The Young Railway Professionals Committee was founded in 2009 by the appointed 'Young' representatives of each institute of the Rail Engineers Forum (REF), who realised there was a common interest in promoting key events from each of the composite institutes.

The Committee come from a range of professional backgrounds, which you can read below. This range of backgrounds helps us choose the events that we feel give you guys the best spread.

Rob Mullen

Chairman of the Young Railway Professionals
Institution of Railway Operators representative

Senior Driver Manager, c2c

Rob is a Senior Driver Manager, working for c2c Rail.  This role is responsible for the Driver Management Team and all Mainline Train Drivers in relation to line and competence management.  He has covered additional roles in his two years at c2c Rail including; Depot Driver Manager and Route Performance Manager.  Previous jobs have included senior analytical roles for DeltaRail and Scott Wilson Railways in which a large proportion has been working on franchise bidding.  Rob has been attending IRO events since leaving University and has been a member of the IRO Young Professionals Committee before joining the IRO South East Area Committee.  Rob's role on the Committee is to ensure that the interests of Younger members are looked after, as well as in building links with other professional institutions.  This takes the form of the ‘Young Railway Professionals’, a joint impetus alongside the IMechE, IRSE, IET that is looking to combine resources in delivering international visits and high quality educational talks.

Paul Cooper
Institution of Mechanical Engineers representative

Hitachi

Paul is an engineer working for the rail group of Hitachi Europe Ltd, based in Euston. He joined Hitachi as their first graduate in rail ever, and to a small team of only five UK employees. This was at the start of a contract to build the UK’s first domestic high-speed trains, the Hitachi Class 395. Paul has worked during the design, build, test and delivery stages of the project.

Dr Martyn Chymera
Institution of Engineering & Technology representative

Head of Simulation, Cogitare

Martyn is an electrical engineer with extensive expertise in railway simulation. Responsible for the development of a number of different simulation systems, Martyn is an expert in energy storage systems for rail systems, having completed a doctorate in the subject at the University of Manchester. Martyn has led the simulation and analysis to optimise infrastructure investment for a number of Line Upgrade projects for London Underground. Martyn is also Chairman of the IET Railway Network Young Professionals Committee.

Martin Fenner
Institution of Railway Signal Engineers representative

Signal Engineer, London Underground

Martin is a Signal Engineer working within London Underground's Line Upgrades directorate. Since early 2008 he has been working on the Resignalling element of the Neasden Depot Upgrade Project. Previous to this, he was on the Metronet Rail Electrical Engineering Graduate Scheme. Martin has been attending IRSE talks and events since joining the industry, and was heavily involved in organisng the IRSE's ASPECT conference in 2008. Since then he has been a member of the IRSE Younger Members committee, becoming IRSE YM Chairman in 2010.

Michael Pead

Young Railway Professionals (website)

Environmental Operations Manager, c2c

Michael is responsible for 140 Train Care and Station Care staff at c2c, ensuring that the presentation of the stations and trains meets the customers' expectations. Previous roles have included being Guards Manager at c2c, an Infrastructure Investment Manager at Network Rail, and working in Planning and Performance at Central Trains.