Hearing that Nigel Featham and Ben Maxfield are gone from GNE at the end of this month. Nigel to focus on Go North West, now that includes Liverpool, with his side kick to also take on a new role there.
GNE to be led by Ben Gilligan from EY.
From the GA Website
Managing Director changes at Go-Ahead
With Go North West securing the contract to operate services across the Wirral Peninsula, on behalf of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Go-Ahead has made some leadership changes for its Operating Companies.
Nigel Featham will continue to be Managing Director of Go North West but given this role has expanded to cover operations in both Greater Manchester and now Liverpool, he will no longer continue his role at Go North East.
Ben Gilligan, Managing Director of East Yorkshire Buses will become Managing Director of Go North East. Ben has been at East Yorkshire Buses since 2018 and has been Managing Director since 2022.
A new Managing Director for East Yorkshire Buses will be appointed in due course with Matt Ashton, Operations Director at Go North West covering the role on an interim basis.
Nigel, Ben and Matt will start their new roles from Monday 2nd February.
Martin Dean, Managing Director, UK Regional Bus, Go-Ahead, commented: “Nigel has been a fantastic leader for Go North East and Go North West but with the new contract in Wirral he will now dedicate his time solely to Go North West. Ben will be an excellent Managing Director at Go North East and we’re very grateful for Matt’s help whilst we search for a new Managing Director for East Yorkshire Buses. These changes are a positive result of us growing our business and serving even more customers with our award winning bus services.”
Full details of Go-Ahead’s Operating Company Leadership can be found
https://www.go-ahead.com/who-we-are/people/leadership/.
I wonder which of the remaining senior managers will get the boot if Gilligan decides to make his mark. The incumbent Head of Commercial doesn't have much to show for his appointment other than network regression, contract losses, and bidding for Metro Replacement work the company couldn't even cover.
(Yesterday, 10:09 am)Iamtheone8483748 wrote [ -> ]From the GA Website
Nigel Featham will continue to be Managing Director of Go North West but given this role has expanded to cover operations in both Greater Manchester and now Liverpool, he will no longer continue his role at Go North East.
Martin Dean, Managing Director, UK Regional Bus, Go-Ahead, commented: “Nigel has been a fantastic leader for Go North East and Go North West but with the new contract in Wirral he will now dedicate his time solely to Go North West. Ben will be an excellent Managing Director at Go North East and we’re very grateful for Matt’s help whilst we search for a new Managing Director for East Yorkshire Buses. These changes are a positive result of us growing our business and serving even more customers with our award winning bus services.”
Full details of Go-Ahead’s Operating Company Leadership can be found https://www.go-ahead.com/who-we-are/people/leadership/.
That line makes me giggle. Has he though let's be honest
(Yesterday, 5:31 pm)Nerd4321 wrote [ -> ]That line makes me giggle. Has he though let's be honest
Me too, but I think they're inclined to say something nice, aren't they?
I don't think "his disastrous reign, causing the first major strike in 30 years" has the same ring to it.
(Yesterday, 10:13 am)R852 PRG wrote [ -> ]I wonder which of the remaining senior managers will get the boot if Gilligan decides to make his mark. The incumbent Head of Commercial doesn't have much to show for his appointment other than network regression, contract losses, and bidding for Metro Replacement work the company couldn't even cover.
I suppose it depends what the strategy is, doesn't it? Most of these heads can only take whatever the strategic lead is from the directors.
Kevin Carr's was managed decline; tweak around the edges and gradually cut. Martijn's was to paint his way out of a pandemic, though was remarkably forward thinking for a Bus MD. Whereas the incumbent appears to love spaffing money on marketing gimmicks with negligible results, then still cut services faster and harder than ever before.
We'll see what Ben Gilligan's reign brings.
(Yesterday, 6:19 pm)Adrian wrote [ -> ]Me too, but I think they're inclined to say something nice, aren't they?
I don't think "his disastrous reign, causing the first major strike in 30 years" has the same ring to it.
I suppose it depends what the strategy is, doesn't it? Most of these heads can only take whatever the strategic lead is from the directors.
Kevin Carr's was managed decline; tweak around the edges and gradually cut. Martijn's was to paint his way out of a pandemic, though was remarkably forward thinking for a Bus MD. Whereas the incumbent appears to love spaffing money on marketing gimmicks with negligible results, then still cut services faster and harder than ever before.
