Mark founded Rock Rail in 2014, having established sister company Rock Infrastructure in 2011, following a highly successful career in law at Clifford Chance (10 years) and DLA Piper (18 years).

Mark has over 35 years of experience working in the City of London, New York and Europe. For the last 28 years, he has specialised in developing innovative funding, financing and procurement strategies for major infrastructure projects, working to ensure the alignment of public and private sector interests and to deliver substantially improved public sector value for money.

Since founding Rock Rail, Mark has led the business in securing £3 billion of institutional investment into new passenger rolling stock for UK rail franchises. He is a director for the companies established to finance and lease each of Rock Rail’s fleets to the rail franchises.

Under Rock Infrastructure, Mark was Commercial Director on the landmark Mersey Gateway Bridge Project and principal advisor on the transformation of CAE’s helicopter training facility PPP.

As a lawyer, Mark created and led DLA Piper’s Commercial and Projects Group and in 2007 became Global Head of DLA’s Infrastructure and Defence Sector.

Mike joined the business in December 2018 in the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer heading up Rock Rail’s expanding asset management operations. Most recently he has taken up the role of Chief Originations Officer responsible for new rolling stock and rail infrastructure opportunities and fleet delivery across all markets.

With over 10 years of rail industry experience, Mike has a wealth of commercial, franchise bidding and asset delivery expertise.

Before joining Rock Mike was Franchise and Programmes Director and Deputy Managing Director for Abellio Greater Anglia leading the procurement and delivery of over 1000 new rolling stock vehicles, working closely with manufacturers to design, build and deliver modern high specification rolling stock for the passengers of Greater Anglia. Prior to this Mike was Abellio’s UK rail business development director and oversaw the successful expansion of Abellio, winning the ScotRail and Greater Anglia Franchises.

Mike’s previous roles have spanned a number of other infrastructure focussed industries across Europe and North America, including water and waste, working on the finance, structuring and development of large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects.

Charles joined Rock in July 2024. He is a chartered accountant with a background of 23 years advising on infrastructure transactions.
Charles is responsible for all financial aspects of the Rock Group, including financial strategy, group and project reporting, risk management, investor support, treasury and HR.
He sits on the Management Board and the Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Rock, Charles was a Corporate Finance partner at PwC focused on the infrastructure sector.  He brings experience of project finance, M&A, capital raising and regulatory and government advice. He was the UK Transport and Logistics leader and a government relationship partner. He has worked across transport, energy transition, telecoms and social infrastructure. He has secured over £14bn of equity and debt finance for complex infrastructure transactions. He was a member of the Corporate Finance Exco responsible for People.

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail Main Weser – Charles advised Rock Rail and abrdn, on their first deal in Germany (and their first outside of the UK) which raised EUR270m of institutional debt and equity for 88 new trains.  Charles led the cross border PwC UK and German advisory team
• Translink / Irish Rail – Charles advised on the business case for a new rolling stock fleet of 8 trains between Bellfast and Dublin.  The case unlocked £141m of investment and will significantly increase journey times between Belfast and Dublin
• Transport For London Charles advised Transport for London on different financing options for various train fleets and depots.  This included different structuring options, pricing and value for money analysis and deliverability
• Thameslink – Charles advised the UK Department for Transport on the £1.7bn refinancing of the Thameslink fleet which achieved financial close in December 2021
• Network Rail – Charles advised on the development of the business case for the deployment of the Digital Railway Programme including ERTMS and traffic management.  Routes include the East Coast Mainline and South Eastern
• Department for Transport – Charles advised on the passenger franchising programme from 2013 – 2022.  This included advising on multiple concession arrangements over a 10 year period.  He lead competitive processes and bi- lateral negotiations
• High Speed 2 – Charles advised High Speed 2 on their commercial and financial strategy for the procurement of £5bn of new high speed rolling stock
• Network Rail – Charles advised Network Rail on the potential sale of 111 light maintenance depots
• DG Move (EU Transport agency) – Charles advised the Commission’s Transport Secretariate on developing innovative financing proposals to support the rollout of ERTMS track and train signalling on key rail corridors in Europe
• Stadler – Charles advised Stadler on their winning bid for the Nexus contract and for the Merseytravel rail concession
• Department for Transport – Charles advised the UK Department for Transport on this £2.2bn Intercity Express rolling stock PPP refinancing
• Cellnex / Neos – Charles advised Cellnex and Neos Networks on their £1bn bid to commercialise the fibre and tower estate for Network Rail
• Romanian Government – Charles advised the Romanian Government on the financing of a new metro line across the city
• NSW RailCorp PPP – Charles advised the NSW Government on the $3.6bn (£1.5bn) Rolling Stock PPP, the largest Australian PPP at that time
• Crossrail rolling stock – Charles advised Crossrail, a joint venture between the Department for Transport and Transport for London, on the procurement of approximately 630 new cars for the Elizabeth Line
• Department for Transport – Charles advised the Department for Transport on procurement and financing of the Intercity Express Programme, financed in two tranches, including ECA finance from JBIC and Nexi.
• Department for Transport – Charles advised the Department for Transport on the replacement of the suburban north/south London rolling stock consisting of up to 1,140 new carriages with a capital cost of £1.6bn.

