Welcome to Kingsley Gate’s ‘In the Spotlight’ series, where we highlight exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions in their respective fields. In this edition, we feature Rob Morton, Managing Director of Route Services at Network Rail. Rob shares fascinating insights into his challenging and ‘mission critical’ role and describes how his career in supply chain management provided key skills and experience that supported his progression into general management.

The Leadership Journey

Rob joined Network Rail as Supply Chain Director before transitioning into his current role. Given that many MDs emerge from other professional backgrounds, Rob shares insight into his career journey and his belief that supply chain specialists can make excellent general management leaders.

During the conversation, Rob delves into the multifaceted nature of his role, shedding light on the various challenges he encounters and the strategies he employs to drive success.

About Rob Morton

Rob is Managing Director of 6 operations businesses which together provide all the IT, supply chain, Telecoms, procurement, shared services and engineering consultancy services to the UK railway. Collectively these businesses employ 5,000 staff with annual operating budgets of over £1.5bn. Three of them are 24/7, service critical operations, without which the UK railway would not run.

Rob has a long background building, running and turning around struggling operations businesses across various sectors. That background perfectly prepared him for this challenging role which presents constantly changing priorities. In short, if those services don’t run perfectly every day, literally millions of passenger journeys will be impacted. His focus on operational excellence has to be ‘off the scale’ every single day.