Executive Committee

The Network Rail Board has delegated the day-to-day running of the company to the Executive Committee. The Committee develops the company’s strategy and objectives, and recommends this for approval by the Board. The Executive Committee is then responsible for executing this strategy and delivering the objectives. It also manages the functions of the company and some of its key activities, including leadership in, and review and/or management of, the following:

The operational, financial, safety, health and environmental performance of Network Rail
Performance against the top-level outputs specified by the regulator, and other regulatory matters
Network planning and strategy
Development of corporate key performance indicators
Internal controls and risk management
Business/corporate polices, and the organisational structure of the company
Human resources policies and industrial relations matters

In addition to the Executive Committee, there sits below it a defined structure of other executive steering groups and business review panels each with their own terms of reference. These focus on specified aspects of the operational needs of the business with prescribed levels of authority.

Download Terms of Reference for the Executive Committee

Members of the Executive Committee

David Higgins, chief executive *

Whilst the Board is ultimately responsible for the success of the Company, operational management is delegated to the chief executive and the executives working for him. The chief executive is accountable to the board for all elements of the company's business, and specifically for safety performance.

Patrick Butcher, group finance director *

The group finance director is responsible for a range of corporate services that support the whole business by providing business services, specialist expertise and advice. This includes: Finance, Contracts and Procurement, Human Resources, Information Management, Property and other services such as Legal, Tax and Internal Audit. The National Delivery Service function, which manages plant and material logistics, has recently been added.

Richard Doyle, director, Human Resources

The Human Resources function provides support and leadership for our people and creates the right environment to attract and engage high-performing employees to deliver engineering and operational excellence. This covers recruitment, training and development, employee relations, diversity and inclusion and succession planning.

Jerry England, group asset management director

The Asset Management Services function sets asset polices and provides assurance to the business around the whole-life management of our assets. It also provides essential information, telecoms and energy services to the routes, and supports the whole business in achieving optimum performance from the rail infrastructure.

Robin Gisby, managing director, Network Operations *

The Network Operations function runs the railway day-to-day. It is responsible for train paths, timetabling and train movements, to ensure safe and improving performance and meet the needs of our customers. This function includes the ten route managing directors, and owns and manages the business relationships with the passenger and freight operators and external commercial stakeholders.

Tom Kelly, director, corporate communications, Government and Corporate Affairs

The Government and Corporate Affairs function promotes the company's message and builds its reputation. Externally, it deals with diverse audiences ranging from government departments to line-side neighbours. This covers: Internal Communications; External Communications, including Media Relations, Contact and Community, Project Communications and Public Affairs; and Marketing Services including Digital.

Simon Kirby, managing director, Infrastructure Projects *

Infrastructure Projects is a regionally-based project delivery business, and a division of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited. Its main customers are the Network Rail route teams. The four regional Infrastructure Projects teams – Scotland and the North East, Central, Southern, and Western and Wales – work closely with the directors of route asset management to deliver local renewal and enhancement projects. More complex and multi-route projects will also be delivered by Infrastructure Projects.

Gareth Llewellyn, director, Safety and Sustainability

The Safety and Sustainable Development function sets risk-based occupational health and safety policies and helps to embed these throughout the company so that they act as truly effective controls. They put in place the policies and processes needed to understand and manage risk, and collate and analyse health and safety information at a corporate level. They also co-ordinate and analyse health and safety plans from other functions within the business. In this way, they contribute to the protection of the health and safety of our employees, contractors, customers, passengers and line-side neighbours.

Paul Plummer, group strategy director *

The Group Strategy and Planning function develops medium and long term company strategy and plans for Network Rail and for the development of the railway network. It is responsible for making sure that our people understand the regulatory framework and focus on robust, sustainable and consistent deliverables that reflect our corporate goals. This work is central to driving good business planning practice in the business units to deliver our Control Period (CP) 4 commitments and development of our plans for CP5 and beyond.

Suzanne Wise, general counsel

The Legal Services function provides professional advice and guidance and sets the strategy, tone and direction in the areas of Legal, Company Secretarial and Transparency & Business Ethics. It provides the company with an effective corporate governance framework, leads the organisation in the appreciation and mitigation of legal risk, builds the company’s legal capability and expertise and drives greater transparency and appreciation of business ethics and legal compliance. Legal Services is made up of the following departments: Commercial; Litigation; Policy and Strategy; Property, Transparency and Business Ethics and Company Secretarial.