Rock Rail has welcomed new Partner, James Le Couilliard, to its development team. James will be focussing on rolling stock and rail infrastructure procurement projects in the UK and Australia. His appointment comes as Rock Rail is expanding its operations in both Europe and Australia, having successfully secured £3 billion of institutional funding for new rolling stock over the last four years.
James has over thirty years of commercial experience in major infrastructure transactions in both the public and private sector, predominantly in rail. He has worked in the UK and Australia and held numerous senior level commercial and industry advisory positions, working on some of the UK’s most transformative rail projects including IEP and HS2. Most recently in rail, he was Projects and Bidding Advisor for Hitachi Limited on existing rolling stock supply and maintenance contracts and ongoing bids. As well as his commercial experience, James brings with him an extensive knowledge and appreciation of public sector operations, having spent 7 years as Commercial Lead on the £5.7bn Intercity Express Programme for the Department for Transport.
In April Rock Rail announced the launch of its Australian business, with senior infrastructure developer and financier, Jim Eldridge, at the helm. James will work closely with Jim, as Rock Rail seeks to introduce new sources of long-term, highly competitive institutional investment into the market, to meet the growing demand for new intercity transport infrastructure and high capacity commuter travel.
As well as supporting Rock Rail’s Australian business, James will focus on the UK market where Rock Rail has been at the forefront of delivering better value financing solutions for rolling stock. Here its state-of-the-art fleets are helping transform rail travel for passengers as well as delivering better value for the public sector and contributing to a greener, more sustainable railway. James will work on new and existing UK projects and on extending Rock’s financing approach to deliver similar benefits to other rail infrastructure sectors, including digital signalling, electrification and depots.
James joins the team during a spate of significant senior level hires, strengthening Rock Rail’s commercial, financial and asset management teams as it continues to pursue opportunities to extend the benefits of its innovative financing approach into new markets.
Mark Swindell, CEO of Rock Rail, said: “I am delighted to welcome James to the team. His extensive experience and expertise across the private and public sector and major rail initiatives will be invaluable as we fine tune our approach to create tailored solutions to meet the needs of passengers and our rail, public sector and investment partners across different markets.”
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