Who's who
Find out who we are here
Our board
The Railways Act 2005 abolished the regional Rail Passengers Committees and the former national Rail Passengers Council and a new organisation was created to represent the views of all rail passengers across Great Britain.
The organisation is structured as an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Transport, with 14 members. The Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government and the Greater London Authority are each able to appoint a member to the board. The remaining appointments are made by the Secretary of State for Transport. Recruitment to the Board was on an open recruitment basis, and appointment was based on a mix of skills, knowledge and competencies plus geographic spread across Great Britain.
Board members
Colin Foxall CBE is chairman of Passenger Focus and is also a non-executive director of Radian Asset Assurance Ltd and a member of the British Transport Police Authority.
David Burton was managing director of West Anglia Great Northern Railway from 1996-1999.
Philip Davis was chairman of the Rail Passengers Committee for the Midlands. A former trade union negotiator and voluntary sector CEO, he serves on a number of public and community bodies, including the Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT). He led Telford and Wrekin Borough for five years and remains closely involved with local and regional public policy development.
James King is a member of the British Transport Police Authority. After a successful career in the advertising industry James established his own strategic business and marketing consultancy in 1996, which he continues to run today. James was appointed by the Scottish Government.
Christine Knights was chair of the Rail Passengers Committee for North East England. She is a member of the British Transport Police Authority and is experienced in the development of consumer organisations and consumer policy in Europe and the UK.
Dr Derek Langslow CBE was chairman of the Rail Passengers Committee for Eastern England and was previously chief executive of English Nature. He holds a number of non-executive roles including Chair of the East of England Tourist Board and is a trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
David Leibling chairs the Fares and Ticketing Committee of London TravelWatch and is a member of its Executive Group, its Casework Committee and the Luton Airport Transport Forum. He is London TravelWatch’s Lead Member for Barnet, Harrow and Hillingdon Borough Liaison. He was formerly the Director of Communications for Lex, the motoring group, and was a non-Executive Director of the Driving Standards Agency for eight years. David is also a member of Public Policy Committee, RAC Foundation for Motoring and editor of its Motoring towards 2050 series of reports. He is also a trustee of Roadsafe, the motor industry's road safety activity. 
Deryk Mead CBE was chief executive of NCH, the leading children’s charity, from 1996 to 2004 after a career as a chief officer in local government. He is a Public Member of Network Rail and holds a number of non-executive positions including NHS West Midlands and the Meat Hygiene Board.
Bill Samuel was previously chief executive of the East of England Regional Development Agency and prior to that was chief executive of Peterborough City Council. He holds a number of non-executive positions and is Deputy Chair of the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation.
Barbara Saunders OBE is an independent consumer consultant with experience of public policy in the UK and European Union. She has held a number of non-executive positions and previously chaired the Financial Services Consumer panel and Insurance Ombudsman Bureau.
Marc Seale is currently the chief executive and registrar of the Health Professions Council and was previously public interest director for the Centre for Rail Skills.
Stella Mair Thomas is a communications, media and marketing consultant, and was formerly Head of the Independent Television Commission for Wales and the West of England. Stella was appointed by the National Assembly for Wales.
Nigel Walmsley is chairman of Tourism South East and of the Broadcast Audience Research Board. He was formerly chairman of Carlton Television and, earlier, chief executive of the Capital Radio Group.
Our Chief Executive
Anthony Smith is our Chief Executive. Having qualified as a solicitor, Anthony worked for five years as principal consumer lawyer for the Consumers’ Association, publishers of Which? This was followed by a year as the legal consultant for Consumers International, a worldwide federation of consumer groups.
Prior to joining Passenger Focus, Anthony was deputy and acting director of ICSTIS, the regulator of premium rate telephone services.
Our Passenger Director
Ashwin Kumar heads up the watchdog’s passenger link team which is responsible for liaising with train operating companies, Network Rail, stakeholders and the media to achieve improvements for passengers. He also manages the Manchester-based passenger advice team, which takes up complaints on behalf of passengers dissatisfied with their train company’s response.
Ashwin joined Passenger Focus in late 2007 after working as an economist at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where he was based for nine years. He has also worked previously as a Press Officer at the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
Our structure
If you would like to see details of the rest of our organisation please view our structure chart and a snapshot of the composition of Passenger Focus.