We'll see what Ben Gilligan's reign brings.
I do wonder what we will see change. Might be a choice of simple branding if things come to it. A man who will do better than the previous man. Imo id take Gilbert over Nigel anyday
He done a good job from a GoAhead point of view, the area now makes a profit and didn't under Gilbert who was hemmorging money.
Everything else is irrelevent at the end of the day.
The strike action is likely GoAhead's fault anyway, there's no rational reason for not paying more from a local level than someone above you saying you can't pay them more.
(Yesterday, 7:12 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]He done a good job from a GoAhead point of view, the area now makes a profit and didn't under Gilbert who was hemmorging money.
Everything else is irrelevent at the end of the day.
The strike action is likely GoAhead's fault anyway, there's no rational reason for not paying more from a local level than someone above you saying you can't pay them more.
Nigel could not give two cares about Go North East. Where was he during strikes. Thats right in Manchester. People who used to work for Go North West seem to take a dislike to him as well. Im glad hes going. He ran GNE into the group. Caused strikes. Made most if not all the good people who made gne what it is leave amongst other things. Only time he cares for the company is when its time for his face to be on camera
(Yesterday, 10:13 am)R852 PRG wrote [ -> ]I wonder which of the remaining senior managers will get the boot if Gilligan decides to make his mark. The incumbent Head of Commercial doesn't have much to show for his appointment other than network regression, contract losses, and bidding for Metro Replacement work the company couldn't even cover.
Are you saying they could be peddled by the time 2026 is out, should we mark your words?
(Yesterday, 7:21 pm)Nerd4321 wrote [ -> ]Nigel could not give two cares about Go North East. Where was he during strikes. Thats right in Manchester. People who used to work for Go North West seem to take a dislike to him as well. Im glad hes going. He ran GNE into the group. Caused strikes. Made most if not all the good people who made gne what it is leave amongst other things. Only time he cares for the company is when its time for his face to be on camera
Oh no arguments from me, strikes follow him around like a bad smell as Arriva Durham striked under him aswell. Hopefully the new bloke can make some improvements but the East Yorkshire thread on RailUK is pretty grim reading, very much the same old that's been going on for awhile now.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/eas...11/page-62 - Here for anyone interested.
(Yesterday, 7:12 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]He done a good job from a GoAhead point of view, the area now makes a profit and didn't under Gilbert who was hemmorging money.
I don't believe that this is true, and I've challenged this point before.
The significant losses under Martijn's reign were during the pandemic, and specifically lockdown, when they lost 90% of their business overnight.
The major losses then reported after Nigel took over, was on the most part the result of a restructuring exercise (and subsequent redundancies). It was a one off and it was noted in the accounts for that period.
Even beyond that, what has Nigel achieved? You'll recall Newcastle United were balance sheet champions under Mike Ashley, but it didn't mean they were delivering their core business.
I hope someone has emailed maba about this.
(Yesterday, 8:26 pm)Adrian wrote [ -> ]I don't believe that this is true, and I've challenged this point before.
The significant losses under Martijn's reign were during the pandemic, and specifically lockdown, when they lost 90% of their business overnight.
The major losses then reported after Nigel took over, was on the most part the result of a restructuring exercise (and subsequent redundancies). It was a one off and it was noted in the accounts for that period.
Even beyond that, what has Nigel achieved? You'll recall Newcastle United were balance sheet champions under Mike Ashley, but it didn't mean they were delivering their core business.
Truthfully it's hard to answer as it all depends on what his goals were. If it was to have good customer satisfaction then yeah he failed without doubt.
However if his goal was a major restructuring with the aim to keep the wage bill as low as possible, closure at Bensham and return the area to a profit then you can argue he was successful.
I do believe there's got to be an element of the second part in there somewhere. Unless you're a complete psychopath, there's absolutely no rational reason why you wouldn't want to keep staff on and pay them more if you had the budget to do so.
I kinda do believe Martijn was under similar pressure truthfully hence the CLS closure, as again, why would you do it unless someone is telling you to do so? It just doesn't make sense from a local perspective.
Both these having absolutely disasterous results aswell and is pretty much the cause for every issue.