Mark John Thurston (born January 1967) [1] is a British electrical engineer and businessman. He was chief executive of the High Speed 2 railway construction project from March 2017 to September 2023.
Thurston was born in the London Borough of Sutton. He has a younger brother (born 1969). He lived in Carshalton, Surrey and attended The Wallington High School for Boys in his senior school years. [2]
From the College of North West London in 1983–1987 he gained a Higher National Certificate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He attended Loughborough University from 1999 to 2001 gaining an MSc in Engineering Management. [3] In 2021, the University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Technology [4] .
Thurston began his career as an apprentice with Transport for London. [5] He later worked for Metronet. In June 2008, he joined CH2M as head of structures, bridges and highways, working on both Crossrail and London 2012. [6] [3]
On 26 January 2017 Thurston was appointed chief executive of High Speed 2. [7] [8] In 2022-2023 he was the highest paid of all UK public sector employees. [9] Thurston went on to become the longest serving chief executive for High Speed 2, and stayed on until 2023 when he announced his resignation and then left the project in September of that year. [10] [11]
Thurston was appointed as visiting professor of Complex Project and Programme Leadership at his alma mater, Loughborough University, in 2021. [3]
Thurston lives in Coulsdon, Surrey. He married Amanda Warrilow in April 1994. They have two daughters (born June 1996 and September 1998).[ citation needed ]
Euston railway station is a central London railway terminus managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railway. Euston is the tenth-busiest station in Britain and the country's busiest inter-city passenger terminal, being the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland.
Loughborough University is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when Loughborough Technical Institute began with a focus on skills directly applicable in the wider world. In March 2013, the university announced it had bought the former broadcast centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a second campus. The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £369.1 million, of which £48.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £339.1 million.
East Midlands Parkway railway station is located north of Ratcliffe-on-Soar on the Midland Main Line in the East Midlands of England. It provides park and ride facilities for rail passengers on the routes from Leicester to Derby and Nottingham. It is also the closest station to East Midlands Airport, some 4 miles (6.4 km) away, but without public transport link.
BAM Nuttall Limited is a construction and civil engineering company headquartered in Camberley, United Kingdom. It has been involved in a portfolio of road, rail, nuclear, and other major projects worldwide. It is a subsidiary of the Dutch Royal BAM Group.
High-speed rail in the United Kingdom is provided on five upgraded railway lines running at top speeds of 125 mph (200 km/h) and one purpose-built high-speed line reaching 186 mph (300 km/h).
Old Oak Common (OOC) is a railway station under construction on the site of the Old Oak Common traction maintenance depot to the west of London in Old Oak Common, approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) south of Willesden Junction station. When built, it is expected to be one of the largest rail hubs in London, at about 800 m (2,600 ft) in length and 20 m (66 ft) below surface level.
Wallington County Grammar School (WCGS) is a selective state boys' grammar school with a coeducational Sixth Form located in the London Borough of Sutton. From 1968 to the mid-1990s the school was known as Wallington High School for Boys, one of a handful of grammar schools in the borough,
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line and network of passenger train services in Great Britain. The new railway line, which is currently under construction in England, is to run between the West Midlands and London, with a spur to Birmingham. A network of train services will use the new line and existing conventional track to reach their destinations in the Midlands, North West England, and Scotland. HS2 is to be Britain's second purpose-built high-speed line after High Speed 1, which connects London to the Channel Tunnel. The majority of the project is planned to be completed between 2029 and 2033.
Wallington High School for Girls is an all-girls selective grammar school in the London Borough of Sutton, England.
Sir David Hartmann Higgins is an Australian-British businessman, the Chairman of United Utilities Group, Chairman of Gatwick Airport, and the former Non-Executive Chairman of High Speed Two (HS2). He was Chief Executive of the London 2012 Summer Olympics Delivery Authority and Network Rail.
Richard Howard Brown is a British transport executive. Until 30 June 2013 he was the chairman of Eurostar International Limited, having previously been Eurostar UK Ltd's chief executive between August 2002 and April 2010.
Manchester Airport High Speed Station was a planned High Speed 2 station at Manchester Airport, on the southern boundary of Manchester, England, next to Junction 5 of the M56 motorway on the northern side of the airport 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Manchester Airport railway station.
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), sometimes referred to unofficially as High Speed 3, is a proposed major rail programme designed to substantially enhance the economic potential of the North of England. The phrase was adopted in 2014 for a project featuring new and significantly upgraded railway lines in the region. The aim is to transform rail services between the major towns and cities, requiring the region's single biggest transport investment since the Industrial Revolution. The original scheme would have seen a new high-speed rail line from Liverpool to Warrington continuing to join the HS2 tunnel which it would share into Manchester Piccadilly station. From there, the line would have continued to Leeds with a stop at Bradford. The line was intended to improve journey times and frequency between major Northern cities as well as creating more capacity for local service on lines that express services would have been moved out from.
Jacqueline Anne "Jacque" Hinman P.E. LEED is one of a small number of women who have led Fortune 500 companies. She was most recently the chairman, president and CEO of CH2M HILL, a Fortune 500 US engineering company. In the first quarter of 2024, she will take over as the CEO of Atlas Technical Consultants, based out of Austin, Texas.
Sir Jonathan Michael Thompson, is a British civil servant who served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) from September 2012 until April 2016, when he succeeded Dame Lin Homer as Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs. He became Chief Executive of the Financial Reporting Council after leaving HMRC in Autumn 2019.
Professor Tim Broyd is an English civil engineer who was elected the 152nd President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, taking office in November 2016.
The history of High Speed 2 is the background to the planned construction of High Speed 2 (HS2), a new high-speed railway in Great Britain that would connect London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and other cities in the UK.
Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership.