Who We Are:

North Star's expertise is unique and unmatched within the consultancy market. We provide a superb skill set backed up by decades of experience at all levels of management.

		Richard Brown - Managing Director Founder of North Star, Richard has 30 years’ experience in the rail industry. Richard managed operation of the Heathrow Express from start-up, assisted in the preparation of the Docklands Light Railway for the 2012 Olympics and led the team that supported the opening of the Dubai Metro. Read More
		Michaela Keating - Managing Director (Asia Pacific) Michaela is a passenger transport operations professional with 27 years’ experience in the procurement, planning, implementation and delivery of public transport services, both as ultimate operator and as consultant to client/Local Authority organisations. Read More
		Andrew Pike - Operations Director Andy is a commercial, performance and operations specialist with over 20 years’ experience across rail and other regulated industries. Andy has experience in the UK, Middle East and North America, in bidding, the provision of strategic advice and other support to a number of transport organisations. Read More
		Mark McCole - Director of Rail Mark is an experienced and successful Operations Director and Bid Director with service delivery, operations and performance, transition and mobilisation, financial and commercial management and customer service expertise. He has 26 years’ experience in the UK and overseas, working on large and complex projects. Read More
		Ben Harding - Strategy Director Ben has over 40 years’ experience in the railway industry, with 30 of these spent at senior management and board level. Ben specialises in operations, engineering, customer service, safety, bid management and delivery, and incident investigation. His experience in these areas extends to both heavy and light rail environments in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Read More
		Aaron Wood - Head of Maintenance Aaron is a skilled Engineering Project Manager with 20 years’ experience in rail and aviation. His experience includes the delivery of several high-value rail projects, including managing all phases of project lifecycle from planning and implementation, through to monitoring, review and completion. Read More
		Leanne Wheeler - Senior Consultant / Operations Manager (Asia Pacific) Leanne is a railway operations and communications professional experienced in supporting major rail operations readiness projects and high-profile rail projects in the UK, Middle East and Australia. She is skilled in corporate communications, railway operations management, project management, bid management and rail technical writing with a focus on quality and compliance. Read More
		Rachael Davidson - Senior Consultant / Operations Manager (Middle East) Rachael is a rail project and bid management professional and is experienced in bid management, programme management, rail mobilisation, bid and plan writing, quality and compliance. For over 10 years she has practiced these skills delivering tenders to government entities in a variety of disciplines, specialising in the areas of rail, transport and customer service. Read More
		Andy Brooks - Senior Consultant Andy holds over 30 years’ experience in operational and assurance management, with a reputation for leading the design and delivery of sustainable operational solutions and management systems in challenging environments in the UK and overseas, including the Middle East and North America. Read More
		Bob Houghton - Senior Consultant 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. Read More
		Geraldene Lyon - Senior Consultant Geraldene has over twenty years' Human Resource management experience in a wide variety of industries including rail and air transport, which have all differentiated themselves by customer service. Geraldene’s experience includes Human Resource management for Heathrow Express. Read More
		Alex Wiid - Senior Consultant Alex is an analytically-focused economics graduate who has pursued a career in rail operations and customer service projects in both the consultancy and operating company environments. She has worked on several key rail projects in the UK and Dubai, with a particular focus on project planning, coordination and management. Read More
		Catherine Noah - Senior Consultant Catherine is a Human Resource professional with a track record of delivering monumental change projects for a variety of companies predominantly within the transport sector. Catherine has extensive experience in franchise bid development, mobilisation and the provision of strategic advice. Read More
		Matthew Knight - Senior Consultant Matthew is a rail specialist with extensive experience and knowledge in operational planning gained in both the rail and airport sectors over the last 17 years. He has the skills to forensically analyse and dissect an organisation, recommending strategic changes to improve both profitability and productivity. Read More
		Katrina Lewis - Senior Consultant Katrina is a customer service specialist with 15 years’ experience in transport and other industries, from frontline to senior management level. She has worked on many significant projects in the UK aviation, rail (including Transport for London), finance, property and energy sectors. Read More
		Isabelle Coombes - Senior Consultant Isabelle is a transport operations consultant and experienced technical writer of bid proposals and other operational documentation for high-speed, metro and light rail projects. Her key skills include: developing compelling and compliant plans, case studies and CVs; researching and interviewing experts to extract information; reviewing and improving technical documentation; and bid management, formatting and submission. Read More
		Nikki Sohal - Senior Consultant Nikki is a rail control room specialist with a background in front-line customer service delivery and learning and development of controllers. Her extensive operational knowledge combined with her training, facilitation and coaching skills enables her to design and deliver training that focuses on driving service performance as well as providing an excellent customer experience. Read More
		Katy Polley - Operations Support Consultant Katy is a communications professional with a strong and well-established background in Public Relations, having worked in both the UK and Middle East. In the UK, Katy worked for Metronet in London with the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria Line Alliance Civils team. Read More
		James Bonehill - Consultant James is a transport operations consultant and experienced technical writer of bid proposals and other documentation. Since joining North Star, he has led the establishment and certification of North Star’s Quality Management System to ISO 9001:2015. He is now project managing this on an ongoing basis. Additionally, he has supported customers in the UK, Middle East and Australia with bid writing, quality management, project management and other technical authoring and research assignments. Read More
		Amy Woodward - Business Administrator Amy is North Star’s Business Administrator. Based in London, she supports the global team with bid writing and proposal development, undertakes financial administrative tasks, and supports the maintenance of North Star’s Quality Management System.