Matthew has over 18 years of experience of the infrastructure sector.
Since joining Rock in 2011, Matthew has played a leading role in the negotiation of the commercial aspects of all of Rock’s fleet. He also played a lead role in the procurement and delivery of the Mersey Gateway Bridge PPP, which successfully opened in October 2017. In January 2020, Matthew started as Rock’s Head of Compliance and Risk to support the successful delivery of Rock’s fleets and later that year became Rock’s Chief Investment Officer.
Matthew has acted as a deal principal, financial advisor, a joint lead arranger and bookrunner and a legal advisor on infrastructure projects which gives him a unique perspective and insight into how to structure a project to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Matthew has specialized in PPP across all sectors from roads, parking and airports to the healthcare and education sectors, both in the UK, Europe and North America.
Prior to joining Rock, Matthew worked as a Vice President in the Royal Bank of Scotland’s infrastructure finance group (in New York) and was an Associate in DLA Piper’s commercial and projects team (in London).
James joined Rock in September 2017. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 10 years’ experience working within the rail industry, predominantly within the rolling stock engineering field. He brings a working knowledge of UK rolling stock operations and maintenance practices, including heavy overhauls, engineering changes and contract management, and has recent experience of the commercial and contractual arrangements associated with new trains procurement and refranchising.
James has previously worked for Stagecoach South Western Trains, initially in engineering management roles to support the operation and maintenance of the South West fleets where he was responsible for leading a team of engineers delivering a wide range of projects and modifications, and interfacing with the relevant ROSCOs. Subsequently James has undertaken roles in the Stagecoach franchise bidding and mobilisation teams including responsibility for the procurement of new rolling stock for the future franchise and the development of the rolling stock strategy.
At Rock, James is the Lessor Representative responsible for the successful delivery of the 25 new Siemens Class 717 trains entering service on GTR’s Great Northern route late 2018 to early 2019 and for the 58 Stadler Flirts due to enter service from 2019 on the Greater Anglia franchise.
George joined Rock in January 2019. His role as Director of Health, Safety and Cyber Security covers Rock Rail’s asset management activities and other business operations. George has responsibility for all aspects of Rock Rail’s Safety Management Systems including safety assurance responsibilities for all fleets under its management. He has 25 years of experience in the health and safety arena.
George was previously the Director of System Safety and Health at the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) where he was responsible for RSSB’s work to support the rail industry in all aspects of its health and safety management and assurance processes and capabilities. George also played a key role in the setting of the national rail health and safety strategy and in delivering associated programmes, including sponsoring the successful relaunch of the national supplier qualification scheme, RISQS.
Prior to his work at RSSB he worked as a consultant on safety assurance of complex safety critical systems, following previous roles in the railway supply sector designing rail systems.
George has a PhD in Computer Science, specialising in railway risk modelling and is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Safety and Reliability Society. He is the Visiting Professor of Railway System Safety at the Institute of Rail Research, Huddersfield.
Jo joined the team in April 2018 with over 20 years of experience in the leasing industry most recently focussing on the rolling stock market. Jo is responsible for all financial aspects of Rock Rail’s asset management services and capabilities for its current and future asset management portfolio. Prior to joining Rock Jo headed up the Financial Control and Risk team at ROSCO Eversholt Rail group for three years. In this position she was responsible for finance activities on its portfolio of Passenger and Freight rolling stock assets, Cross London Trains and the onboarding of new shareholders following a private equity exit.
Joined Rock March 2022
Joined Rock March 2020