Transport

• Listed Transport Operator – Charles advised this operator on developing its future smart mobility strategy
• Department for Transport – Charles provided commercial advice on the funding of energy grid connections to support the roll of out of high-powered rapid chargers in motorway service stations
• Department for Transport Covid – Charles advised on the development of an industry wide financial support mechanism for the ferry operators and Eurotunnel in response to the CV-19 crisis
• Lockheed Martin and VT Group – Charles advised the bid for this Search and Rescue Helicopters “Blue Light Service” PPP
• Destia and YIT – Charles advised on their bids for the E18 Road PPP which raised c. €330m of debt and equity

Matthew has over 18 years of experience of the infrastructure sector.

Since joining Rock in 2011, Matthew has played a leading role in the negotiation of the commercial aspects of all of Rock’s fleet.  He also played a lead role in the procurement and delivery of the Mersey Gateway Bridge PPP, which successfully opened in October 2017. In January 2020, Matthew started as Rock’s Head of Compliance and Risk to support the successful delivery of Rock’s fleets and later that year became Rock’s Chief Investment Officer.

Matthew has acted as a deal principal, financial advisor, a joint lead arranger and bookrunner and a legal advisor on infrastructure projects which gives him a unique perspective and insight into how to structure a project to bring it to a successful conclusion.

Matthew has specialized in PPP across all sectors from roads, parking and airports to the healthcare and education sectors, both in the UK, Europe and North America.

Prior to joining Rock, Matthew worked as a Vice President in the Royal Bank of Scotland’s infrastructure finance group (in New York) and was an Associate in DLA Piper’s commercial and projects team (in London).

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail West Coast – led the successful origination and execution of Rock Rail’s bid to buy and finance a fleet of 135 Hitachi AT300 cars for use on the West Coast Partnership franchise
• Rock Rail East Midlands – supported Rock’s successful bid and execution of its financing of a fleet of 165 BMU cars to be supplied by Hitachi for the East Midlands franchise
• Rock Rail South Western – Led the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with First MTR and Bombardier on this £1bn transaction to buy and finance 750 Aventra cars for use on the South Western franchise
• Rock Rail East Anglia – Led the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with Abellio and Stadler on this £700m transaction to buy and finance almost 400 Flirt cars for use on the East Anglia franchise
• Rock Rail Moorgate – assisted in the commercial negotiations for Rock Rail with GTR and Siemens on this £300m transaction to buy and finance 150 Desiro City cars for use on the TSGN franchise

Transport

• Mersey Gateway Bridge PPP – Assistant Commercial Director for the public sector delivery team of this innovative PPP that closed in 2014. Matthew has been actively involved in this project through its construction leading to its opening in October 2017
• Southeast Stoney Trail PPP – Financial advisor to the winning Acciona/SNC Lavalin consortium on the C$769m Southeast Stoney Trail PPP project, which involved the construction of part of the ring road around Calgary, Alberta
• Chicago Parking Meters– Joint Lead Arranger to the winning consortium in the $1.15bn 75 year concession of the City of Chicago’s parking meters
• Pennsylvania Turnpike – Joint Lead Arranger and Joint Bookrunner on the financing arranged in support of Citi Infrastructure Investors’ and Abertis’ winning $12.8bn bid for the Pennsylvania Turnpike concession
• Jackson Airport Parkway – Advised a bidder on the Jackson Airport Parkway greenfield toll road project in Mississippi
• Northwest Parkway – Joint Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner on the financing arranged in connection with Brisa’s acquisition of the Northwest Parkway toll road in Denver, Colorado. The deal was voted North American Transport Deal of the Year 2007 by Project Finance magazine
• M25 DBFO – Legal advisor to the funders supporting Ferrovial’s and Laing O”Rourke’s bid for the M25 DBFO project, the largest DBFO road project to date

Healthcare

• Taunton Oncology PFI – Legal advisor to Innisfree, the project’s sponsors, in this ground-breaking transaction that was the first healthcare PFI project where medical equipment risk was not ring-fenced

Henry re-joined Rock Rail in the origination team in August 2021.

Henry has 7 years of experience in the infrastructure sector having worked on transactions across the transport, communications and energy sectors in Europe and further afield. Having started off his career at Rock, where he worked on several of the early Rock Rail transactions, he has held financial advisory roles at Macquarie Capital (Analyst) and DC Advisory (Associate Director).

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail South Western – assisted in the tender submission, procurement process and financing workstream to buy and finance almost 750 Bombardier Flirt cars for First MTR to use on the South Western franchise (£1bn)
• Rock Rail East Anglia – assisted in the tender submission, procurement process and financing workstream to buy and finance almost 400 Stadler Flirt cars for Abellio to use on the East Anglia franchise (£700m)
• Rock Rail Moorgate – assisted in the tender submission, procurement process and financing workstream to buy and finance 150 Siemens Desiro City cars for GTR to use on the TSGN franchise (£300m)

Transport

• D4/R7 road PPP – advising sponsors Macquarie Capital, Ferrovial and Porr on the 30-year availability-based DBFOM in Slovakia (€1bn)

Other

• VTTI (Midstream storage) – advising IFM and Vitol on VTTI’s corporate refinancing and new revolving credit facility
• Airband (Broadband) – advising Aberdeen Standard Investments on their investment into Airband Community Internet Limited and subsequent debt raise
• SBSA (Biogas) – advising Arjun Infrastructure Partners on its investments in Sustainable Bio Solutions Aabenraa
• Adven (District heating) – advising Infracapital and AMP Capital on the refinancing of Adven
• Värmevärden (District heating) – advising JP Morgan on the refinancing of Värmevärden
• Oslofjord Varme (District heating) – advising Mirova and Infranode on the €200m refinancing

Trevor joined Rock in December 2016.

He is a partner in Rock’s origination team and has over 20 years of experience in the European infrastructure market working across the transport, social infrastructure, power and renewables and communications sectors. Before joining Rock, he worked at major financing institutions, including Deutsche Bank, CIT Bank and, most recently, as regional project finance team head at HSBC, and he has been involved in many landmark financing deals, bringing together major clients, innovative commercial and financing structuring, and focused and effective project management.

At Rock, Trevor led the commercial and financial close process on our major deals in the UK until 2019, and is now leading our development of  the German rail market.

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail East Midlands – Trevor ran the financing process that delivered a £400m financing for Rock Rail’s East Midlands deal – the transaction continues Rock’s run of successes in the UK rolling stock market and was delivered within a remarkable 22 days from appointment of preferred funder.
• Rock Rail South Western – Trevor ran the financing process that delivered a £1bn financing for Rock Rail’s South Western trains project – the transaction is the largest unrated privately placed infrastructure transaction in the UK market, and also the largest greenfield institutional investor project.
• Rock Rail Main-Weser – Trevor ran the origination, commercial and financial close process for this EUR250m fleet of Alstom Coradia Stream units which will be leased to Deutsche Bahn for use in the Frankfurt region of Germany
• Rock Rail MDSB – Trevor ran the origination, commercial and financial close process for this fleet of Siemens Mireo units which will be leased to Deutsche Bahn for use in the Leipzig-Mitteldeutschland region of Germany
• Intercity Express Programme – Agility Trains West and Agility Trains East – Trevor acted as financial advisor to Agility Trains using an innovative combination of long term commercial bank debt, JBIC bank debt, NEXI export credit financing and EIB lending, to raise £5bn. The transaction was the largest ever privately financed UK rolling stock deal, pioneering the use of project financing techniques to fund new UK rolling stock and bringing both JBIC and NEXI into the UK infrastructure market.  At Rock, Trevor supported the Rock/Dalmore/Equitix/JII consortium that acquired shares in Agility Trains West.
• Thameslink Refinancing – Trevor acted as financial advisor for Cross London Trains in delivering a c£1bn bank debt and EIB refinancing that significantly reduced the cost associated with the Thameslink financing. Careful lender management was required to ensure competitive tension was maintained in the refinancing process, delivering a repriced financing that took advantage of the reduction in funding costs.

