OREANDA-NEWS. Network Rail today announced that Jeremy Westlake will join the company as chief financial officer on 15 February.

Jeremy has a wealth of experience in senior leadership roles across the transport, engineering and manufacturing sectors both in the UK and overseas, most recently as senior vice president of finance at Alstom Transport in France. He replaces Patrick Butcher, who leaves Network Rail in March to take up the role of chief finance officer at Go-Ahead Group.

Jeremy will lead Network Rail’s finance function, which includes group finance, treasury, internal audit and risk, planning and regulation, and long-term planning and funding. A member of the company’s executive committee, he will report to chief executive Mark Carne and will sit on Network Rail’s board as an executive director alongside the chief executive and the non-executive directors.

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive said: “As a taxpayer-funded organisation, we have a responsibility to deliver a railway that is not only safe and reliable but also efficient. Our chief financial officer has a vital role to play to make sure that Network Rail provides the best possible value to all our customers and that we have the plans and funding in place to deliver the railway Britain needs for the future.

“Jeremy brings with him significant leadership experience from the transport and engineering sectors, including a strong focus on driving continuous improvement, reducing costs and maximising efficiency. I would like to welcome him to Network Rail and know that he will continue Patrick’s excellent work as we deliver a bigger, better railway for Britain.”

Jeremy Westlake spent 14 years at Rolls-Royce in a range of senior finance and supply chain roles in the UK and the United States before moving to Alstom Transport, a €6bn railway systems business, in 2013. There, he led the company’s finance division and helped deliver global growth through acquisitions and new business. He started his career as an accountant based in London and Paris, before taking on finance roles in the international manufacturing sector based in France, Italy and Turkey.

He is a Chartered Accountant and has a Master’s degree in manufacturing from Cambridge University and a Bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Exeter University.

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.