Women in Rail Yorkshire Regional Group

Anna is an Engagement and Diversity Manager at Northern Trains and her responsibility is to look after EDI agenda in the business. She is also in the leadership team for Rail Unites for Inclusion which brings together all EDI leads, Employee Network Group chairs and people who are passionate about diversity across the rail industry. Before joining Northern Anna has worked in several sectors including banking, charity, and manufacturing.

Anna is originally from Estonia and have moved to UK almost 14 years ago to do her master studies in Human Resource Management. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion, advocate for change and believes that teamwork and collaboration is the key to success.

Anna is delighted to work with amazing women in Yorkshire steering group to promote and support more colleagues across the region.

Sarah joined Network Rail in 2013 and is currently the North & East Route Business Manager. Having joined the management graduate scheme, she has held a variety of roles across managed stations, human resources and programme management.

A STEM ambassador since 2014 and active member of Women in Rail Yorkshire since 2018, Sarah is passionate about promoting the rail industry as a career of choice for young people.

Caroline is the Accessibility Delivery Manager for the long-distance train operator LNER. In this role Caroline delivers projects to improve accessibility and integrated travel on the East Coast Mainline to enable more people to travel by train. Before starting this role in July 2022, Caroline worked in Corporate Partnerships at the National Railway Museum and before that was the Customer Loyalty Lead at LNER.

Prior to joining the rail industry Caroline worked in the landscaping and construction industries. Her experience in a range of male-dominated industries made her want to do more to support women in rail, particularly ensuring women have the confidence, pathways, mentors and role models in place to attain senior leadership roles.

Frankie is a Senior Project Engineer for Compliance at Network Rail. She has over 10 years of experience in Rail Engineering and prior to working in the Rail industry she was an Engineer in the Construction industry for 7 years.

Frankie is passionate about STEM, Early Engagement, Continuous Improvement, Development and Diversity and Inclusion.

Clare is an Engineering Geologist with over twenty years’ experience working primarily on railway embankments and cuttings.  She spent nearly ten years working as a designer with Donaldson Associates Ltd. in Glasgow and York followed by a move to Network Rail’s Geotechnical Route Asset Management team based in York.  As the Route Engineer (Geotechnics) for North & East and East Coast Routes, Clare leads a team of twenty Geotechnical Staff who together manage an asset portfolio of c.36,000 individual earthworks assets from the examinations, evaluations and assessments through to maintenance, refurbishments and renewals.

Helen Townend, Head of Inclusion and Social Value at Amey Consulting, has thirty years’ experience in the field of geotechnical engineering working on projects in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. A Chartered Geologist since 1999, Helen has focused her career in the Transport Sector, with operational experience in a wide range of infrastructure renewal projects. Helen has been a member of the Yorkshire Committee since 2017, when she also became Lead for Inclusion and Inclusive Design at Amey Consulting. Championing inclusive practices within Amey service provision and Amey culture.

Suzannah Rockett has worked in the rail industry for over a decade and is currently Head of Sustainability at GB Railfreight. She has previously worked at Network Rail, in the public sector and as an academic. She founded GBRf’s People and Culture Working Group which leads initiatives to help meet GB Railfreight’s Diversity and Inclusion targets. Suzannah leads the sustainability agenda at GB Railfreight, having a passion for both the environment and equality.

Jackie is currently a Lead Applications Engineer for LB Foster Rail Technologies specialising in Friction Management solutions for the wheel/rail interface for both on-board and trackside applications.

Jackie is a materials engineer and specialist in ferrous metallurgy, manufacturing processes, knowledge transfer and professional development.  Jackie started her career in the steel industry spending 12 years as a process metallurgist before moving on to roles with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and technical sales roles in a range of metals processing industries.

Jackie is a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a member of the Permanent Way Institution and is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester.

Emily is an Assistant Project Manager at Linbrooke Services Limited, working on multi-disciplinary projects across Network Rail’s Eastern, North West and Central Regions. Starting in July 2021, Emily is relatively new to the rail industry and able to bring new ideas and learning from previous roles which include the Tesco Management Graduate Scheme and working with a UK charity providing grants to low-income families.

Emily has a keen interest in bringing people together, extolling the benefits of creating diverse teams at every opportunity. She is delighted to be part of Women in Rail Yorkshire region and looking forward to working collaboratively with colleagues from across the industry.

As the current Head of Environment and Sustainability for Linbrooke Services Ltd, I am a full member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and a Chartered Environmentalist currently working on reducing the environmental and social impacts of rail projects across the UK. In my current role, I lead the company’s environment strategy and I support the social value strategy which includes diversity and inclusion and gender equality targets. I hope to continue to implement sustainable practices within the rail industry, using my personal passion for a more sustainable society to make a positive contribution to achieving long-term net-zero carbon transport solutions and workplace equality.