Transport

• M8 Scotland – Trevor acted as financial advisor to the winning bidder on this Scottish PPP project – the financing structure was a combination of EIB debt and project bond financing, one of the first of its kind in the UK.
• Irish Roads – Trevor acted as financial advisor to DirectRoute in the financing of two road PPP schemes, the Rathcormac-Fermoy Bypass and the Limerick Tunnel. The schemes combined traffic risk with innovative financing solutions, with Limerick utilising an award winning wrapped conduit funding structure.

Defence

• Trevor acted as financial advisor to the winning bidders for the UK’s WAH-64 Apache Helicopter Training project and the Heavy Equipment Transport Project. The latter project developed the concept of Sponsored Reserves in defence PPPs, and utilised a wrapped LPI indexed private placement funding structure.

Energy

• Trevor acted as financial advisor to the winning bidder for the Buckinghamshire County Council Waste project, and as lender to the Milton Keynes Waste project. Both schemes used an innovative construction period financing that minimised funding costs and maximised council operational flexibility.

Healthcare

• Royal Liverpool and Sandwell Hospitals – Trevor acted as financial advisor to the winning bidder on these two late era UK hospital PPPs – both projects used fully developed debt funding competition approaches, and Sandwell was also the first fully PF2 compliant PPP scheme, using an equity funding competition approach.
• Blackburn Hospital – Trevor acted as financial advisor to this early period UK hospital PPP, with the financing based on a wrapped public bond model.
• Adana Hospital – Trevor acted as debt funder for this Turkish healthcare PPP.
• King Edward Memorial Hospital – Trevor acted as debt funder for this Bermudan healthcare PPP scheme, using competitive and contractual approaches based on the Canadian model.

Power

• Trevor acted as financial advisor to ADWEA, the Abu Dhabi government’s power and water procurement authority, in respect of its competitive tender for the 1500MW Shuweihat power and water desalination plan.

Telecommunications

• Trevor acted as joint financial advisor to O3B in its initial finance raising and in its subsequent expansion financing to fund a constellation of mid-earth orbit satellites to provide flexible broadband coverage across a number of global regions.

David joined Rock Rail as a Partner in the origination team in September 2020.

He works within the origination team at Rock and is responsible for working with debt and equity investors to raise finance for new projects.  David’s particular focus is on rolling stock and zero emission bus projects in the UK.

David joined Rock following a 20-year career as a financial adviser and lender in the UK, European and North American infrastructure space.  In particular, he advised the Rock team on their first five greenfield deals and was instrumental in developing new ways to finance rolling stock in the UK.  Prior to joining Rock, David led the award winning financial advisory team at Operis.  Over the course of his career he has also worked for Royal Bank of Canada, Deloitte and PwC.

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail West Coast – financial adviser to the team that closed the >£350m funding of 135 new Hitachi electric and bi-mode vehicles for use on the West Coast Partnership franchise.
• Rock Rail East Midlands – financial adviser on Rock’s successful bid for the £400m financing of a new 165 vehicle fleet of Hitachi intercity bi-mode trains. This transformative transaction was closed within a remarkable 22 days of Rock being appointed preferred funder.
• Rock Rail South Western – financial adviser to the Rock team that delivered a £1bn financing for Rock Rail’s South Western trains project – the transaction is the largest unrated privately placed infrastructure transaction in the UK market, and also the largest greenfield institutional investor project.
• Rock Rail East Anglia – financial adviser to Rock on the funding of a fleet of 378 new electric and bi mode trains manufactured by Stadler and leased to Greater Anglia. This financing incorporated the EIB – the first time the EIB has participated in a UK rolling stock transaction without government guarantees and was closed in the volatile markets after the Brexit vote.
• Rock Rail Moorgate – financial adviser to Rock on the funding of a fleet of 150 new electric multiple units to be manufactured by Siemens and leased to Govia Thameslink Railways. This was a highly competitive bid, closed in 35 days from preferred bidder.

Transport

Zero Emission Bus

• Route 111, London – led the financing and commercial workstream for Rock Road on its maiden deal in the zero emission bus space.  Rock purchased 30 Wrightbus Electroliners to lease to Abellio (now Transport UK) to run on Route 111 between Kingston and Heathrow in west London.

Other Transport

• N18, Netherlands – financial adviser to the winning consortium for this EUR 100m PPP scheme for 27km of new highway between Groenlo and Enschede in the Netherlands.

