# Nik Bell
**Rail & Customer Experience Executive**
Hong Kong

- [Personal site](https://nikbell.dev) — Personal site.
- [LinkedIn](#) — Professional network.
- [GitHub](#) — Code and side projects.
- [X](#) — Mostly transport commentary.
- [Instagram](#) — Photos from the platforms and terminals.

## Summary

Aviation lifer turned rail convert. Started out planning routes for an Australian carrier in Melbourne, spent the middle of his career building airline brands across Hong Kong and Athens, then jumped industries to London's railways — and now runs customer experience for a rail operator in Hong Kong. Two decades of moving people, first by air, now by rail.

## Experience

### Executive Director, Customer Experience — Meridian Rail Partners
*2019 - Present (7 years) — current*

Runs customer experience, brand and station retail for a major rail operator in Hong Kong — carrying millions of people a day and trying to make each trip feel considered.

### Head of Customer Experience — Thamesline Rail
*2014 - 2019 (5 years)*

Led the customer and commercial programme for an overground rail franchise — station modernisation, fare products, and the long campaign to win back trust after years of underinvestment.

### Commercial Director — Aegean Wings
*2009 - 2014 (5 years)*

Commercial Director for a Greek carrier out of Athens — rebuilt the network's brand and loyalty programme through the downturn.

### Route Development Manager — Skyline Pacific Airways
*2004 - 2009 (5 years)*

Route development and brand roles for a regional airline in Hong Kong — opened six new destinations and learned how a network is really a promise.

### Operations Graduate Cadet — Austral Pacific Airways
*1999 - 2004 (5 years)*

Graduate rotations across flight operations, airport lounges and network planning for an Australian carrier.

## Education

### University of Melbourne — Bachelor of Aviation (Management)
*1996 - 1999*

### Hong Kong University of Science and Technology — Executive MBA
*2007 - 2009*

## Skills

- Customer Insight
- Brand & Communications Strategy
- Transport Network Planning
- Operations Management
- Cross-Cultural Leadership
- Stakeholder Management
- Behavioural Research
- Systems Thinking

## Interests

- Aviation history
- Rail infrastructure
- Long-distance running
- Greek cuisine
- Cross-cultural psychology

## Principles

- Build the thing that moves people, literally and otherwise.
- Every system — a train line or a brand — is only as strong as its weakest interchange.
- Learn the language of the place you're building in.
- Change the track when you stop learning.

## Selected writing

### From Boarding Gates to Track Beds
[https://nikbell.dev/boarding-gates-to-track-beds](https://nikbell.dev/boarding-gates-to-track-beds)

What a career spent in departure lounges taught me when I finally ended up on the platform.

### Moving People Is Moving People
[https://nikbell.dev/moving-people-is-moving-people](https://nikbell.dev/moving-people-is-moving-people)

Airlines and railways make the same promise — get you there, on time, feeling human. Most of the craft is identical.