Mark Beckett
Mark Beckett joined the railway in 1988 as a British Rail management trainee, and progressed through junior operational positions before working in the team at BR HQ. He was Development Director of Chiltern Railways from 1995 for a period of 12 years, and was on the Boards of Chiltern and parent companies M40 Trains and Laing Rail. He led and negotiated the successful bid for the only 20-year franchise, and conceived and negotiated the various Evergreen projects that have transformed the Chiltern route. He then took a career break from the railway in order to be chief operating officer of Gloucester Cathedral where he led a team covering safety, property, finance, volunteers, restoration, and visitor experience in an organisation of similar size to the GCR. For 10 years from 2014 he was a railway strategy consultant, working for a range of local authorities, combined authorities and train operators on business cases, business plans and future rail strategy. He has been a Director of the heritage Great Central Railway since July 2024.