We are governed by a board responsible for setting our strategy and overseeing its delivery.
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 director of Farnborough Airport Company and of OCTA LLC, 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; chair of TCR International N.V; non-executive board member of The Royal Schiphol Group; Deputy Chair of the Airport Operators Association (UK); non-executive director of Allied Irish Banks (AIB) Ltd; and as director of London First, and chair of 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.
Feras Alshaker - Interim Chief Executive
Feras became Interim Chief Executive of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in April 2026.
He has almost 20 years' experience in the rail industry, including ten years at ORR, where he has held a range of roles overseeing Britain's rail network and England's strategic road network. Before becoming Interim Chief Executive, he served as ORR's Director of Planning and Performance.
Prior to joining ORR, he held roles in rail operations and infrastructure, delivering franchise and business-improvement programmes.
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 April 2026.
Xavier Brice
Xavier is a Director at SLR Consulting and was previously Chief Executive of the sustainable transport charity Sustrans from 2016 to 2026. 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 was 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 over four decades, 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.
Lindsey Fussell
Lindsey was a Group Director at Ofcom, the UK’s telecommunications, media and online safety regulator, from 2016 to 2025, and an executive member of the Ofcom Board from 2020 to 2025. Initially Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, Lindsey became Group Director for Networks and Communications in 2020, responsible for Ofcom’s regulation of the telecoms and postal markets, including the regulation of competition, consumer protection and security and resilience.
Prior to joining Ofcom, Lindsey held a number of senior roles in the Civil Service, including as Director of Public Services at HM Treasury, where she led on key aspects of public spending policy for defence, education and criminal justice. She is a qualified accountant (CIMA).
Lindsey is a non-executive member of the Board of National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) and Chair of NGED'S Risk and Audit Committee. She chairs the Digital Connectivity Forum, the UK Government’s primary advisory group on the provision of seamless digital connectivity across the UK. She is also an independent member of the Performance and Assurance Committee, which oversees performance of trading parties in the non-household water market.
Madeleine Hallward
Madeleine is a non-executive member of the ORR board. She is also an external member of the House of Lords Management 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 Mentor through the Girls Network, which works to secure unlimited futures for all young women.
Appointed from 13 April 2020 for five years and reappointed until 2030.
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 is on the board of the Civil Aviation Authority, chairs MOSL, the market operator for the non-household water market, and currently holds non-executive positions at Elexon and the Fundraising Regulator. Anne is a member 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 is Chair of the London Design & Engineering UTC and is currently the non-trustee Chair of the Governance & Nominations Committee at Diabetes UK.
Appointed from 1 October 2016 for five years and reappointed until April 2027.
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.
Ann Metherall
Ann is an engineer and lawyer with over 25 years’ experience of advising large organisations and PLCs operating in high hazard industries on safety, regulatory and governance issues.
Her career began with British Rail where she gained substantial experience of design, construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure including working as a Permanent Way Maintenance Engineer.
In her legal career she was a partner of Burges Salmon LLP leading its Health and Safety Team and later she was the Head of its Dispute Resolution Department.
She is also a Trustee of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust in Bristol and she chairs the Mentoring Programme Committee of Lawyers who Care – a Charity that supports care-experienced aspiring lawyers to achieve their ambitions.
She is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
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 currently a director at Bold Line Ltd and is active as a partnership board member of Transport for the South East. Daniel is also Chair of the Island Transport & Infrastructure Forum in the Isle of Wight.
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.
From 2018 to 2025 she was a non-executive director of ITSO Ltd, a ticketing organisation which facilitates over two billion journeys each year on rail and road. She remains on the board of its digital subsidiary Yotra, which delivers the technology behind “in-wallet” mobile ticketing.
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 Managing Director at The Health Foundation. Nick leads the Foundation's corporate functions and oversees, in collaboration with the Foundation's wider executive committee, the design and implementation of the organisation's strategy, business plan and associated governance.
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.