Rob Forde is currently Director of Strategy and Skills overseeing the Global Centre of Rail Excellence’s (GCRE) skills and Innovation strategy working with clients, academics, and industry partners to speed up research and development cycles at the new rail innovation facility currently being built in South Wales.

Prior to joining GCRE, Rob was at Network Rail for 11 years most recently as Industry Sector Lead for Network Rail on the East Coast Digital Programme and before that part of Network Rail’s research and development team, leading the accelerated innovation programme and helping secure a six-fold increase in the budget for CP6.