Chris Heald Appointed as Regional Director for North America

Washington DC, 3 February - Network Rail Consulting (NRC) has named Chris Heald as Regional Director for North America based in NRC’s New York office. Chris previously held leadership and management roles at SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit in the US, Toronto Transit Commission in Canada and Virgin Trains in the UK. His rail career started over 28 years ago with British Rail.

Chris’s experience includes significant projects in the US and Canada in addition to successfully leading and growing multi-disciplinary technical teams in both public and private sectors.

Nigel Ash, Global Managing Director for Network Rail Consulting, said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Chris to lead our business in North America. The rail market is particularly strong in Network Rail Consulting’s core service areas of advisory, asset management and maintenance, project and program management and operations optimization. Chris’s experience and commitment to serving client’s needs will be instrumental in driving these opportunities forward with his team across the region”.

“With an ongoing need to increase value from new and aged rail assets and enhance service levels for customers, the Network Rail Consulting team is uniquely positioned to apply unparalleled experience and knowledge to the North American market. I am extremely excited to be part of this team helping bring these solutions to clients throughout North America” Heald said.

-ENDS-

For further information, contact:
Jamie Gardiner • T +44 (0) 207 413 3506 • [email protected]

Notes to Editors

About Network Rail Consulting

► Network Rail Consulting Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Network Rail and was established in 2012 to benchmark Network Rail’s capabilities in the international market and enhance the capabilities of its staff through international experience which could then be deployed back into its UK operations.

► The board of directors of Network Rail Consulting comprises Susan Cooklin (non-executive chair), Nigel Ash (global managing director), Andrew Noble (finance director), Ian Dobbs (non-executive director), Nick King (non-executive director) and Jeremy Westlake (non-executive director).

► Network Rail Consulting Ltd has subsidiaries in Australia, Canada and the USA; and operates from offices in Boston, London (HQ), New York, Riyadh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto and Washington DC.

► Network Rail Consulting is selling the full range of rail expertise available within Network Rail including asset management, maintenance planning and optimisation, timetabling and simulation modelling, technical assistance and interim management; and project and programme management. 

More information can be found at www.networkrailconsulting.com

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges and viaducts and thousands of tunnels, signals, level crossings and points. We also manage rail timetabling and 20 of the largest stations in England, Scotland and Wales. In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.7bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing £47bn in the railway by 2024 to deliver a more reliable, safer and efficient railway.