Daniel Persson

Said the following about Carl Barrett:

“The category description suggests that to be Rail Person of the Year you might have a role that involves high risk or incredible pressure. I would like to nominate someone from a support role that doesn’t fit in to any other category and therefore must compete with the so-called game savers and macho manager ‘heroes,’ these are the real unsung heroes of the Industry; the ‘glue’ that holds everything together. We often hear of what the heroes of business, entrepreneurship, science and medicine have achieved but could they have made their breakthroughs if it were not for the unsexy unseen back-room boys whose commitment and graft, enable the magic to happen. Carl Barrett is the information manager at Network Rail’s Northern Programme. I had the privilege to become Carl’s Manager about a year ago when he was seconded in to the role, 6 month later and Carl was the obvious solution for NR and we appointed him to the role. I have heard nothing but good reports about Carl from day one. He’s the oil in the machine, the easing in the economy, the solution to the equation and the Valium in your vodka!

Mark Bailey Mott MacDonald

"I’ve only known Carl for a couple of years and from the initial training I gave him, I have watched him grow into the role he is doing now. Carl has a great character that helps him keep his small team happy when under a lot of pressure to keep the project teams up to date with the latest information. The introduction of BIM to the railway has been a huge learning curve not only for the suppliers, but for Network Rail and Carl has been in the forefront of this for IP Northern Programmes. The work Carl does in the background to keep the projects running mostly goes unnoticed, but when there is a problem Carl is there getting it fixed and helping keep the project running".

Carl is always keen to learn, good at listening and will take what he has learnt and prioritise this such that it can be delivered as a change or improvement to the system. He does this most every day and will walk in the office with the right attitude when arriving in the morning and is able to maintain that throughout the day. When the team or users need help Carl will be there and help them always willing to share his knowledge.

As a manager he is able to both stand up for his team and see them as individuals and will go the extra mile for them as their manager. Carl will however not lose sight of the big picture and maintain a focus on the business needs and act on behalf of Network Rail. Carl has been working with Northern programmes performance analyst and has together been able to start generating performance indicators for information management using Microsoft latest tool set PowerBI linked to our project wise system. The tight integration is a first I believe in Network Rail. This has given Northern programme a new way of understanding how work is progressing on the programme.

As his manager I am delighted to be able to nominate Carl for the rail person of the year award and for Network Rail he is already a winner in so far as what he has been able to accomplish during this year. Carl has taken the initiative on behalf of Northern Programme to develop the information management as well as the next thing in IM BIM. In doing so he has shown great leadership with his team and the other information mangers that he works with in a way that I find truly inspiring. The industry and Network rail has probably only seen the beginning of Carl’s carer and influence on the industry and it is a great sign for the strength of coming generations that the industry will need.“