Hayat Zerkani is the Head of System Safety & Interoperability at Crossrail. She is responsible for delivering System Safety Assurance and Interoperability compliance for the Elizabeth Line Central Operating Section. Hayat gained her PhD from Sheffield University in Control Engineering. She has been in the railway industry for 23 years, initially in consultancy with Mott MacDonald and Praxis working in projects worldwide then in Transport for London for the last 18 years. She has been seconded to Crossrail since May 2016.