John Bettles has been appointed as Mott MacDonald’s global rail systems professional head. 

Bettles has more than 30 years’ experience in conventional rail, high speed rail and light rail, including experience in the successful delivery of railway infrastructure projects including client management, engineering and safety leadership. He has extensive knowledge of requirements specification, design management, contract management, procurement, change management, risk management and systems integration. 

He joins Mott Macdonald from High Speed 2 (HS2) Ltd where he was programme director for route wide systems. He led a team of over 200 staff and worked on undertaking client duties for the delivery of high speed rail systems, on network works, major utility diversions and logistics for phase 1 of the HS2 project. Prior to that he worked at Network Rail as project director for signalling renewals.

At Mott MacDonald, Bettles will help to grow business globally for rail systems and provide consistency in the consultancy’s offer globally, focusing on the USA, Canada and Australia. Also part of the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network, he will work on competency assessment processes in the business, bringing innovation from universities and other areas.

Commenting on his appointment, Bettles said “I’m delighted to be leading this team. This is a great company; from the minute I met the people I wanted to join Mott MacDonald. I look forward to helping them grow and prosper in rail systems.”