International award-winning advisor to businesses with extensive corporate memory and expertise in the implementation of strategic business development underpinned by social value impact. Chris’s ethos is simple; the prosperity of business and society are intrinsically linked. One cannot succeed without the other.
Recognised for developing strong data driven collaborative partnerships across transportation, communities, and government departments, which have significantly driven the responsible leadership agenda in UK transportation. 2002 Created the first TOC Community engagement programme post privatisation which was then accelerated across the UK creating a collaborative framework with stakeholders which culminated in reducing youth route crime by 54% across the UK.
Co-Author of The Guide to Responsible Business which supported the blueprint to the Sustainable Rail Strategy. Architect for the Personal Safety Badge for UK Scouting and Founder of Rebuilding Futures Alliance created to break the cycle of re-offending through employment.
Chair of the UK Scouts Association Fundraising Committee (Voluntary) and NED. Recipient of 17 national and International Awards including ITV Yorkshire Society Special Award and The Queens Award for Innovation for a KTP with Education.
Mark is the Managing Director of Great Western Railway.
Starting his career at Reading station in 1989. He has worked for British Rail, Railtrack and several train operators including Thames Trains, First North Western, c2c, Silverlink, Gatwick Express and WAGN.
Appointed to the MD’s post at First Great Western in 2008, Mark initially had to work to restore punctuality and reliability which had fallen substantially prior to his arrival as well as addressing some serious financial challenges. He worked with government to build the case to add substantial carriages to the business to address capacity shortages.
He subsequently worked collaboratively with the DFT and Network Rail to develop the enhancements to support the introduction of new electric trains, the Crossrail project, substantial rebuilding of key stations including Reading. He steered the business through substantial change as the railway has seen delivery of these projects and substantial quantities of new rolling stock have been put in to use on GWR to benefit customers with existing rolling stock often retained and cascaded to support other parts of the business. This work culminated in the delivery the December 2019 timetable which added frequency and reduce journey times on most GW routes.
He was asked to step across to sister business, South Western Railway in 2020 to address serious performance, partnership and contractual issues and returned to GWR in January 2021 having addressed the key SWR issues.
Mark has worked in UK Rail for over thirty years and has experience at the front line and in more strategic roles. Having previously chaired the UK rail industry National Task Force, Mark now attends the RDG Network Performance Board, is the Chair for the Railway Ball and the Rail Staff Travel Ltd Board.
Mark was awarded a CBE in the 2021 New Years Honours List, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a Fellow of Institute of Railway Operators and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Mark also holds other honorary posts within the heritage and mainline railway community.
Phil has over three decades of experience working in the UK rail industry, starting his career as an apprentice engineer with British Rail, before joining the management programme with English Welsh & Scottish Railways (EWS). During his time with EWS, which became DB Cargo (UK), he managed engineering depots, capex investment projects and organisational change programmes, before moving into risk management in a senior HSE role. Secondments to operations as an Area Manager gave Phil a well-rounded view of how a rail organisation operate, before he was appointed Head of Safety for DB Cargo (UK). In 2017, after 25 years in the rail freight sector, Phil joined the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), where he worked with passenger and freight operating companies, infrastructure owners and the contracting community, to help shape their strategies through the adoption of products and services. Phil is a member of Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety and the Vice-Chair of the IOSH Railway Group.
Glynis Appelbe joined the G&W UK/Europe region in March 2016 as HR Director – UK/Europe Region.
Prior to G&W UK/Europe she was the Head of HR for a FTSE listed global diversified mining company, Eurasian Natural Resources (‘ENRC’) PLC, spanning Europe, South America, Africa and Kazakhstan. Prior to RNRC she spent 16 years working in financial services related environments in subsidiaries of Barclays, ABN Amro and Hitachi Capital.
Ms Appelbe earned a business degree from University of Limerick, Ireland and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
