ORR Board members

Chris Bolt

Chris Bolt has been Chairman of the Office of Rail Regulation since it was established on 5 July 2004. He was appointed Arbiter for the London Underground PPP in December 2002 originally for a four year term, and now continues in that post until December 2010. An economist by training, he joined the civil service in 1975 and worked as an economist in a number of departments, including HM Treasury and the Home Office. From 1988 to 1989, he was part of the Department of the Environment team responsible for privatising the water industry and establishing its initial regulatory regime. He then joined Ofwat, the independent regulator for the water industry, as Head of Economic Regulation. He moved to the Office of the Rail Regulator in a similar role in 1994 and was Rail Regulator from December 1998 to July 1999. In July 1999, he joined Transco plc, the company which owns and operates the majority of Great Britain’s gas transportation system, as Regulation and Corporate Affairs Director. He was appointed to a new role of Group Director, Regulation and Public Policy in Transco’s parent company, Lattice Group plc, in November 2001. He left Lattice in October 2002 on completion of its merger with National Grid Group plc.

Chris is a member of the Periodic Review, Remuneration and Safety Regulation Committees.

Appointed from 5 July 2004 to 4 July 2009.

Peter Bucks

Peter Bucks has been Senior Financial Advisor at Ofgem (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) since 1997). From 2000 to 2006 he also served as Corporate Finance Adviser at Ofwat (the Office of Water Services). In 2006 he was appointed a non-executive director of the Board of Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) for a five year term. Previously, Peter spent some thirty years in investment banking in London and New York. From 1987 to 1998, he was a Director of Hill Samuel Bank, providing corporate finance advice to a wide variety of clients, including close involvement in the UK privatisation programme. He was also a non-executive director of the British Marine Mutual group of insurance companies prior to its acquisition in 2000.

Peter is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Remuneration and Periodic Review Committees.

Appointed 5 July 2004 and reappointed from 1 September 2007 to 31 March 2010.

Jane May

Jane May has wide experience as an executive and non-executive director across both the public and private sectors. She had a long career in Freemans, which she joined in 1978, becoming Customer Relations Director in 1992. She joined Thames Water in the same role in 1994, where her role expanded to include direction of the Customer Field Services Division. She left Thames in 2000, after also successfully setting up the Marketing and Business Development division. She is a non-executive director of the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), and also a non-executive director of the Public Guardianship Office and SITA Trust.

Jane is a member of the Audit and Safety Regulation Committees.

Appointed from 5 July 2004 to 4 July 2009.

Jim O'Sullivan

Jim O'Sullivan is Infrastructure Services Director at Central Networks, part of the Eon group. He has been Executive Director for Operations at Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water) and prior to that he was engineering and Safety Director at National Grid Transco. He has also held several senior posts at British Airways including Technical and Quality Director, Concorde General Manager and a period in the US as Chief Project Engineer for the Boeing 777. Jim is a Chartered Engineer with an MBA from Lancaster University and a BSc in Air Transport Engineering. He is also an alumnus of the Senior Executive Academy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jim is Chairman of the Safety Regulation Committee and also Chairs the Rail Industry Advisory Committee.
 
Appointed from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2010.

Richard Goldson OBE

Richard Goldson has been involved in the UK rail industry all his working life. He has carried out operational and commercial jobs, covering passenger, freight and management training and development. From 1989 to 1997, he worked at British Railways Board headquarters, directing successive organisation change and restructuring programmes. Until joining the ORR Board, he had since rail privatisation worked for National Express Group as Rail Development Director, responsible for regulatory relations, track access developments, inter TOC opportunities and new business monitoring worldwide. He is a trustee director of the Railways Pension Scheme, the £20bn scheme covering all UK rail companies and is a trustee of the Railway Benevolent Institution. He was awarded the OBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours.

Richard is a member of the Periodic Review and Remuneration Committees.

Appointed from 2 October 2006 to 31 March 2010.

Dr Chris Elliott

Chris Elliott is an independent consultant and a visiting professor, with expertise as a systems engineer and barrister.  He has extensive experience of rail and other transport issues. He has been particularly involved with the management of safety, working with European railway companies and in the UK with the Rail Safety and Standards Board to develop policies that properly reflect safety legislation. Chris is a member of the Safety Regulation Committee.

