Our leadership team

Tricia Williams, Managing Director 

Tricia took on the role of managing director in May 2024 bringing a wealth of experience and expertise from her career in both transport and utility services.

With extensive management experience Tricia was, for three and a half years, chief operating officer at Northern where she successfully led the day-to-day operation of Northern’s trains, stations, engineering and control. Prior to joining the rail industry she held executive roles at Manchester Airports Group and United Utilities where she spent 20 years in leadership and strategic transformation roles. 

Tricia has always worked for companies with a strong purpose and is proud to lead an organisation that puts customers and communities at its heart. Driving forward change and transformation will be one of her key priority areas underpinned by a strong focus on train service performance.

Tricia has a passion for people – both customers and colleagues – and is an advocate for equality and diversity, believing that Northern, as a major UK employer, has an important role to play in creating jobs that are accessible to as many people as possible and creating an environment where people feel included at work. 

A proud Northerner, Tricia lives in North Liverpool with her husband and three sons.

Matt Rice, Chief Operating Officer 

Matt lives in York and has worked in the rail industry for 20 years, starting his career as a management trainee at Network Rail. After a period with railways in the Middle East, he returned to the UK, where in 2019 he was appointed as route director for Network Rail, a role he held for four and a half years. 

In the chief operating officer role, Matt leads all Northern’s service and engineering functions. His key focus areas will be making sure trains consistently run on time, growing passenger confidence, and bringing track and train closer together for the benefit of all customers.  Matt is also accountable for continuing Northern’s engineering transformation – making sure that our trains are fit for our passengers today, and we successfully bring new trains into service in the future. 

Matt is committed to improving the working experience for Northern’s 7,000 colleagues as well as supporting the wider rail future skills agenda. He is also determined to make rail more accessible for all, driven by his first-hand experience of the struggles faced by those with additional needs. 

Mark Powles, Commercial and Customer Director 

Mark Powles leads teams working across sales, marketing, commercial development and customer experience.   

Mark’s career spans retail, financial services and utilities as well as travel and transport. In transport Mark has worked with ferries, buses and rail.  

Mark joined Northern in 2018 and his main focus is driving growth in demand for rail travel. This, supported by transforming customer experience to delight customers and digital innovation to reimagine the norms of retail in rail, means Mark’s team are hard at work on some of the most important projects Northern’s customers will see delivered.  

Emma Yates, Programme Director 

Emma Yates is Programme Director and is responsible for delivering change and modernisation across the company.   

With a background working across finance and treasury roles for BT and HSBC, Emma joined Northern’s finance team in 2011 before taking on strategic development and transformation projects and positions.   

Emma now works to ensure that the changes being made, from station improvements to upgraded rolling stock, are bringing the greatest benefit possible to customers. Embracing technological changes and putting Northern at the forefront of the rail industry is a challenge Emma and her team are proud to take on.   

Mike Roe, Safety and Environment Director 

Mike Roe is responsible for driving forward environmental initiatives and promoting the safety of customers and colleagues. 

An engineer by trade, Mike started his career with British Rail as an engineering student and then held various roles from engineer to depot manager to production director. After 20 years with British Rail Mike worked in director positions at RFS(E), Unipart Rail and Merseyrail. Mike is relishing the challenges of Northern’s wide geographical spread, building customer confidence during recovery from the pandemic and potentially more electrification across the rail network.   

Joining Northern in 2020, at a time when good progress had been made on environmental projects, Mike is now pushing the company further, to the benefit of customers – reducing emissions from the company’s estate as well as trains and improving air quality at stations.   

Rob Warnes, Strategic Development Director

Rob leads Northern’s strategic development and operational planning activities. He relishes the challenges that come with working at the biggest train operating company outside of London, with over 2,500 services operated each day across the North.   

As a Chartered Engineer, Rob started his career with British Rail in 1989, as a graduate engineering trainee, before moving to Railtrack in 1996 where he managed a range of signalling projects across the North.  

Joining Northern in 2001, Rob has led operational planning and delivery programmes for several years. He now leads Northern’s input into the Transpennine Route Upgrade and Manchester Recovery Task Force as well as the development of a Rolling Stock Strategy for Northern that embraces the challenge of decarbonisation.  

Rob chairs the Rail Delivery Group’s Performance and Planning Forum. He has been instrumental to the inception and development of the Northern Hub and Electrification schemes.  

Lisa Leighton, People Director

Lisa joined Northern in 2023 as People Director and is responsible for leading our People and Communications teams. 

Her background in Human Resources began at Teesside University where she graduated with a degree in Human Resource Management. Starting her early career in engineering and telecomms she gained experience in various HR specialisms including talent, resourcing and change management.

Prior to joining Northern, she held senior HR leadership roles across financial services and more recently in retail, leading employee relations, diversity & inclusion and well-being activity for Morrisons and Marks and Spencer.

Day to day, Lisa and her team are responsible for developing and implementing the people and industrial relations strategies, enabling the delivery of the business plan and objectives in a way that builds a culture of engagement and where our people feel empowered to be at their best to deliver a great customer experience. 

Richard Hinds, Finance Director

Richard joined Northern in November 2023, as the Finance Director. In this role he will oversee Northern’s corporate services. 

Richard has a wealth of experience, having previously held senior roles at Speedy Hire PLC and DCC PLC. He also served in HM forces, as a platoon commander in the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment from 1996 to 2000. 

Richard is from Settle, in North Yorkshire, and is committed to making a wider impact for the North, getting our customers where they need to be safely, affordably and on time.