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New Team of Directors Appointed

Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has a new team of directors under the leadership of Len Porter, Chief Executive.

Joining Anson Jack will be three new directors, Andrew Sharpe and Helen Goodman from within the company, and John Abbott from Network Rail. The new team will be responsible for the following business activities:

Anson Jack - Director of Policy, Research and Risk

• Safety Policy
• Research and Development
• Risk and Safety Intelligence

Andrew Sharpe - Director of Standards and Technical Services

• Delivery Units (Infrastructure and Rolling Stock; Command, Control and Signalling and Energy; Traffic, Operation and Management)
• Systems Coordination
• Standards Management
• New Systems

John Abbott - Director of National Programmes

• National Programmes – Railway Operations
• National Programmes – Industry Strategy

Helen Goodman - Director of Business Services

• Communications
• Finance and Commerce
• IT and Facilities
• Human Resources
• Business Operations

Len Porter and Anson Jack will be full members of the RSSB Board.

Looking to the future, Len Porter, Chief Executive said ‘I am pleased to be working with such a dedicated team and I am confident RSSB has the right structure in place to meet the challenges of the business, the demands of our stakeholders and to continue to build on our knowledge and expertise.’

- Ends- For further information or to obtain photographs please contact the Rail Safety and Standards Board press office, on 020 7904 7524/5 or visit the website on www.rssb.co.uk

Notes to editors:

1. RSSB builds industry-wide consensus and facilitates the resolution of difficult cross-industry issues. We provide knowledge, analysis, a substantial level of technical expertise, powerful information and risk management tools. This delivers a unique mix to the industry across a whole range of subject areas.

2. Aidan Nelson, Director Policy and Strategic Initiatives, retired from RSSB on Friday 6 April 2007 after 34 years in the rail industry.

3. Biographies

Anson Jack
Anson Jack has a degree in Philosophy Politics and Economics and joined British Rail as a graduate trainee in 1979. In his 27 years in the rail industry he has worked in operations, freight, commercial, strategy and European affairs at British Rail, Railtrack and Network Rail, before joining RSSB in July 2003 as Head of European Affairs. From October 2003 to April 2007 he was Director Standards - developing and implementing the industries strategy for standards management. In recent years, Anson has worked with the World Bank, the Transport Research Board in Washington and was a founder Director of the European Infrastructure Managers (EIM).

Anson lives in Northampton and is married with three sons.

Andrew Sharpe
Andrew Sharpe has worked in the rail industry since 1998, initially as an adviser on risk management and more recently as Head of Research and Development at RSSB, responsible for managing a programme of R&D on behalf of industry and government. Andrew is a mathematician by training, and worked for many years in the aviation industry in the fields of operations research, risk analysis, and research management, and was technical adviser to a number of international aviation committees. He has also worked in consultancy and in the financial sector.

Andrew lives in central London.

John Abbott
John Abbott joined British Rail as a management trainee in 1981 and has spent 25 years in the rail industry. In his early career he worked for British Rail Engineering Ltd before undertaking a variety of roles within the British Rail Procurement and Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Departments. In 1991 he became the first Trainload Freight Procurement Manager before joining Railtrack in 1993, initially as Head of Procurement for Infrastructure Maintenance and later as Head of Procurement for the Railtrack Group. In 1998 he was appointed as Director, Assurance and Safety for Railtrack, responsible for company safety policy, safety and environment management systems and improvement planning. Following the acquisition of Railtrack by Network Rail, he became the Director Health, Safety and Security before joining RSSB in 2007.

John lives in Northamptonshire and is married with two daughters.

Helen Goodman
Helen joined British Rail as an Operations and Retail Graduate Trainee in 1991 working in various front-line operational management posts until she moved to Railtrack’s Safety and Standards directorate (S&SD) in 1998. Whilst initially working on the industry communications side, she was subsequently involved in helping prepare S&SD to transition to Railway Safety, a wholly owned subsidiary of Network Rail Group and then latterly in 2003 in establishing the support service functions for the independent company, Rail Safety and Standards Board. Since then she has worked with the Chief Executive and Executive Directors of RSSB in the area of day to day operational management of the company.

Helen lives in Surrey and is married with two daughters.