Mitchell For Director General Railways
25 Feb 2005
A professional railway man, Dr. Mike Mitchell, has been appointed as Director General of Railways at the Department for Transport.
Dr Mitchell heads the Department’s new Rail Group, which will ensure the Government is able to set the strategy and level of public expenditure for the country’s railways. It will be responsible for letting contracts for train franchises and for securing improved performance and value for money on the rail network. The Director General will report direct to the Permanent Secretary and is a member of the Department’s Board.
Mike was appointed following an open competition. He has over 30 years experience in the transport sector working with British Rail and FirstGroup. Mike worked for British Rail for 16 years. In 1986 he joined FirstGroup and started managing bus operations in and around Edinburgh, Aberdeen and later in the North West of England. In 1998 he took over as Director of FirstGroup’s UK Rail Division and in 2001 as Chief Operating Officer for all the company’s Rail and Bus operations in the UK. Currently he is the company’s Business Development Director responsible for leading the Group’s expansion into European transport markets. Mike has a PhD from Aberdeen University is 56 and married with 2 sons.
Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport said: "I am very pleased that Mike will be taking up this key position. His appointment is another important step in
implementing the Rail White Paper."
Mike Mitchell said: "I am very excited to be taking up this post. It will be a challenge but I am confident that the Department in partnership with the rail industry will be able to drive up rail performance."
The DfT also announced the following appointments today:
Director of Rail Projects: Graham Dalton
Director of Rail Strategy and Finance: Mark Lambirth
Director of Rail Service Delivery: Gary Backler
Head of Customer and Stakeholder Relations: Peter McCarthy
Head of Rail Procurement: Richard Horton
The post of Director of Technical Professional is still to be recruited.