Tom Langford

Said the following about Rebecca Lomax:

“Rebecca works tirelessly behind the scenes to advance diversity and inclusion and is making a notable difference. I would really like for her to finally receive the recognition she so rightfully deserves.

In addition to her day job as a project manager within operations, Rebecca has been working to make Network Rail’s Wales and Western region more diverse & inclusive. Rebecca saw that the D&I text used in job adverts didn’t connect with people so wrote a new text based on her personal experience of discrimination, which has been adopted by teams across the region.

Rebecca volunteered to support director-level recruitment, researching and writing her own D&I questions along with interviewing candidates. Sadly, she even faced discrimination from an applicant during this process but carried on because she wanted to make a difference and she really did. A senior member of staff who had been with the company for many years had never thought about D&I until they were interviewed by Rebecca. Following her feedback, the member of staff looked at their career path and behaviours. They are now a D&I champion & have encouraged their team to also become champions and allies in order to make Network Rail a more inclusive place for everyone. This would not have happened without Rebecca’s efforts.

Rebecca has also supported other regions, designing and leading a series of anti-racism workshops and supporting them in creating a D&I plan. In order to encourage more women into leadership positions within operations, Rebecca proactively reviewed job descriptions and found they used masculine-orientated wording. Rebecca rewrote the job adverts, neutralising the gender and introducing more feminine-orientated words along with including videos of women discussing their roles in operations.

Rebecca always thinks of others and goes out of her way to make everyone feel valued. She is an active member of employee networks and has proactively made suggestions to advance diversity and inclusion not just within operations and the region but for the whole of Network Rail. It is very difficult to sum up everything Rebecca does to drive D&I, but I hope this gives you an idea of how hard she works to make a positive difference.“