George Stephenson Lecture 2025: On Track for the Next 200 Years of Rail

Luisa Moisio: Director of Research, Rail Safety and Standards Board

Luisa Moisio joined the Rail Safety and Standards Board in 2005 to improve how changes to standards were assessed. She started working in research in 2008 and was appointed Director of Research in 2017.

In this capacity she leads the delivery of knowledge and solutions to improve current practices and facilitate the introduction of new technology on the GB rail network. This spans a broad range of engineering and operations topics, in which cross-sector collaboration is vital.

Since 2014 Luisa has been a member of the Organising Committee of the World Congress of Rail Research, and led the hosting of the last Congress in Birmingham in 2022.

She also sits on the Steering Committee of the UK Rail Research Innovation Network (UKRRIN), which fosters closer collaboration between academic centres of excellence in rail research and the supply chain.

Andy Mellors: Managing Director, Avanti West Coast

Andy joined British Rail as an engineering management trainee in 1988, graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in 1992.

After undertaking various engineering and production roles in London and Liverpool, Andy joined FirstGroup in 2002, becoming Engineering Director for First North Western (2003), before moving to similar roles at First Scotrail (2004) and then First Great Western (now Great Western Railway) in 2007 where he was also Deputy Managing Director.

In 2017, Andy became Managing Director for the new South Western Railway franchise, before moving into the role of Managing Director, Non-Franchised Businesses for First Rail in 2020 which included the mobilisation of Lumo, the award-winning open-access operation between London, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Andy was appointed Managing Director of Avanti West Coast in March 2023 where he has led the business through a recovery programme, which has included driving-up levels of reliability and customer satisfaction to post-pandemic records, whilst also introducing a new fleet of Hitachi trains alongside the award-winning refurbished Pendolino fleet which continue to support timetable development and growth.

Andy is a Chartered Engineer and is a former Chair of the Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Iain Smith: Systems and Route Wide Delivery Director, HS2 Ltd

Iain has worked for HS2 since 2015, first as Director of Rolling Stock and Depots before taking on Rail Systems in 2019 and moving on to his current role in January. Before this he worked for Siemens as Programme Director for the Thameslink Rolling Stock Project, and for London Underground as Head of Delivery for Sub-Surface Railway upgrades. In previous roles he has worked for Alstom and Bombardier, having started his career with British Rail in 1986. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a chartered project professional.

Matt Garside: 140th President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Matt is a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institution. Matt read mechanical engineering at De Montfort University, graduating with a BEng (Hons) first class degree in 2003. Matt is married and resides in Mickleton, Gloucestershire.

Matt joined the Institution as an Affiliate in 1999. In 2001, as part of his degree, Matt undertook a year in industry; it was at this point that Matt become more actively involved in the Institution. Between 2001 and 2006, Matt helped to rejuvenate, and chaired, the Leicester Young Members Panel, before chairing the Leicester Area Committee, representing the East Midlands on the Young Members Board, eventually joining the Young Members Board Executive Team. During this time, Matt regularly attended meetings with the East Midlands Region.

Matt gained Chartered Engineer status in 2006 at the age of 25 and in 2007 accepted an opportunity through the Young Member Board to represent the voice of the Young Members, in a co-opted capacity, on the Trustee Board. Matt was subsequently successful in being elected to the Trustee Board in 2008, as the Ordinary Member Under 30, and in 2011 as an Ordinary Member. During his time on the Trustee Board, Matt championed education and Young Member activities, and is particularly proud of the involvement and benefits that the Institution has had with the Bloodhound Project. Matt held the role of Vice Chair on the Qualification and Membership Board and the Regional Strategy Board during his time on the Trustee Board. From 2013 to 2014, Matt was a Director of Professional Engineering Publishing.

In 2014, Matt was successfully elected a Member of Council, and was re-elected in 2018. Matt joined the Council Co-ordinating Committee in 2014. In 2017, Matt accepted an invitation from the President to chair the Council Co-ordinating Committee; Matt was re-elected into this role in 2018.

Following graduation in 2003, Matt’s passion for mechanical engineering has enabled him to successfully forge a career within the nuclear defence and civil nuclear industry. He has worked with a number of companies, including Alstec Ltd, Rolls-Royce (Submarines), Babcock (BNS Nuclear Services Limited), Assystem UK Ltd, AWE and Wood Plc (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler). During his career, Matt has worked on a wide range of projects ranging from nuclear safety justifications (to support the Continuous At Sea Deterrent) to technical substantiation assessments, as part of a periodic review of safety for a major defence contractor. Matt has also successfully led multi-disciplinary engineering teams on nuclear decommissioning, high precision tooling and test rig installation projects.

In 2014, Matt set up Garside Design Services Limited, and he has been operating ever since as a Principal Mechanical Engineer for Wood Plc (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler and Amec). In his current role, Matt is part of the AWE core team that is delivering a number of substantiation and upgrade projects for a business-critical facility for a major defence contractor.

Rebeka Sellick Eng CEng FIMechE: 57th Chair, IMechE Railway Division, Business Development Director, Cordel.ai

Rebeka is a Chartered Engineer and IMechE Fellow since 2002, elected to the Railway Division Board in 2015.

• She is passionate about the environmental, economic, and social good that railways deliver, and inspiring young people into railway engineering careers
• She works for more efficient railways, including her current role at Cordel, capturing GigaBytes of Point Cloud data from passenger trains and applying AI to create useful asset information for infrastructure engineers
• She strives to optimise interfaces, founding IMechE’s Railway Gauging and Clearance seminar in 2023, which is now a biennial event 
• She loves (trying to) influence policy-makers, lead-authoring the 2017 IMechE report “Increasing Capacity: Putting Britain’s railways back on track” and coordinating IMechE’s response to Rail Reform 
• Closing the loop on the support and luck she has enjoyed, Rebeka has managed and mentored many professional engineers to become Chartered themselves

Rebeka’s railway career began in 1986 with British Rail, making and mending trains from Derby to Inverness. After graduating from Oxford University, Rebeka’s fluent French enabled a pioneering work exchange with SNCF in Paris, followed by UK TOC engineering management roles, then helping initiate ROSCOs. Moving into consultancy, Rebeka created Interfleet Technology’s Asset Management service, delivering international assignments and growing her team to 50. This century, during seven years as Engineering Director ATOC, she got excited about policy and innovation, which she continues to deliver on for the railway and at Cordel.