The board

Our board has oversight of safety regulation, economic regulatory delivery and is the competition and consumer authority for the industry, in line with our legal duties.

Members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport for a fixed term of up to 5 years.

The board meets around 10 times a year and the register of interests of board members is reviewed annually.

Declan Collier, Chair

Declan has extensive transport and business experience, having been previously CEO of London City Airport and CEO of Dublin Airports Authority.

He is currently a non-executive board member of The Royal Schiphol Group, chair of TCR International N.V, and chair of George Best Belfast City Airport. Declan is also a Senior Adviser to Duration Capital Partners (USA).  

In 2022, he was appointed to the expert advisory panel of Active Travel England. He has also served as President of the World Association of Airports, Airports Council International; Deputy Chair of the Airport Operators Association (UK); and as director of London First, and The Dublin Theatre Festival.

Appointed as non-executive member of the board from 19 November 2018, Declan started his role as ORR Chair on 1 January 2019.

John Larkinson, Chief Executive

John was confirmed as Chief Executive at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in March 2021, having held the interim position since October 2018.  

He has more than 20 years' experience working within the rail industry, working as Director of Network Regulation & Affordability at the Strategic Rail Authority before joining ORR in 2005. John's previous roles at ORR include Director of Railway Markets & Economics and Director of Planning & Performance. As Chief Executive, he leads ORR in its role to protect the interests of rail and road users.

He has been an executive member of the ORR Board since March 2017.

Xavier Brice

Xavier has been Chief Executive of the sustainable transport charity Sustrans since 2016. He has been interested in how transport shapes our society and environment for as long as he can remember. 

Prior to Sustrans he was at Transport for London in a range of strategic roles, which included transforming the operating model for London Underground’s stations’ and developing a new cycling and walking strategy for the capital. He also held advisory roles in the Mayor of London’s office. Before this Xavier worked internationally as a strategy consultant across a range of sectors. 

Xavier is a member of the National Lottery Community Fund Climate Action Fund Advisory Panel and was a member of the Department for Transport’s Net Zero Board. He is also a Trustee of Railway Paths Limited which owns and manages former railway land for public benefit. 

Appointed from 17 January 2022 for five years.

Ian Dobbs

Ian Dobbs has been involved in the public transport industry for 47 years, working in the public and private sectors in both Australasia and the UK.

Ian spent his formative years in the UK as a manager with British Rail. He then moved across the globe and was appointed as Chief Executive of the Public Transport Corporation in Victoria, Australia leading the state’s transport reform program before establishing his own consulting business.

In 2005 he returned to the UK private sector as CEO of Stagecoach Group’s rail division. Here he oversaw the management of several of the UK’s private rail and tram franchises, acted as a Director of the Association of Train Operating Companies and latterly was appointed Deputy Chair of the UK Government’s Rail Value for Money Study in 2010.

In 2011 he returned to Australia as inaugural Chairman and CEO of Public Transport Victoria, the state of Victoria’s multi-modal public transport authority - a position he retired from in 2015.

Until he returned to the UK in 2021 Ian was Deputy President of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), based in Brussels and Chairman of UITP’s Australia/New Zealand board. He was also appointed a member of the advisory board of Cubic Transportation Systems (San Diego CA), a non-executive Director of Network Rail Consulting, a non-executive Director of Tasmanian Railways Pty Ltd and a council member of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce.

Appointed from 2 December 2024 for five years. 
 

Madeleine Hallward

Madeleine is a non-executive member of the board.

With expertise in strategic communications and government relations, she specialises in advising consumer-facing highly-regulated sectors. Previous roles include Group Head of Strategic Communications for Associated British Ports and Director for Government Affairs for Ford of Britain, where she served for six years on the UK Board. She has  also worked at Diageo, Bloomberg, Energy UK and NESTA.

Madeleine is a Trustee for the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which sits at the centre of the University Technical Colleges network, promoting and supporting new and existing UTCs. She is also a Mentor through the Girls Network, which works to secure unlimited futures for all young women.

Appointed from 13 April 2020 for five years. 

Anne Heal

Anne is an experienced non-executive director. In her executive career, she spent more than 20 years in the telecoms sector at BT and Openreach specialising in strategy and regulation.

She chairs MOSL, the market operator for the non-household water market and currently holds positions at Elexon and the General Dental Council. Anne is a member of the Enforcement Decision Making Committee at the Bank of England and of the Regulatory Decisions Committee at the FCA. She takes a particular interest in consumer issues and previously chaired Thames Water's Customer Challenge Group.

