Northern Powerhouse Rail Conference Speakers:
Susan Cooklin Route Services Director at Network Rail where she sits on the Group Executive Committee reporting to Mark Carne. The route services directorate supplies services to each of Network Rail’s eight regional business units, allowing them to reap benefits from economies of scale and the company to optimise resources on a national basis. The Directorate includes IT, HR and Finance Shared Services, Contracts and Procurement and Logistics. The function comprises 2,500 employees with an annual operating expenditure of approximately £1 billion. Susan was previously Group CIO and Director of Shared Services at Network Rail leading the company’s 900-strong IT and shared services unit.
Pete Brunskill, stakeholder Manager Rail at Transport for the North, is a chartered town planner, former urban designer and rail specialist with over twenty-five years professional experience. Pete leads on Stakeholder and Communications activity for the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) work stream and supports our sister organisation; Rail North Limited in their work managing the Northern and TPE franchises and inputting to CP6, the Trans Pennine Route upgrade and closer integration with Network Rail and HS2 Limited. Pete is passionate about rail and is a committed urbanist who has worked around the country and overseas on a wide range of urban regeneration, master planning and rail project delivery roles.
Pete lives in Manchester and spends his spare time working out at the gym and travelling the globe.
Chris Montgomery Network’s Rail’s Programme Director for the Northern Programme of works, creating a new regional unit which will deliver the schemes which will better connect the six major cities of the north, cutting journey times and electrifying the Trans Pennine Route. Prior to this Chris was the Project Director for the £750m refurbishment of Birmingham New Street station which transformed the station into the iconic building which opened in September 2015. A Chartered Engineer with a vast experience of the UK contracting industry, Chris has a proven track record of delivering complex and demanding projects and of leading teams from the front. Prior to joining Network Rail, Chris built a successful career at Birse becoming Managing Director of Birse Rail and working on a wide range of civil engineering and railway projects including the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line.
Andy Haynes has joined the Route Services senior management team and reports directly to Susan Cooklin. On his appointment she said: “Andy has had a prominent career in Network Rail and I am delighted he is joining Route Services to develop and manage our signi cant £3bn spend that we have every year through our commercial contracts.” Network Rail manages over 1,500 di erent contracts on categories as diverse as ballast to business consultancy. Route Services supplies services to all of Network Rail’s business units, allowing them to reap the bene ts of economies of scale and the company to optimise resources on a national basis. Andy will be responsible for driving commerciality and innovation across Route Services and developing positive supplier relationships.
Mark Rawlinson is an experienced Contracts & Procurement Manager who has worked within the rail industry for 16 years. Having joined Railtrack in 2000 as a Quantity Surveyor, Mark has gained valuable commercial experience within Maintenance, Infrastructure Projects, Network Operations, National Programmes and the HQ Category Management teams. Mark has held a variety of commercial and procurement roles within various categories and disciplines for Network Rail including rail, buildings, civils, plant and OLE. Mark was previously the Category Manager for the Buildings discipline, where he played a leading role in the development of the Buildings Category Strategy for Network Rail. Mark is currently seconded into the Route Contract & Procurement Manager position for LNW Route.
Phil Bennett Commercial Director for the Digital Railway programme within Network Rail. Phil has been with Network Rail and its predecessors for 15 years in a variety of senior commercial and programme management roles. He has been in his current role since the creation of the Digital Railway programme in 2014 and is responsible for establishing the procurement and supply chain engagement strategies and for leading the cost modelling for the cross industry Digital Railway programme. Phil has over 25 years' experience in the UK construction industry in a variety of business and market sectors and has a technical background as a qualified quantity surveyor.
Mark Holyoake started his career in the music industry working within the Procurement and Facilities management team before moving onto a global pharmaceuticals company heading up the Road eet
and Telecommunications procurement function. Mark went on to join a multi-national Telematics company as Head of Procurement, running all UK and European operations before joining Network Rail 10 years ago. Since joining Network Rail, Mark has held a number of Commercial and Procurement positions before becoming Deputy Contracts & Procurement Manager for the LNE & EM Route. Mark has been a member of the Institute of Car Fleet Managers (MICFM) for over 20 years and served as a council Member (CICFM) for ve years, during which time he was heavily involved in the Institute’s member training programme as a lead tutor.
TransCityRail Networking Dinner Host & Speakers:
Host:
Richard Westcott has been a reporter, producer and presenter at the BBC since the mid-1990s, and took over as the Transport Correspondent on the very day that the government approved HS2. Since then he has reported on every twist and turn of the story, from the rumours it was about to be dropped to the point we are at today, the mammoth process of putting the bill through Parliament. He was the first journalist to break the news of the collapse of the West Coast mainline rail franchise, he was the first journalist on board the Boeing Dreamliner when it came to the UK and the first back on it after it caught fire in Boston.
David Brown, newly appointed Chief Executive of Transport for the North (TfN), is a prominent leader in northern transport, with over 25 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors covering all modes of public transport. As Chief Executive of TfN, David is responsible for transforming regional connectivity and driving economic growth in the region. He will oversee the development of TfN into a statutory organisation by 2017, bringing together the northern transport authorities to allow the North to speak with a single voice on the big transport decisions which will benefit the region as a whole, driving growth and successfully securing its position as a true Northern Powerhouse. David joined TfN from his post as Chief Executive/Director General at Merseytravel and Head of Paid Service of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA.) Prior to this David was Director General of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.
Alex Hynes joined Northern Rail as Managing Director in August 2013 where his industry experience positioned him well to implement a wide range of improvement programmes driving forward standards in customer excellence and performance. Under his leadership Northern Rail achieved franchise best customer satisfaction, employee engagement and stakeholder satisfaction scores, building the foundations for the transformational change to come. In January 2016, Arriva announced Alex had been appointed as MD Designate for the new franchise Northern, operated by Arriva Rail North Ltd, which began on 1 April 2016. Alex will lead the Northern team to deliver a £1billion investment programme, transforming customer experience, engaging employees and supporting economic growth across the region. Alex is a Board member at the Institution of Railway Operators.
Phil Graham joined the National Infrastructure Commission from the Department for Transport, where he worked on many of the UK's most important infrastructure projects. He led the development of the Government's high speed rail strategy from its inception and took it through one of the country's largest ever consultation and analysis processes, as well as leading the team supporting Sir Howard Davies' Airports Commission and working on the London Olympics. Previous roles include posts dealing with transport security, working on the Eddington study of transport and economic growth and as Private Secretary to the Secretary of State.
Duncan Sutherland is the Group Regeneration Director for Sigma Capital PLC and a Non-Executive Director on the board of High Speed2 (HS2) where he brings property, investment and regeneration experience to the board. He developed the Sigma Partnership model, working with local government partners, and has been at the forefront in setting up the successful partnerships currently on the company's books, such as in Solihull, Salford, and Liverpool. Duncan works closely with the government promoting innovative partnership approaches to achieving regeneration and investment.