Our People
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Our expertise is unique and unmatched within the transport consultancy market. We provide a superb skill set backed up by decades of experience at all levels of management.
Our Story
North Star was founded by Richard Brown in 2007. Backed by decades of collective frontline and managerial experience, we provide our customers with operations and maintenance (O&M) expertise across the full range of the project lifecycle, from strategic advice at the initial concept stage through to hands-on management and delivery.
From our well-established office bases in London, Dubai, and Sydney, we provide a global service offering. With customers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America and Australia, we are trusted internationally thanks to the delivery of world-class O&M solutions to a varied customer base, including operating companies, airports, airlines and other transport industry suppliers.
In 2009, we opened our second international office in Dubai to address the needs of the growing rail sector in the Middle East region. We have since been commissioned to provide operational support to the start-up of flagship, greenfield, fully automated (GoA4) metro systems, in Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. We have also advised on regional rail operations and procurement strategies and provided O&M support for the launch of the Lusail tram in Qatar.
Our Australian entity was established in Sydney in 2018 and has supported many high-profile rail projects throughout Australia, including mobilisation and training support for the Sydney Light Rail CBD & South East line and providing early operator involvement into the Parramatta Light Rail project. We have also been appointed to the Technical Advisory Panel for the Australian National Rail Safety Regulator ONRSR.
Our Team
The North Star team has extensive capability in the consultancy market. The services we offer to our customers are informed by decades of experience at all levels of management in the transport industry.
Andrew Pike MBA, BA (Hons)
Director
Andy is an operations, performance and commercial specialist, with experience across rail, air and other regulated industries in the UK and overseas. In the rail industry, his experience encompasses frontline operational roles where he directed and led large teams and, most recently, senior advisory positions for private and public sector organisations.
Mark McCole
Director
Mark is a rail operations and maintenance Operations Director and Bid Director with significant experience across the rail industry in the UK and overseas. His experience encompasses frontline to executive leadership roles in service delivery, operations and performance transition and mobilisation, financial and commercial management and customer service, working on large and complex projects.
Leticia Frank
Director
Leticia is an international rail professional with experience in a number of senior leadership roles in both heavy and light rail operations. Specialising in operations, transformation projects and organisational design, she has delivered results for major rail operators in the UK and Middle East.
Geraldene Lyon
Director
Geraldene is our People Director, part of the North Star management team since the business was founded in 2007. With significant experience in Human Resources and people management, Geraldene oversees all aspects of recruitment, project resourcing and training for the North Star team. She also manages complex projects for North Star and our customers.
Alastair Richards
Senior Consultant – Maintenance and Asset Management
Alastair is a Chartered Engineer with international experience in the rail and wider transport industry, including buses. His role has developed from operations and maintenance roles as part of multiple major change initiatives to senior management and Director level roles in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America.
Bob Houghton
Senior Consultant – Commercial and Customer Experience
Bob joined the North Star team in 2013 with many years of experience working at a senior level across the UK rail industry in both the public and private sectors. A passenger rail commercial specialist, Bob has wide knowledge gained through working across many different organisations within the transport industry.
Sara Vaughan
Senior Consultant – Customer Experience
Sara is an international transport customer service specialist with experience in customer service and operations, rail franchise strategy development, business improvement and technical bid writing and evaluation. She has a record of dynamic and robust frontline delivery across multi-site locations at London Underground and First Great Western (now Great Western Railway).
Richard Lashwood
Senior Consultant – HSQE
Richard is a safety, environmental and security professional with experience across several industries, including rail and bus operations, construction and facilities management. He has held a range of safety management and leadership positions, including Transport for London (TfL), Arriva Group and Morrison FM (Anglian Water subsidiary) in the UK.
Matthew Knight
Senior Consultant – Train Planning and Performance
Matthew is an international rail specialist with significant experience across the transport sector. His expertise includes contract management, timetable modelling, rolling stock and workforce planning. Matthew is a licensed, qualified practitioner of Tracsis software, TrainTRACS and TRACSRoster and Oracle Primavera P6 planning software.
Katrina Lewis
Senior Consultant – Organisational Development and Competency
Katrina is an international training and organisational change facilitator with significant experience within the rail industry. Building on her frontline operational delivery experience for Heathrow Express, her remit now extends to advising on strategic organisational change and implementation within large complex organisations.
Alex Wiid
Senior Consultant – Project Delivery and Business Management
Alex is a transport operations and customer experience professional with expertise in project planning and coordination, quality management process design and data analysis. She has worked on several rail commissions across the UK and Dubai and held key roles in a number of rail and air-rail projects.
Lesley Dorrington
Senior Consultant – Human Resources
Lesley is a business strategy and management specialist with significant experience, predominantly in the rail industry. She has held senior Human Resources (HR) roles within a variety of organisations, working collaboratively with senior colleagues at a strategic level, being creative and innovative in recommending both business and HR decisions which have resulted in high-quality solutions to improve businesses and increase value for money and efficiency.
Gráinne McIntyre
Senior Consultant – Project Management and Technical Writing
Gráinne is an international transport operations consultant based in Dubai with expertise in organisational change, mobilisation, bid writing and project management across the transport industry. Previously Operations Improvement Manager for Keolis-MHI, she has worked across the Middle East and UK to deliver transition programmes for Keolis’ operations, including for the Dubai Metro and Tram and Wales and Borders rail franchise.
Owain Cartledge
Senior Consultant – Stations, Sustainability and Technical Writing
Owain is a transport consultant with significant experience in bidding, project management, mobilisation and transition projects. Throughout his career, Owain has worked closely with owning groups, train operating companies (TOCs) and suppliers, supporting their bidding, business development and business change teams.
Claudia Turnbull
Senior Consultant – Technical Writing
Claudia is a railway operations management professional with experience in high-profile rail bids and major rail operations readiness and mobilisation projects in the UK and South-East Asia. She is skilled in project management, bid management and operations management, with particular proficiency in technical bid writing and requirements gathering with subject matter experts; she takes complex concepts and makes them accessible and compelling.
Katy Polley
Operations Support Consultant
Katy is an international communications professional with a strong and well-established background in public relations, having worked across the UK and Middle East. She provides operations support to North Star globally, responsible for customer development and ensuring the smooth operation of the businesses. She provides support to the wider North Star team and customer base, including bid writing and project management.
Amy Woodward
Business Administrator
Amy is a skilled international Business Administrator and consultant working with North Star’s global team and customer base to ensure the development and delivery of high-quality work and transport infrastructure advisory services. Amy provides technical writing expertise across the business and to North Star’s customers, including writing technical proposals, case studies and CVs for associated personnel.