Anne chairs Volunteering Matters and is Chair of the London Design & Engineering UTC.  She is Chair of the Governance & Nominations Committee at Diabetes UK, a trustee of BalletBoyz and was interim Chair at NCVO. 

Appointed from 1 October 2016 for five years and reappointed until 2026.

Richard Hines

Richard is HM Chief Inspector of Railways and Director of Railway Safety at ORR. Richard leads our Railway Safety Directorate, which works to ensure duty holders across Britain’s rail industry manage health and safety risks effectively and meet their statutory duties.

The Secretary of State for Transport appointed Richard as an executive member of the board with effect from 27 June 2024.

Richard joined ORR in 2020 as HM Deputy Chief Inspector of Railways. He previously worked at the Health and Safety Executive in a range of technical and senior regulatory roles.

Richard is proud to have started his career as an apprentice.

He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Richard is also a member of the Health and Safety Regulation Committee.

Bob Holland

Bob is a non-executive member of the board.

After starting his career in the National Bus Company, Bob Holland built around 40 years' experience in transport delivery – both bus and rail industries - including six years developing Arriva's European business. Bob served as the Managing Director of UK Rail at Arriva plc from 2007, increasing the number of businesses to eight and a turnover of £1bn. He later took over responsibility for all UK operations (bus and rail) until retiring from the industry in May 2014.

His rail experience includes responsibility for different types of business models including franchises, concessions, open access and rail maintenance businesses with all the associated operational and safety issues.

Bob was an active member of the Rail Delivery Group, including their working group looking at access planning and asset management.

Appointed from 1 January 2015 for five years and reappointed until 2024.

Justin McCracken

Justin is a non-executive member of the board.

Justin was Chief Executive of the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) from 2008-2013, a body bringing together a wide range of activities protecting public health. Before that he was Deputy Chief Executive of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) where he was responsible for all of HSE's operational work, including the rail safety inspectorate (then part of HSE).

A physicist by background, Justin worked as a research scientist in ICI. His later posts in ICI took him into marketing and business management in the UK and overseas, including Managing Director of ICI Katalco, a catalyst and technology licensing business. In 1998, he joined the Environment Agency as North West Regional Director where he was responsible for all the activities of the agency in North West England, and promoted enhanced partnership working across many local organisations.

Justin chairs the health and safety regulation committee and is a member of the people committee.

Appointed from 1 July 2014 for five years and reappointed until 31 March 2025.

Dr Daniel Ruiz 

Daniel is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Highway and Transportation and has pursued a diverse career in transport/mobility and innovation.  

He variously ran road traffic operations for TfL, managed the traffic controls systems company Dynniq UK Ltd, and was responsible for launching Zenzic UK Ltd.  

He joined Zenzic as CEO in November 2017 and drove its mission to accelerate the UK’s 4-year £200 million connected and self-driving testing programme.  

Daniel is a registered reviewer of major UK public sector projects. He is active as a board member of the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, also with Transport for the South East, and with ANGOKA, which is a start-up specialising in making machine to machine communications cyber-resilient.  

Daniel chairs the audit and risk committee.

Appointed from 17 January 2022 for five years.

Catherine Waller

With 25 years retail and consultancy experience, Catherine is committed to helping organisations put customers at the heart of their response to a complex, changing environment.

Catherine’s early career was spent at Tesco in a variety of senior improvement roles including operational leadership of the Clubcard scheme.

More recently her established marketing, data and digital skillset has supported growth and consumer advocacy in housing, health, financial services and transport sectors. 

Catherine is a cofounder of a social purpose fintech. Since 2018 she has been a non-executive director of ITSO, a ticketing organisation which facilitates over two billion journeys each year on rail and road.

Appointed from 17 January 2022 for five years.

Nick Bateson - Independent member of the Audit and Risk Committee

The Audit and Risk Committee includes an independent member who must be a qualified accountant.

Nick is Chief Operating Officer at The Health Foundation. Nick leads the Foundation’s Strategy and Planning, Finance, HR, Digital and Data, and Governance teams.

Nick was previously Chief Financial Officer and Director of Finance, Planning and Performance at the Office for National Statistics. Prior to this he worked at the National Audit Office, where he focussed mainly on the government’s central financing structures and approach. 

Nick is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales and holds an Executive MBA from Imperial College Business School. 

Appointed from 1 October 2021. 

Non-executive board members' and independent committee member's pay

• The chair is contracted to work two days a week and is paid £88,825 per annum.
• Non-executive directors are paid £20,900 per annum for an average commitment of 3.5 days a month.
• The independent member of the audit committee is paid £4,200 per annum for an average commitment of four meetings per year.