DRES is delighted to announce the appointment of Neil Andrew as the new President of the society for the next 2 years.

Neil was appointed President of the Society at the October 2023 AGM.

He joined British Rail in 1992 after his early career GEC Turbine Generators as a project engineer responsible for final assembly and test of large electrical machines up to 1000MW. Working at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby, Neil became Operations Director for Railtest (later Serco Railtest) managing the ongoing testing of railway infrastructure in the validation and testing of rail vehicles as part of the acceptance process.

In 1999, Neil became the Technical Director of Balfour Beatty Rail with specific responsibility for innovation in track inspection and maintenance techniques. Six years later Neil established Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies Ltd this resulted in a range of innovations that have been adopted in the UK and overseas including video inspection of track, switch monitoring, PU injected track and resulting in new products.

From 2014, as General Manager of Balfour Beatty Rail Engineering and Technology Solutions, Neil became responsible for all the engineering teams in Balfour Beatty Rail in the UK and overseas, including 300 staff of all disciplines.

In 2019, Neil became an independent consultant and works with the University of Leeds Institute of High Speed Rail and Systems Integration to develop ‘state of the art’ rail infrastructure and vehicle testing facilities.