Our leaders

Following the publication of the Plan for Rail in May 2021, Andrew Haines was tasked with establishing interim arrangements for the creation of Great British Railways.  This is alongside his role as chief executive and Board member of Network Rail, which he was appointed to in August 2018.

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Prior to joining Network Rail, Andrew was the chief executive officer of the Civil Aviation Authority from 2009-2018. He has also had a wide-ranging career within the rail industry, having started his career with British Rail and followed on to work for Railtrack, Network Rail’s predecessor. He served as managing director of South West Trains and managing director of FirstGroup plc where he led the rail division which included intercity, commuter, rural, freight, open access and tram services in England, Scotland and Wales. In addition, he was a non-executive director at a rolling stock leasing company.

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Andrew was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year Honour’s list for services to transport and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Institute of Railway Operators and the Permanent Way Institute.

Rufus Boyd is the Lead Director at GBRTT, bringing over 35 years of railway experience to the development of the reform programme. He has a strong passion for equality, diversity, and inclusion as part of a broader desire to diversify who chooses to make a career in the rail industry.

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In his broad ranging railway career, Rufus started in British Rail as a Supervisor at Euston Station, followed up by stints as Derby’s Station Manager, and in the HQ public affairs team; then moving on to Railtrack as Account Executive in the Southern Zone, and then to several owning groups, bidding for contracts UK and overseas. He later worked as a consultant, spending two years in Australia where he developed the concept of operations for Sydney Metro.

Michael Clark is Policy & Strategy Director for the Great British Railways Transition Team. His responsibilities include set-up and development of the Transition Team, as well as a range of policy and strategy activities. Michael is on secondment from the Department for Transport, where he previously led Keith William’s Review Secretariat.

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Michael has a strong track record in public policy and strategy roles, with experience delivering in HM Treasury, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office and Department of Energy and Climate Change on a range of issues from arms control, financial services and climate change. Before joining the Williams Review, he led on aviation policy for the Department for Transport. Michael is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Suzanne Donnelly is the GBRTT Director responsible for the Passenger Revenue, Customer and Marketing teams, as well as the Strategic Freight Unit. Revenue recovery and growth is critical to the financial sustainability of the railway both now and for the future. Therefore, she has a twin focus – short term acceleration of demand/revenue across passenger and freight, and designing Great British Railways in a way which puts customer and revenue management at the heart.

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With 16 years of rail experience in various commercial roles (most recently commercial director for LNER) and 11 years prior in the airline sector, Suzanne’s main focus lies in the development of customer focussed, commercially viable and competitive commercial strategies, and products to grow customer volumes, frequency and spend and drive modal shift from less sustainable modes of air and car.

Stewart is Director of Fares, Ticketing & Retail at GBRTT.  The programme he leads is delivering transformational change and improvement to customer experience.

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An experienced commercial leader, Stewart has led successful marketing, digital, product and customer experience strategies in media, retail, financial services, technology and rail industries – most recently as Commercial Director at Abellio.

Paul is the GBRTT Director for Partners & Places, covering our teams for Industry Commercial, Digital & Data Services, Regional Partnerships and the Simplification Commission.  He is responsible for the development of the relationships with our nations and regions, as well as the  commercial arrangements of the railway, including working with the private sector, suppliers and the wider rail industry.

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Paul has 33 years of rail experience, starting in British Rail, and then through Railtrack, Network Rail and now GBRTT. He has worked in both central and local teams, and progressed through different roles in finance, strategic planning, investment and projects. While having infrastructure at its heart, Paul’s work has often had a ‘whole system’ focus, for example working with train operators through the bidding and delivery of franchise commitments. He has also worked with wider industry stakeholders to plan and develop transport solutions that work for local people.

Elaine is the Director of Strategic Planning for GBRTT. Before joining the Transition Team, Elaine worked as Director of Transport Planning with Jacobs, leading their UK national transport strategy and policy team to shape strategic policy and transport planning initiatives in city regions.

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Prior to joining Jacobs Elaine served as Head of Transport Policy and Strategy for Transport for London and was responsible for developing and implementing the Mayor’s 20 Year Transport Strategy.

Martin  is the Director of People, Culture & Change for GBRTT. Martin leads on implementing a people and culture framework which will enable Great British Railways (GBR) to have a modern and diverse culture and workforce that can deliver the vision for GBR and better represent the communities the railway serves.

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Martin has extensive experience in ensuring a focus on people in customer driven environments. Prior to joining GBRTT, Martin managed and later founded senior-level head hunting companies as well as working across engineering and fast-moving consumer goods organisations across operations, sales, quality, and R&D.

Jeremy Westlake is chief financial officer for the Great British Railways Transition Team and brings extensive experience of financial performance and supply chains in rail and transport, both in the UK and internationally.

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Jeremy has been chief financial officer at Network Rail for five years. In his former role as senior vice president at Alstom Transport in France, he was responsible for investor management, financial performance and control and project finance. Previously he spent 14 years at Rolls-Royce in a range of senior finance and supply chain roles in the UK and the United States.

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Jeremy is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has a master’s in manufacturing from University of Cambridge.

Keith Williams is a highly regarded business leader and chartered accountant who in 2018 was appointed Independent Chair of a review of the British Railways on behalf of the UK Government. He subsequently co-authored the Williams-Shapps plan for rail, the white paper setting out the government’s plan to transform the railways in Great Britain.

