Nils-Gustav Persson – Country Manager, Sweden shares his thoughts about ‘going back to normal’ post-Covid, and his excitement for the future of public transport.
1. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at FARA?
I joined FARA early 2021, as Country Manager for Sweden. These are exciting times for FARA, and I am delighted to be part of the journey and help drive further successes across the Swedish market. We are also expanding our presence with a new office opening in Malmö, where Peter Larsson, our new Project Manager, and myself will be located. Before joining FARA, I’ve worked in the IT industry for nearly ten years, predominantly in startups and fast-growing technology companies. Over the last couple of years, I have been involved in the roll-out of digitalization of the public sector.
2. You mentioned that these are exciting times for the FARA business in Sweden, can you elaborate on that?
The Swedish market is a key focus area for FARA, and we are at the forefront of the new innovations that are being introduced throughout the country. FARA’s ticketing solutions, that integrates with the new BoB (Biljett -och Betalstandard) standard, is gaining a lot of traction, and I can’t wait to help roll this out. Together with our extensive customer base of public transport operators and authorities, we are also constantly exploring new and even more efficient solutions.
3. What do you like about working for FARA and what do you enjoy most about your role?
The best thing about FARA is definitely the big potential we have to do extraordinary things within public transport. FARA has a proven track record of great innovation, dating back over 20 years, and moreover, now that FARA is part of the Ticketer Group, our customer offering is market leading. I can only envisage immense successes for the future. I am also very pleased that Peter Larsson has just joined our team, as he brings an extensive experience and knowledge from the public transport industry.
4. What are some of the challenges our industry is facing that you would like to help solve?
Over the past year and a half, we’ve all been struggling with the effects of Covid. As we start going back to the new “normal”, whatever that might look like, we at FARA certainly have a lot to offer on the road to recovery. We help make public transport available and efficient, so that people can get back to work, and visiting friends and family in a safe way. One of the ways in which we do this is through our product offering called ‘Passenger Counting’ – a simple and effective enhancement that allow drivers to record passengers alighting the vehicle, and that together with the ticket transaction, helps keep a total count of passengers on board. Through this piece of software, the maximum load of passengers can be maintained and overcrowding avoided.
5. And finally, if you could take a long bus journey with anyone famous, who would it be and why?
That’s easy, Zlatan of course! We could share memories of our beloved hometown Malmö, and maybe get some insights and gossip from what happens behind the scenes.