Healthcare

• New Karolinska Hospital, Sweden – financial adviser to the successful bidder on this SEK 14bn healthcare PPP in Solna near Stockholm.  This landmark financing brought together EIB, NIB and commercial banks in the largest ever long term financing in SEK.
• Fife Hospital, Scotland – financial adviser to the winning consortium on this £200m UK healthcare PPP project.  The debt was raised in the aftermath of the global financial crisis  which made this a challenging project.
• Primary Care Centres, Ireland – financial adviser to the winning bidder on this €140m project to procure 14 new primary care centres in Ireland.  This pathfinder project was the first of its type and the first PPP procured by HSE in Ireland.

Education

• Priority Schools Programme, UK – acted as financial adviser to various consortia bidding for the five bundles which made up the Priority Schools programme in the UK including the winning bid on the Midlands bundle.  This scheme involved innovative financing with senior debt provided by an aggregator vehicle.
• Building Schools for the Future Programme, UK – acted as financial adviser to the private sector on a large number of primary bids including closed deals in Essex, Ealing and Oldham.  Also acted for a number of local authorities including Birmingham City Council.
• University of Essex Refinancing – advised the SPV on the refinancing of the debt for this major student accommodation PPP which resulted in a major refinancing gain shared between the public and private sectors.

Power

• Ghent Biomass, Belgium – acted as financial adviser on this 19.9 MW biomass to energy plant.  The project raised both equity and senior debt at financial close and is funded by a combination of power revenues and green certificates

Defence

• Future Strategic Aircraft Tanker (FSTA) PPP – acted as senior lender on this major £1bn+ defence PPP which procured aircraft capable of refuelling whilst in flight.

Nick joined Rock in January 2017. He brings over twenty-five years of experience in the railway industry in both the UK and mainland Europe, with a particular focus on the rolling stock market.

Since the beginning of 2019 Nick has played a leading role in the development of Rock’s business in mainland Europe. Working with a team of Rock Rail experts and industry advisors and engaging with regional government, local transport authorities, operators, manufacturers, stakeholders and influencers, Nick has played a lead role in establishing Rock Rail in Germany. This work culminated in July 2022 with the successful financial close of a funding for a new fleet of 17 Alstom Double-Deck EMUs for Deutsche Bahn to operate Main-Weser services in the Frankfurt/Hessen region, followed in December of 2023 with the financial close of the financing of a new fleet of 18 Siemens Mireo EMUs for Deutsche Bahn to operated Mitteldeutsches S-Bahn-Netz 2025 plus Lot 1 in the Leipzig region.  Following the close of these transactions, Nick is now also leading project management and asset management activities for both of these fleets during their build and delivery phases. Prior to 2019 Nick’s activities have included being asset and project management lead for Rock on both the Moorgate Class 717 and the Greater Anglia Class 745 and Class 755 trains.

Nick’s career includes two executive roles at major rolling stock manufacturers. Firstly at Hitachi Rail Europe, where he was responsible for the sales, commercial and strategic planning activities of Hitachi’s rail business in both the UK and Europe. He developed, led and implemented Hitachi Rail Europe’s early new business strategy for mainland Europe including senior level engagement with SBB (Switzerland) and DB (Germany). More recently Nick was UK Sales Director and a member of the Executive Management Team at Siemens Rail Systems with responsibility for overall Sales performance of the Rail Systems Division in the UK.

Prior to this Nick worked for the ROSCO HSBC Rail (now Eversholt Rail Group) for nearly ten years in a number of roles. He held overall responsibility for all activities relating to its portfolio of Intercity and Freight rolling stock assets, including relationship management, engineering and project management.

Nick brings with him a comprehensive knowledge of the UK and European rolling stock market and will continue to take a lead role in Rock Rail’s business development and asset management capabilities as it continues to grow its rolling stock portfolio in Germany and Mainland Europe.

Notable transactions

Rail

• Rock Rail MDSB – Lead for technical, project management and maintenance and life cycle cost elements of the winning bid and in subsequent negotiations.
• Rock Rail Main-Weser – Lead for technical, project management and maintenance and life cycle cost elements of the winning bid and in subsequent negotiations.
• Intercity Express Programme – Commercial Lead for Hitachi Rail Europe, winning bidder
• South West Trains Class 707s – Bid Lead and Sponsor for Siemens Rail Systems, winning bidder
• GTR Moorgate Tunnel/Class 717s – Bid Sponsor for Siemens Rail Systems, winning bidder
• Thameslink – Commercial Lead for Hitachi Rail Europe
• S-Bahn Hamburg – Project Lead and Bid Sponsor for Hitachi Rail Europe
• Crossrail – Bid Sponsor for Hitachi Rail Europe
• New Tube for London – UK Bid Sponsor for Siemens Rail Systems