Mark CarneCBE is a British businessman who served as executive vice-president for Royal Dutch Shell in the Middle East and North Africa and was chief executive of Network Rail, the government company responsible for Britain's railway infrastructure.
Carne began his career at Royal Dutch Shell. Early in his career he oversaw the company's response to the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster, which was a formative experience and which made safety a theme of his leadership style. After rising to oversee the company's operation in the North Sea he became managing director of Brunei Shell Petroleum. After 21 years, he moved to BG Group, where he became BG's managing director for Europe and Central Asia. Moving back to Shell, he became executive vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa, right through the Arab Spring years. In 2013 he was appointed Chief Executive of Network Rail, which owns and operates the rail infrastructure in Great Britain.
Network Rail
Carne was appointed chief executive of Network Rail in September 2013, and joined the company in January 2014. He succeeded Sir David Higgins—who moved to High Speed 2 as Chairman—in February 2014, having taken control earlier than planned to oversee the repairs in the aftermath of severe winter storms. Carne's salary on appointment was £675,000—an increase on Higgins', though the overall remuneration package was smaller—which prompted criticism from unions, including the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, ASLEF and the RMT. Network Rail stated that the salary "was determined following an exhaustive and independent process which compared the salaries of chief executives in both the public and private sectors given Network Rail's unique position as a not-for-dividend, independent company". In an interview, Carne stated that his immediate focus would be on "safety, reliability, capacity, and cost", while also attempting to reduce spending. Shortly after his appointment, Network Rail was reclassified as a public body in September 2014, which put the Company's debt of £34 billion on the Government balance sheet. This fundamental change meant that Network Rail could no longer borrow additional money to pay for cost increases as the scope of infrastructure projects matured, which had been the process assumed in the Regulatory structure. As a result, cost increases in one project, led to others being controversially postponed or cancelled. This led to National Audit Office reports and Carne being questioned by the Public Accounts Committee who concluded that "The 2014–2019 rail investment programme could not have been delivered within the budget which the Department, Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road agreed" The investment programme was then replanned on the basis of available funds and realistic cost estimates. To also partially resolve the funding crisis, Carne proposed selling Network Rail's commercial estate, which was completed in September 2018 for £1.46 billion. Carne reformed many aspects of Network Rail, devolving power to geographic route businesses, aligning incentives with Train Operating Companies and creating a System Operator to enhance strategic planning of the railway and to maximise use of available capacity. Improving safety was a constant theme - workforce injuries reduced by 50% over 2014-2019. During this time Network Rail were also delivering the "biggest upgrade since Victorian times" with £15 billion of new projects. Carne oversaw the opening of Reading station, Birmingham New Street Station and the new Borders Railway in Scotland, all by Her Majesty the Queen. He also accompanied the Duke of Cambridge on the opening of the new London Bridge Station Carne and the Transport secretary, Chris Grayling, gave back to back speeches to launch the Digital Railway strategy in May 2018. Carne had consistently advocated that moving from analogue signalling to digital signalling using the European Train Control System would reduce cost, increase capacity and reliability and improve safety. Carne was presented with an award by 'Women in Rail' in 2018 in recognition of his industry leadership in diversity and inclusion. The number of women employed by Network Rail increased by 30% during CP5 In October 2017 the statement of funds for the next five year Control Period of £47.9 Bln was announced. This represented an increase in funding of 25% in the operations, maintenance and renewal of the railway, which came as a welcome surprise to some in the industry who had expected funding would be frozen or reduced. In February 2018, Carne announced that he would step down as the chief executive in the summer of 2018; this would allow his successor to take control of the company for the next control period covering 2019-2024. Carne was awarded a CBE for services to the Rail industry in the Queens Birthday honours 2018.
