Women in Rail East Midlands Regional Group

Nicola is a Customer Engagement Manager at Aura Brand Solutions.
She has spent more than 20 years working for various companies within the rail industry. Following the successful completion of a HND in Business & Finance at Derby University, she embarked on her rail career starting at Adtranz (latterly Bombardier Transportation) working her way up to Spares Aftersales Manager before joining Transys Projects as Senior Sales Manager, then Achilles as a UK Account Manager for the Link-up scheme, Ricardo Rail and latterly Marketing Manager at AEGIS Engineering Systems.
Nicola is a STEM ambassador and enjoys promoting a career in the rail industry to school-aged children and is also heavily involved in wider diversity and inclusion initiatives such as Women in Rail and has participated in many of their regional and national events.
She is the Chair of the East Midlands regional committee and together with the team has organised many career development, mentoring and social events for Women in Rail members with lots more planned year on year.

Lucy is a Project Manager for Network Rail, Eastern Region. Since joining as a Project Management Assistant at the start of 2020, Lucy has worked across the commercial function supporting supplier relationship management, category management, transformation & change and procurement.

With 10 years’ experience in the events industry and a degree in Events Management, she has a keen eye for detail and a proactive approach to complex challenges. She is passionate about people and understands the impact of event engagement and inclusivity.

Lucia joined SYSTRA in January 2024. She is a Computer Science Engineer (BSc), System Engineer (MSc) and a Software and Cyber Security Expert with over 15 years of professional experience in Software, Cybersecurity, Configuration Management, Requirements Management, Change Management, Project Management and Verification & Validation, across several industries including Railway, Defence, Oil & Gas and Renewable Energy.

Lucia is one of the leading engineers certifying and supporting railway companies on safety critical software and cyber security, she also supports the next generation of engineers as Stem Ambassador. She is the Cybersecurity and Software Assurance Technical Lead and Team Leader on significant projects inclusive of the responsibility of discipline technical authority for delivery.

She also represents the UK in several CENELEC and IEC standardisation groups for both Software, Cyber Security and Functional Safety Standards.

Sue Rimmer has been in the rail industry for over 30 years, starting as a Technician Apprentice at BREL, she has worked in both technical and commercial roles for train manufacturers/maintainers and engineering consultancies such as Interfleet and SNC-Lavalin. With the many changes seen within the industry over the last two decades the majority of her roles have been in aa advisory capacity for new train procurement, tender evaluation, bid compilation and due diligence supporting both parent companies of Train Operating Companies, ROSCO’s and the DfT.

Her advisory roles have been driven by the experience gained in Sue’s career as both an engineer and a manager across all aspects of rolling stock including design, operations, maintenance, and supply chain management. With multiple roles with both an operations and commercial bias, including account management and business development, she has extensive knowledge of the UK rail industry.

In 2021, after an operational management role as Head of UK Spares Operation at Alstom (formerly Bombardier), Sue returned to a consultancy role within the Rail Advisory team of WSP UK, where she works as a technical advisor to various clients in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. As part of WSP’s commitment to supporting Women in Rail in the UK, and being part of the new WSP office in Derby, Sue was invited to be WSP’s representative for the East Midlands & North East, a natural progression to that role was to become a committee member for WiR East Midlands. Sue’s membership provides Women in Rail with a direct route to inform and promote both local and national initiatives within the broader WSP group.

Lynsey currently leads all employee communications and engagement at EMR, having worked in various roles across the rail industry for over 15 years.

She began her career in rail as an apprentice at Interfleet in 2007, supporting a wide range of business areas before joining the company’s Group Communications Team as Marketing and Communications Business Partner. From there Lynsey joined Ford & Stanley for a short period as Client Relationship Manager, before joining the East Midlands Railway Communications Team in 2017 as Head of Employee Communications & Engagement. During her career, Lynsey has completed a degree in Business Management as well as a CIM Diploma in Marketing, whilst working full time.

In her current role she leads companywide campaigns and engagement initiatives, reward and recognition events and is responsible for the successful delivery of communications that support major projects and change programmes across the East Midlands rail network.

In 2024, Nicole joined Telent as Business Development Manager for rail, with a focus on Wales & Western and Southern regions.

Prior to this, Nicole worked at Hubbell GAI-Tronics as Sales Manager, covering Transport, Power and Commercial markets. Nicole joined GAI-Tronics in 1998 after completing degrees in European Technology & Business, and European Economics. Working up through various technical and commercial roles over the past 26 years has given Nicole a wealth of experience within a UK manufacturing business. These include roles in Customer Service and Contracts, as well as Marketing Manager, Project Manager and Product Manager. Developing products for, and selling into rail has given Nicole a great insight into the challenges faced by customers in all parts of the industry, and the demands placed on both sides to get projects completed successfully.