Keith previously spent 18 years at British Airways, including five years as chief financial officer, three years as chief executive officer and two years as executive chair. During that time, he led the transformation of British Airways, building a leaner and more customer-focused organisation with a sustainable future.

Keith is currently the independent non-executive chair of Royal Mail, non-executive director and deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, a non-executive director of Aviva plc and an executive board member and chair of the audit committee at Transport for London. He spent his early career at Boots, Apple Inc. and Reckitt and Colman.

Following the publication of the Plan for Rail in May 2021, Andrew Haines was tasked with establishing interim arrangements for the creation of Great British Railways.  This is alongside his role as chief executive and Board member of Network Rail, which he was appointed to in August 2018.

Prior to joining Network Rail, Andrew was the chief executive officer of the Civil Aviation Authority from 2009-2018. He has also had a wide-ranging career within the rail industry, having started his career with British Rail and followed on to work for Railtrack, Network Rail’s predecessor. He served as managing director of South West Trains and managing director of FirstGroup plc where he led the rail division which included intercity, commuter, rural, freight, open access and tram services in England, Scotland and Wales. In addition, he was a non-executive director at a rolling stock leasing company.

Andrew was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year Honour’s list for services to transport and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Institute of Railway Operators and the Permanent Way Institute.

Ismail Amla is executive vice president at NCR Corporation responsible for the global professional services division serving clients in the retail, hospitality and financial services sectors.

Ismail joined NCR from Capita where he was chief growth officer. Prior to that, he lived and worked in the USA as chief executive officer for Capco NA and managing partner for IBM North America. Ismail has extensive international experience helping leading brands and disruptive start-ups leverage emerging technologies.

Before moving to the USA, Ismail was a member of the leadership team for Accenture in the UK.

Ismail is also a board member at UK Sports, Network Rail and a member of the board of governors at University of East London.

Mark Bayley has spent much of his career in the rail sector and has experience in major projects, restructurings, and corporate finance. He was awarded a CBE in 2012 for services to the rail industry and is currently a non-executive director at Network Rail, having been appointed to the board in 2020.

Mark was formerly Finance Director and then Chief Executive of London & Continental Railways Limited, the developer of the High Speed 1 (HS1) railway and the owner of the U.K. arm of Eurostar. He led the sale of HS1 and was a board member of Eurostar. Mark was also chief executive of the Green Deal Finance Company. Mark’s interim work includes commercial director of High Speed 2 Ltd, and chief financial officer and board director of the Submarine Delivery Agency at the Ministry of Defence.

Mark is also a non-executive director of Ofwat and is a member of the Department for Transport’s Group Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Heidi Mottram is chief executive officer of Northumbrian Water and former managing director of Northern Rail, offering extensive leadership and experience within rail and business. Heidi was also a non-executive director of Eurostar from 2014 to 2020 where she provided strategic advice and support.

Heidi is currently a non-executive director of Centrica, vice-chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and a member of the CBI President’s Committee.

Heidi was awarded an OBE in 2010 for services to the rail industry and a CBE in 2018 for services to the water industry and business community.

David Noyes has spent his career working in the leisure and transport sectors. He brings expertise in leading devolved businesses in safety critical industries with a focus on delivering customer service excellence and driving cost efficiency.

In a 20-year career at British Airways, he held various directorships, including director of UK Regional operations, director for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, executive vice-president for North America and director of worldwide customer services. Subsequently, until December 2017, David was chief executive officer of Cunard and P&O; Cruises, and a director of Carnival plc.

As well as being a non-executive director of Network Rail, where he chairs the Remuneration and Environmental Sustainability committees, David is also non-executive chair of Grays of Cambridge (International) Ltd, a non-executive director of London Luton Airport Operations Ltd and a member of the corporate advisory board for The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Dyan Perry is the chief executive officer for HS1 limited and brings extensive knowledge and skills from more than 30 years’ varied experience in rail.

Prior to joining HS1, Dyan was the chief operating officer at Govia Thameslink Railway. She has worked in several senior director roles at Network Rail including route managing director of the West Coast Main Line and director of operations.

Dyan was part of the Advisory Panel to Crossrail and was also a board member of an NHS Trust for five years, a Trustee for the Railway Children registered charity and a board member for the British Transport Police Authority. She is also currently a Non-Executive Director for East West Railway, a Trustee for Women in Rail and Chair of the National Skills Academy for Rail.

Dyan has a Master's in Transport and Logistics from Salford University and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Marketing and Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.

Tony Poulter is a non-executive board member at the Department for Transport (DfT) and was member of the Advisory Panel for the Williams Rail Review. His other Non- Executive roles are with Cubico Sustainable Investments, a leading global owner and operator of renewable energy infrastructure; the UK Green Infrastructure Platform, which is a BEIS owned company; and LCR Property, a DfT-owned company which unlocks value from under-utilised real estate close to the railway.

Tony was previously senior independent director at the UK Green Investment Bank from 2013 to 2017 and chairman of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform between 2017 and 2020. His executive career before 2016 was largely with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where his roles included global head of consulting, head of advisory in Asia Pacific, and advising on infrastructure financing and public-private partnerships.

Jeremy Westlake is chief financial officer for the Great British Railways Transition Team and brings extensive experience of financial performance and supply chains in rail and transport, both in the UK and internationally.

Jeremy has been chief financial officer at Network Rail for five years. In his former role as senior vice president at Alstom Transport in France, he was responsible for investor management, financial performance and control and project finance. Previously he 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 University of Cambridge.