 Appointed from 1 July 2007 to 31 March 2011.

Bill Emery

Bill Emery was appointed chief executive, Office of Rail Regulation, with effect from 19 September 2005. The Secretary of State for Transport appointed him to the ORR Board, with effect from June 2005. Dr Emery was previously director of costs and performance and chief engineer at Ofwat. He joined Ofwat in 1990. Before then he worked for Yorkshire Water. He is a chartered civil engineer, has an engineering degree (civil and structural), a doctorate in public health engineering and an MBA. Married with two children, he lives in Sheffield where he is currently a magistrate of long standing.

Bill is Chairman of the Periodic Review Committee, a member of the Safety Regulation Committee and attends all meetings of the Audit Committee.

Michael Beswick

Michael Beswick is the Director of Rail Policy, Office or Rail Regulation, with responsibility for developing ORR’s corporate strategy, advising the Chief Executive and Board on all aspects of rail policy, and ensuring coordination of ORR's strategic policy development activities and stakeholder relationships. The Secretary of State appointed him to the Board with effect from 20 March 2006. He holds an MSc degree in economics and has 30 years experience of working in the railway industry. This has included operations, marketing, planning and business management roles in British Rail. He joined ORR in 1994. Prior to his current role he was Director of Infrastructure Regulation concerned with the regulation of Network Rail's stewardship of the network and network performance, and also providing operational, safety and engineering advice to the office.

Michael is a member of the Periodic Review and Safety Regulation Committees.

Linda Williams

Linda Williams is the Chief Inspector of Railways, Office of Rail Regulation. She is responsible for the work of HM Railway Inspectorate, which strives to ensure duty-holders in the railway industry manage health and safety risks effectively and thus comply with their statutory duties. The Secretary of State appointed her to the Board with effect from 22 January 2007. Prior to joining ORR in December 2005, she worked at the Health & Safety Executive for over 20 years.

Linda is also a member of the Safety Regulation Committee.

Michael Lee

Michael Lee is Director of Access, Planning and Performance at the Office of Rail Regulation. He leads on overseeing Network Rail's performance and its stewardship of the national railway network infrastructure by monitoring and enforcing compliance with the network licence. He is also responsible for granting licences and approving access agreements. He provides advice to the Board on engineering and other railway operational matters. The Secretary of State appointed him to the Board with effect from 22 January 2007. He joined ORR in 2005 and has more than 30 years experience in the rail industry. He initially joined BR and worked in operational research, marketing and business planning. At privatisation he moved to OPRAF where he developed policy for fares and service specifications and led teams handling the award of franchises. He spent eight years in consultancy, the majority as a director of AEA Technology’s Rail business. He holds degrees in mathematics, statistics and OR.

Michael is also a member of the Periodic Review Committee.

John Thomas

John Thomas is Director of Competition and Regulatory Economics, Office of Rail Regulation. He leads the development and implementation of competition, economic and financial policy underpinning ORR's regulation of the rail industry. The Secretary of State appointed him to the Board with effect from 22 January 2007. Prior to joining ORR in July 2001, he was a transport economist with Halcrow for seven years. He worked on the development and evaluation of transport policies and projects across all modes of transport, for Governments and the private sector, in the UK and overseas. He has also worked for Lloyds London for three years. He has an MA in Transport Economics from the University of Leeds. He is also an advisory member of the non-statutory Advisory Board of the Public Private Partnership Arbiter.

John is also a member of the Periodic Review Committee.

The terms of reference of the Audit Committee include provision for an independent member. This is to ensure that at least one member of the committee is a qualified accountant.

Jeremy Chittleburgh

Jeremy Chittleburgh BSc CA qualified as a chartered accountant in 1991 with Chiene + Tate, a well respected Edinburgh firm. Following two years with the Charter Group Partnership he returned to Chiene + Tate as a Partner in 1996. He deals with a range of clients providing business support as well as internal and external audit services. Internal audit clients include both OFT and Ofgem.

Appointed from 1 March 2007 to 28 February 2009.