Meet our team
Mark Hopwood CBE – Managing Director
Mark is the Managing Director of Great Western Railway.
Starting his career at Reading station in 1989, he worked for British Rail, Railtrack, and several train operators including Thames Trains, First North Western, c2c, Silverlink, Gatwick Express, and WAGN.
Mark was appointed Managing Director at First Great Western in 2008. He steered the business through substantial changes, including introduction of the new electric trains and the delivery of the December 2019 timetable, which added frequency and reduced journey times on most Great Western routes.
He was asked to step across to sister business, South Western Railway, in 2020 to address serious performance, partnership, and contractual issues, and returned as Managing Director of GWR in January 2021 having addressed the key SWR issues.
Mark has worked in UK Rail for 32 years and has experience at the front line and in more strategic roles. He has chaired the UK rail industry National Task Force and sits on the Rail Delivery Group Planning and Production Board.
He was awarded a CBE in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and Chair of the Institute of Railway Operators. Mark holds other honorary posts within the heritage and mainline railway community.
Richard Rowland – Deputy Managing Director & Operations Director
Richard joined GWR a decade ago in 2015, having started on the railway in 1988 and held various roles in FirstGroup since 2005.
Richard leads the Driver, Train Planning, and Operations teams at GWR. He also plays an important role in GWR’s partnership with Network Rail, and his team ensure customers' journeys are disrupted as little as possible when works on the line take place. Richard has responsibility for network strategy and GWR’s interaction with HS2, in particular Old Oak Common station.
As well as his role as Operations Director, Richard deputises for MD Mark Hopwood.
Ashley Bray – Human Resources Director
Ashley began his career in rail in 2000 and has built a 25-year career at GWR, progressing from frontline operational roles through a series of management, senior leadership and strategic HR positions. He joined the Executive Team as HR Director in 2024.
Ashley brings deep expertise in workforce planning, organisational development, diversity and inclusion, employee relations, policy, and reward. Having spent his entire career connected to the railway and its people, he combines operational understanding with strategic HR leadership to ensure GWR has the right people, with the right skills and mindset, in the right place to deliver for customers every day.
His key priorities at GWR are to ensure our workforce continues to meet the evolving needs of the business, champion colleagues and great employee experience, and strengthen productive relationships with our Trade Unions. Ashley also leads the development of our long-term people strategy as we prepare for the future of rail and the integration of track and train.
Amanda Burns - Sales & Marketing Director
Amanda is the Sales & Marketing Director at GWR, a role she has held since January 2023. In this capacity, Amanda leads the commercial strategy, focusing on driving growth and putting the customer at the heart of the business. Her responsibilities span revenue, marketing, retail, external communications, research and insights, brand, and customer proposition.
With 20 years' experience in the travel and leisure sector, Amanda’s career covers the railway and airline industries and destination marketing. Her previous roles have included senior positions with GWR and bmi British Midland, and a Star Alliance Sounding Board member, as well as consulting for airports and airlines. Amanda also has extensive tourism experience, having worked overseas as CEO for Visit Jersey and General Manager at Tourism Ireland where she focused on cultivating new and emerging markets across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.
Amanda is passionate about marketing brands in competitive environments and is widely recognised for her ability to create distinctive and effective advertising campaigns. Among her achievements is the celebrated GWR ‘Famous Five’ campaign, which has earned industry awards and set new standards for creativity in transport marketing. In recognition of her impact, Amanda was named in Marketing Week’s 2025 ‘Top 100 Most Effective Marketers’ in the UK.
Her forward-thinking approach and dedication to customer-centric growth continue to make Amanda a leading figure in the UK’s travel marketing landscape.
Rachel Geliamassi – Customer Services Director
Rachel Geliamassi joined Great Western Railway in March 2024 as Customer Services Director, a role that brings together leadership of GWR’s customer-facing operations across stations and onboard services. She is responsible for more than 3,000 colleagues and oversees the full customer experience, including revenue protection and customer relations, ensuring that customers receive a safe, fair and consistently high-quality service.
Before joining GWR, Rachel spent over 15 years in passenger transport, most recently as Managing Director of Stagecoach West, where she led operations across the west of England and Oxfordshire.
Rachel is passionate about building engaged, inclusive teams and championing opportunities for colleagues at every stage of their careers. At GWR, she is focused on improving the customer journey, strengthening frontline support, and delivering improvements that make travel easier for customers and colleagues alike.
Joe Graham – Business Assurance & Property Director
Joe joined us in 2011 from the BBC, bringing with him over 20 years of business management and compliance experience.
He is responsible for our compliance, security, business planning & development, & corporate responsibility and matters. His team manage our station estate and colleague accommodation across the network.
Joe also manages our relationship with the DfT and ORR.
Simon Green – Engineering Director
Simon joined us in 2018 having undertaken a number of roles, both inside and outside the rail industry, latterly at GTR.
He is responsible for the supply and maintenance of the GWR fleet of trains, including the management of GWR’s maintenance depots and train service provision contracts.
Simon is a Chartered Engineer with a PhD in power electronics and control.
Chris Maxwell – Safety and Environment Director
Chris joined GWR in 2022 as Director of Safety and Environment, bringing over 20 years of experience gained in the pharmaceutical, defence and aviation industries. He is a chartered safety and health practitioner and holds a PhD in Chemistry from Oxford.
Chris and his team lead GWR’s safety and sustainability programs, ensuring we meet our legal commitments, safeguard our colleagues and customers, and continually improve our environmental performance and sustainability credentials.
Daryn McCombe - Director of Performance & Service Delivery, Great Western Railway, Joint Director of Network Operations, Network Rail Western Route
Daryn leads our cross-industry Control team based in Western House, Swindon. Focused on co-ordinating the industry to deliver for our customers the team manage all aspects of day-to-day service delivery alongside incident management and recovery from disruption.
Within GWR he leads on performance strategy, governance, and improvement across the business, driving collaboration between Great Western Railway and Network Rail.
His role champions resilience, inclusive leadership, and customer-focused delivery, with a sharp focus on frontline diagnostics, strategic alignment, and empowering teams to deliver consistent and high-quality services for our customers. He brings a hands-on approach to operational improvement, blending technical insight with experience across a number of railway operational areas.
Barry Milsom – Programme Director
Barry Milsom is Programme Director for Great Western Railway and has several decades of railway experience, working for Network Rail and several train operators.
Barry has a broad range of experience including Operations, Train Service Delivery and Performance. Within his career, Barry has been involved in major transformation schemes across rail.
He has overseen programmes and projects that have included complete reconstruction of stations, introduction of rolling stock along with transformation strategies that have improved train service reliability and experience for customers.
Duncan Rimmer – Finance Director
Duncan joined GWR in June 2019 and brings a wealth of cross-industry railway experience to the role.
Originally joining British Rail as a graduate in 1993, he has held various finance roles in Go-Ahead, FirstGroup, Chiltern Railways and Network Rail. Duncan is also the Treasurer of the Railway Ball which raises money for the Railway Children Charity.