Nicole is a STEM Ambassador. Over the years, diversity within the rail industry has certainly improved. Nicole is keen to continue to champion women across the business and the rail industry.

Claudia Buck has worked as an administrator at Shorterm Group since 2021. Shorterm is one of the largest specialist technical engineering recruiters in the UK.

She works in the Derby branch who service the Rail and Rolling Stock sector and supply more than 1750 contract workers each day to a client base across the UK and Europe. Part of our service offering includes operating as the Sole Supplier to a number of leading engineering companies within Rolling Stock; this requires Shorterm to be responsible for all recruitment of contractors across the UK.

Her role as administrator is to support the recruitment process on a daily basis. She assists in the organisation of recruitment days in Derby, organising the supply of work wear to our sites across the country and the booking of medical screening appointments and on boarding the new contractors coming to Shorterm.

Claudia graduated from the University of Derby in 2018 with a BSc degree in Forensic Science with Criminology, a degree which helps with the data logging and attention to detail required when keeping clients in the loop with Shorterms’ large workforce.

Claudia joined the committee as she feels that Women in Rail is such an important organisation as they offer a platform for professionals to work together and share ideas that can help to grow and improve an already huge sector whilst also encouraging other women to become part of the industry.

Katie owns a training company delivering On Track Plant competencies to many clients in the Rail industry. Day to day she manages the operations of a small team and was recently awarded the “Best Rail and Construction Consultancy MD 2023” by SME News for the achievements of the Company to date. 

Her career in Rail began in 2010 when she started a graduate scheme role for Balfour Beatty Rail Plant. This is where her passion and love for all things Plant began. Katie has a Mechanical Engineering degree and throughout her time with Balfour Beatty she project managed several small and large scale engineering projects involving On Track Plant and On Track Machines. 

Katie is eager to inspire other Women by showcasing different career paths, firstly through her own experiences as an Engineer, secondly through being a female founder and leader, and finally through the services her training company delivers – specifically she wants to encourage and increase female representation in the Plant Operator and Machine/Crane Controller sector. 

Katie joined Women in Rail to meet other likeminded women, have a wider support network and an opportunity to thrash out her ideas for EDI and see them come to life. 

Bethany has spent more than 10 years working within the rail industry, her journey started as a Business Administration Apprentice working for AEGIS Engineering Systems.
She successfully completed her Diploma, 6 months before the deadline date and received a promotion to become the Office Manager. By continually supporting projects within her role, gave her the opportunity to become Project Administration Manager. After the support and opportunities, she received, Bethany decided to become a STEM Ambassador to promote engineering and support people in their careers and personal development paths. 

Bethany joined TÜV Rheinland UK Limited in 2023 and now works in a more Project focussed role as Project Coordinator and has recently passed the Prince2 Project Management qualification with aspirations to become a Project Manager. 

She was nominated for the Women in Rail Raising Star awards in 2022 and wanted to join the Women in Rail East Midlands Regional Group to promote diversity in the UK rail industry and to help develop personal growth, confidence, and networking for all those involved. 

Pamela started working in Rail back in 2018, and prior to that was working in a similar field on public transport with buses. She has been fortunate throughout her career to date to have travelled extensively with work with a highlight of 2 years in Melbourne, Australia managing rail contracts. Working now in Alstom, supporting the Electrostar/Turbostar fleets across the UK as a Portfolio Director and Head of UK Spares Operations.

Pamela’s career has been varied but also quite logical in its development, giving her the skills to combat many disciplines working in Production, Logistics, Leisure, Nuclear, and Transport. All culminating in her current position.

She is a wife, mother, grandmother and published fiction novelist that wants to be part of the difference that makes Women in Rail so successful and encourages future generations to see the future in rail.

Charlotte is a Client Relationship Manager at Ganymede, a specialist workforce solutions provider in the infrastructure & transportation space.

Charlotte started in the rail sector in 2015 as a Recruitment Consultant and ED&I Lead. She has over 10 years’ experience in recruitment and has worked nationally and internationally for a variety of blue-chip clients, predominantly across the engineering and transportation sectors. She has recently returned to the UK rail sector, following some time in international executive search.

As a Client Relationship Manager at Ganymede, she is responsible for the delivery and management of Ganymede’s client services within the transportation sector. This includes working with a variety of TOCs, ROSCOs, Manufacturers, Consultancies and Supply Chain Partners. She is a strong promoter of diversity within the workplace and has been an ED&I lead internally & externally for the last 9 years. Within this role she has enjoyed supporting a number of initiatives to promote gender parity. This has included supporting targeted recruitment drives, industry placement schemes, charity partnerships and a variety of attraction and development events.

The diversity and passion of the people working in the rail sector is what she enjoys the most and is the reason she has returned to the sector.