John Smith
Managing Director

John Smith has led First GBRf from its creation in 1999 as GB Railfreight, turning it into an award winning, multi-million pound business.

Under John’s leadership the company has established a reputation for reliability, for quality customer service and for innovation.

Prior to becoming managing director, John was deputy managing director of Anglia Railways. He has worked in the rail industry for over 25 years. An engineer, John’s background is in manufacturing and rolling stock maintenance. He has held senior positions at York, Longsight near Manchester, and at Bounds Green, Wembley and Willesden in London.

Ralph Goldney
Deputy Managing Director

Ralph Goldney joined First GBRf as Deputy Managing Director in June 2007.

A Chartered Civil Engineer, Ralph joined the company following a lengthy period in project management consultancy.

Jonathan Moser
Business Development Director

Jonathan Moser is responsible for developing First GBRf’s business in new markets.

Jonathan joined the company from Cargill International in Geneva where he was Head of Coal Trading.

Prior to that, Manchester-born Jonathan was International Coal Supply Manager for TXU - formerly Eastern Energy Trading - where he was responsible for sourcing international traded coal, shipping and port and rail operations for delivery to its five UK power stations.

He went to TXU from Repsol UK where he worked for 6 years and had responsibility for the supply and distribution of downstream petroleum products.

Jonathan, who has a degree in applied chemistry, has 10 years’ experience in the coal industry, 6 in petroleum and 5 in the petrochemical industry, all with a logistics slant.

David Simons
Director of Finance

David Simons joined First GBRf in March 2001 and was appointed to the Board in August 2002 as finance director.

A career railway man, David has also held senior finance positions with English, Welsh and Scottish Railway and Red Star Parcels.

Kevin Walker
Operations Director

Kevin Walker started with First GBRf in 2000 as a train driver and was quickly given the role of team leader. Since 2001 he has held the positions of Operations and Safety Manager, Head of Production and General Manager for the Metronet contract. He was appointed to the First GBRf Board in November 2006.