Morgane Jankowski - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about John Simpson:

“John Simpson is not just your typical railway enthusiast; he is a great example of both an inspiring manager and a very knowledgeable rolling stock mechanical engineer. John is the Mechanical Equipment Team Leader at SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit and has over 20 years’ experience in rolling stock.

John has started his career at British Rail then went on to work for Porterbrook, before joining SNC-Lavalin (formerly Interfleet). If you asked him, John would tell you that he specialises in bogies, suspensions and transmissions and has extensive knowledge of the IC225 fleet, as well as London Underground and Docklands Light Rail bogies. The truth is that you can go to John with ANY questions about rolling stock and you will get a concise and useful answer, based on his extensive knowledge of the railway and acute analytical skills.

All of this experience and knowledge would not be so valuable if John kept it to himself, however John always goes the extra mile to help his colleagues or clients and support developing engineers. You will often see several people queuing at John’s desk to ask him a question, but he still manages to deliver his own projects on time. John often makes himself available to colleagues out of hours too.

These qualities were recognised by senior management when John was appointed Team Leader of the Mechanical Equipment team in April 2016. In this role, he supervises ten full-time employees, two graduates and six associates. John quickly put in place new practices to improve the team’s efficiency, such as monitoring the team’s workload through regular one to one chats and installing a white board to display new guidelines and useful information, as well as tracking who is on leave / working away at a depot / working from home.

John’s enthusiasm and positive attitude drives the whole team forward, which is shown through the increased operational effectiveness of his staff. He also takes the time to identify any training which would benefit the developing engineers in his team. Recently John has coached three employees in allocating assignments and in monitoring these projects to ensure that they are carried out correctly. He also arranged for another young engineer to closely work with two experienced senior engineers specialised in bearings design and failure modes to ensure competencies were passed on.

It is worth mentioning that John achieved being a manager and expert in his field while working part-time to help raise his three children. His sense of family duty is as praiseworthy as his loyalty to his company. Working four days a week does not make John any less efficient than a full-time employee. In fact, many colleagues in other sections have still not realised that he doesn’t work on Wednesdays, thanks to his efficiency and availability. For many of us, this makes John a role model in terms of accomplishing a balance between work and our personal lives.

John is a key employee at SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit thanks to his railway knowledge, management skills and good character. In my opinion, these qualities would also make him a deserving winner of ‘Rail Person of the Year’.“