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Our executive leadership team

Executive matters are delegated to the executive leadership team.

Andrew Haines, Chief Executive

Since joining Network Rail in August 2018, Andrew has refocussed Network Rail to be on the side of passengers and freight users; that is easy to engage with and is an efficient and dependable partner; a company people are proud to work for; instinctively recognised as an industry leader.

Andrew has introduced a mindset that puts passengers first as well as a programme which has so far resulted in the creation of fourteen new routes, supported by five new regions. This new structure sets Network Rail up for deeper devolution and to be more responsive to the needs of train operators, passengers and freight users by bringing Network Rail’s 43,000 employees closer to those we serve.

Prior to joining Network Rail, Andrew served as Chief Executive of the Civil Aviation Authority from 2009. This followed a wide-ranging career in the rail industry, which included roles as Managing Director of South West Trains, and Managing Director of the Rail Division for First Group plc.

Following the publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail in May 2021, Andrew was also tasked with establishing interim arrangements for the creation of Great British Railways, alongside his role in Network Rail.


Rob Morton, Managing Director, Route Services

Skills and experience

Following a successful career in the private sector, including senior roles with Centrica (British Gas parent company) and LogicaCMG, Rob joined Network Rail as supply chain director in June 2017. Over the past five years, he has spearheaded Network Rail’s relationships and commercial arrangements with suppliers, led a supply chain cost reduction programme that saved £330m, and improved Network Rail’s logistics capability to levels comparable with the best retail and manufacturing operations.

Responsibilities

Route Services supplies services that the routes’ and regions’ managing directors collectively decide are best provided from a single support team. This allows routes and regions to benefit from economies of scale and allow Network Rail to optimise resources on a national basis. Route Services includes business services, contracts and procurement, asset information services, IT, supply chain, engineering services and telecoms.


David Leam, Group Communications Director

David Leam, Group Communications Director

Skills & Experience

David Leam is Group Communications Director of Network Rail. Prior to joining Network Rail, David was Executive Director for Infrastructure at the London First business group, leading their campaigning and policy work on issues such as Crossrail 2 and Heathrow. He was previously a Special Adviser at the Department for Transport from 2007-10 and from 2006-07 at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Prior to this David was a civil servant at HM Treasury where he worked in the Productivity team and in public spending on housing and planning. 

Responsibilities

David leads the corporate communications function, which is responsible for ensuring that Network Rail presents a consistent narrative about the company and its strategy. His focus in this role is to deliver a step change in Network Rail’s approach towards its customers and ensure Network Rail plays a key role in rebuilding trust in the rail industry by working in partnership with the myriad organisations across the industry.


Pauline Holroyd, Group HR Director

Pauline Holroyd, Group HR Director

Skills & Experience

Pauline started her career in manufacturing becoming HR Director for Kimberly Clark European divisions before moving into service industry as Gatwick Airport HR Director. She later joined the financial service sector delivering the largest-ever insurance change programme within Aviva. After being Group HRD Post Office, Pauline became HR VP for the global loss-adjusting firm Crawford & Co. Here she also established an in-house organisational transformation consultancy division which she then grew further as an independent entity. Her focus has been on how to create the most enabling environment for people to thrive and deliver their best work.  She believes that facilitating people to work together to improve performance across the organisational and industry system of work is also the best way to deliver superior results for its customers. 

She is a non-executive director of Cambridge Building Society.

Responsibilities

Human Resources provides support services to all the regions and network support functions. Pauline is responsible for the design and delivery of the people strategy as well as associated services.


Jeremy Westlake, Chief Financial Officer

Jeremy Westlake, Chief Financial Officer

Appointed to the board: 2016

Skills and experience

Jeremy leads the finance, property, legal, regulatory and corporate commercial functions for the Network Rail group. Jeremy was formerly senior vice president for finance at Alstom Transport in France and previously spent 14 years at Rolls-Royce in a range of senior finance and supply chain roles in the UK and the United States. Jeremy is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has a master’s in manufacturing from Cambridge University.

Responsibilities

Jeremy leads the Finance function, which includes: group finance, treasury, internal audit and risk, planning and regulation, and long-term planning and funding.


Martin Frobisher, Group director, Safety, Technical & Engineering

Martin Frobisher, Group Safety & Engineering Director, Technical Authority

Skills and Experience 

Martin takes on the role of Group director for STE after most recently leading the London North Western route. In 1998, he joined Railtrack as Contracts Manager for the infrastructure maintenance contracts in the Manchester area.  

Over the last 18 years, he has undertaken various railway maintenance, safety and operational roles. These roles have included General Manager for the West Coast main line north of Crewe, Head of Safety for infrastructure maintenance and Managing Director for the East Midlands route. Martin  is a chartered mechanical engineer. 

Responsibilities 

Martin leads the Safety, Technical and Engineering (STE) function is the technical authority for Network Rail. It drives better train performance and safety through technical leadership, providing assurance and expert support to the business across asset management, engineering, maintenance, operations, health and wellbeing, safety, security, quality, environment and sustainability and information management. 


Region Managing Directors

Our five Network Rail regions – Eastern, North West and Central, Scotland’s Railway, Southern and Wales & Western – support our routes. They provide assurance, shared services and support to help the routes deliver for passengers and customers. Regions are designed to better reflect the needs of and promote closer relationships with our customers and stakeholders – driving better train performance for passengers and freight users.  

Each is led by a region’s managing director who are part of the executive leadership team at Network Rail. 

