxing, restaurants, sports and generally having good company.

What’s your favourite film and book?
There’s several, but it's probably Enemy of the State when this first came out the science and technology within it made one really question how much are we really being observed by the satellites in space - thought-provoking. Gladiator is also ‘up there’ in the top five, and Goodfellas.

For a book I quite liked Floyd Mayweather's autobiography - fascinating to read how one of the greatest athletes in the world made it to the top and overcame so much adversary.

You are out for dinner, what do you choose as your favourite meal?
I'm particularly a fan of Thai dishes, also traditional Caribbean food is always a win.

You have one wish, what is it?
Success and health for my children and family, so that they go on to achieve all of their dreams.

About your role, what is the best part of your job?
Providing consultancy-type services to our colleagues, enabling and equipping them to make their project related changes a reality and a success. Additionally, the team that I look after are great, as are the wider UK Change function.

If you could ask for one improvement to working here, what would it be?
I’d like the ability to quickly find contact information for employees and ideally have an associated organisation charts to that record, this will help tremendously day to day. I know that there is a project to introduce an intranet, and timelines are TBC.

Who would you like to give a callout to, for being a great colleague, and why?
Aside from the UK Change function who are very supportive, I'd specifically like to call out Richard Haigh and Chris Coton in the IT architecture team - very helpful and accommodating to all of my queries over the years.

Let’s have some fun…would you rather?

Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and meet your great-great-grandchildren?
This is a tricky question, I'd probably go into the past and meet my ancestors, history and knowledge is power, which will help to hopefully shape the future.

Would you rather make a phone call or send a text?
I think I'm getting a bit more ‘old school’ now and moving back to phone calls, however, I do like WhatsApp for quick comms.

Would you rather have x-ray vision or magnified hearing?
Wow, what a choice, let's go with magnified hearing.