Porterbrook re-structures business to deliver tomorrow’s railway

(From L-R: Stefan Rose, Chief Investment Officer, and Stephen McGurk, Chief Portfolio Officer.)

15 March 2021 | Porterbrook

Porterbrook, the rolling stock owner and asset manager, today announced the restructuring of its business to better meet the needs of customers and tomorrow's railway.

Stefan Rose, currently Head of Structured Finance, will take up the new position of Chief Investment Officer and Stephen McGurk, Chief Commercial Officer will assume the new position of Chief Portfolio Officer. Both roles will report directly to Mary Grant, CEO and take effect from 1 April 2021.

Stefan will lead a dedicated team focusing on new and re-leasing passenger, freight and infrastructure business opportunities supported by his existing structured finance and pricing teams. 

Stephen’s focus will be on supporting Porterbrook's existing customers, who lease more than 4,000 rail vehicles from the business. His team will continue to develop and support the growing portfolio of rolling stock decarbonisation innovations, projects and customer partnerships.

Mary Grant said: "As we head out of lockdown and prepare for a new industry structure, I want Porterbrook to be relentless in focusing on the needs of our existing and future customers. Both roles will ensure that we are best positioned to meet government ambitions for the UK railway and support the Green Recovery. I congratulate both Stefan and Stephen as they prepare to meet these exciting challenges ahead”

Notes to Editors

Media Contacts

Porterbrook Leasing
Rupert Brennan Brown, Director of Stakeholder Engagement [email protected] or +44 (0)7973 950 923

Financial or corporate PR enquiries can also be directed to:

Portland Communications

Simon Evans, Partner - [email protected] 

Richard Brooks, Consultant - [email protected] or +44 (0)7740 858477


About Porterbrook
• Porterbrook has been at the heart of the UK rail network for over 25 years and currently owns almost a third of the national passenger rail fleet
• The company currently has around 4,000 vehicles on lease or on order. Since privatisation, it has invested £3bn in 2,500 new passenger and freight vehicles, and is aiming to invest over £1bn in UK rail over the coming years
• Porterbrook works with a significant number of UK companies across the rail supply chain, investing £3 million per week and supporting around 7,000 UK jobs
• The company is also spending tens of millions of pounds in a significant upgrade of its fleets to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality over the coming years
• Porterbrook employs over 150 people of which three quarters are engineers and project managers. In addition, over a third of the company’s workforce is female including a number of our executive team which compares favourably to the UK rail industry average of 16% (source: Women In Rail)
• In October 2014, the Porterbrook Group of companies was acquired by a consortium of investors including Alberta Investment Management Corporation (“AIMCo”), Allianz Capital Partners (“ACP”) on behalf of certain insurance companies of the Allianz Group, EDF Invest and a consortium of Utilities Trust of Australia (“UTA”), The Infrastructure Fund (“TIF”) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Pension Fund (“RBS”)