Jake Kelly, Group Director, System Operator

Jake Kelly, Managing Director, Eastern region 

Skills and Experience 

Jake has worked in the rail industry for many years and held numerous operational, commercial, strategic and project delivery roles – in both the public and private sectors. He joined Network Rail in October 2019 as passenger director and before that he was the managing director of East Midlands Trains.

Responsibilities 

Jake leads the Eastern region operating some of the busiest rail lines in the country, transporting large numbers of commuters to and from busy cities including Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Norwich, Cambridge and London. It’s also home to other major transport hubs including three airports and 13 freight ports.  

Rob McIntosh, Managing Director, Eastern region

Rob McIntosh, Managing Director, North West and Central region 

Skills and Experience 

Rob started his rail career by becoming a Railtrack graduate. As Vice President Delivery at Invensys Rail Northern Europe, Rob was involved with mainline UK and London Underground projects as well as those in Europe and Asia. In 2014 Rob became Regional Director for Infrastructure Projects – Scotland and North East, and most recently was Route Managing Director for London North Eastern and East Midlands.

Responsibilities 

Rob leads the North West & Central (NW&C) region with infrastructure running from London Euston and Marylebone in the south through the Chiltern and West Midlands regions, the North West of England and Cumbria before joining with Scotland at Gretna.  

It is home to the West Coast Mainline, the busiest mixed-use railway in Europe, serving London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow.  

Alex Hynes, Managing Director, Scotland's Railway

Alex Hynes, Managing Director, Scotland’s Railway

Skills and experience

Alex Hynes was appointed Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway on 24 June 2019, following two years as Managing Director of the Scotrail Alliance.

Prior to this, Alex was Managing Director of the Northern franchise for three and half years where he successfully delivered their best-ever customer satisfaction scores as well as record levels of employee engagement.

An experienced transport professional, Alex has almost 20 years of industry experience and a proven track record of delivering rail improvement and investment programmes.

Having spent his early career as a consultant for Halcrow Fox, Alex worked with the Office of Rail Regulation before joining the Go-Ahead Group in 2005 as Strategic Planning Manager and, in 2007, as Commercial Director at London Midland, and finally as Managing Director – Rail Development.

Alex is Chair of the Institution of Railway Operators and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Responsibilities

Alex is the Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway, a close working relationship between ScotRail Trains and Network Rail in Scotland.

Scotland’s Railway covers a large geographical area from the Borders to Thurso at the far tip of the North East of Scotland. It provides rapid access along busy commuter routes to our 7 cities. It fulfils a variety of travel needs from business and leisure to daily commuter services, including cross border services; it supports rural services and the needs of freight customers alike.

Ellie Burrows, Managing Director, Southern region 

Skills and Experience  

Ellie is an experienced director and leader with a demonstrated history of working in the Rail industry.

Ellie has been working in the UK rail industry for more than 20 years over which she has gained wide ranging experience across different regions, operators, disciplines and service types. Ellie has a proven track record in leading business improvement across wider teams both from internal and external stakeholders.

Ellie’s most recent role prior to becoming RMD Southern was as route director Anglia where in partnership with train and freight operators she was able to deliver significant improvements in performance and safety and support the Elizabeth Line introduction. Ellie also transformed relationships with a range of key external stakeholders which were pivotal to delivering enhancement and change programmes.

Ellie has previously worked on the Southern Region, having been both train service director and deputy managing director for Southeastern and Area Director in both the Kent and Sussex routes.

Ellie is passionate about developing people and skills in rail and is Chair of the Chartered Institute of Railway Operators (CIRO), additional Ellie is Chair of the RSSB System Safety Risk Group bringing the industry together to deliver on the industry ‘Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railways’ strategy.

Responsibilities 

Ellie leads the Southern region, serving passengers and freight operators across the busiest rail lines in the country, transporting large numbers of commuters to London and other employment hubs from Devon in the West to Kent in the East and links Wessex, Sussex and Kent as well as Network Rail High Speed.  The region also serves channel routes to Europe, major ports and Gatwick and Southampton airports, transporting large numbers of leisure travellers to south coast resorts and other tourist destinations. Southern region carries over 1 million passengers a day – 40% of the nation’s journeys as well as the biggest, Waterloo, and the busiest, Clapham Junction, stations in the country and Europe.

Rob Cairns, Interim Managing Director, Wales & Western 

Skills and Experience 

Rob started on the railway in 1996 as a trainee signalling maintainer, and worked in the supply chain for some 20 years within Jarvis Track Renewals teams. He then became signalling regional director at Westinghouse, and then IT Director at Siemens

Rob joined Network Rail in 2015 as Route Delivery Director for the East Coast Mainline Upgrades programme and the IEP train introduction programme. He has since been Capital Delivery Director for Eastern Regions Investment programme since 2019, which involved major programmes such as the Midland Main Line electrification and the remodelling of King’s Cross Station.

Responsibilities 

Robs priorities on Wales & Western centre around the delivery of a safe and high performing railway; continuing the improvements in infrastructure reliability; developing the quality of the passenger experience at the region’s three managed stations – London Paddington, Reading and Bristol Temple Meads – as well as working with external stakeholders and the DfT to grow and enhance the railway across the Wales and Western region.

For more in depth information about the role and authority of the executive committee, you can read our terms of reference.

Please note: The terms of reference for the former executive committee (part of executive leadership team) will remain in place until the new terms are drafted.

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