Key Personnel
Mr Chris Chalwell is Chairman of Railtrain Pty Ltd. Chris has more than 25 years’ experience in senior management and advisory roles, initially graduating from the Western Australian School of Mines and more recently from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in Boston.
Together with his Chairman’s role at Railtrain, Chris is a founding Director of ASX-listed Galan Lithium Dempsey Minerals Limited, an Australian minerals exploration company. Chris is a recent Director of the Industrial Foundation of Accident Prevention (IFAP), a not-for-profit organisation where he advances safety leadership in the workplace. Chris is also Vice Chairman of Perth Racing, Western Australia’s premier thoroughbred racing club. From 2012-2013, Chris was Chairman of the ASX-listed Minera Gold Limited – with gold producing assets in South America and Iron Ore Supplier Advocate appointed by the Hon. Greg Combet MP, Minister for Industry and Innovation and worked to promote Buy Australian at Home and Abroad initiative.
For more than a decade and prior to Chris’s appointment at Railtrain, Chris was Chief Operating Officer of Skilled Group, a workforce services business.
Mr Stephen Cowan is an experienced senior executive with a record of success in leadership roles. His experience includes time in international “bluechip” companies with multi-national responsibilities, and in significant publicly listed and privately held Australian based businesses. Stephen’s experience includes transitions from Public to Private ownership, a Public listing, and as a Director of HunterNet, the Newcastle Business Chamber, and the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator.
Stephen has led teams to success across multiple business sectors, spanning FMCG and B2B services. The record of success demonstrates his ability to engage customers and management teams to identify and deliver priority outcomes and create mutual value.
Stephen’s most recent role, prior to Railtrain, was as Executive General Manager, NSW/VIC, Pacific National. Customers of this business included thermal coal, minerals, grains, construction, and general commodity producers. The efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of the rail haulage logistics under his leadership were critical to the customers’ business success and growth.
Stephen has a strong commitment to improving workplace safety, leading major programs in all roles. He is passionate on risk awareness, providing employees the tools to identify unsafe acts and conditions, and empowering them to correct and manage their workspace, as all employees have a responsibility for their own and their workmates safety.
Mr Graham Butler has over 25 years industry experience in major rail operations across Australia holding senior executive roles with, Pacific National, Skilled Group and Westrail. Graham holds numerous rail operation and vocational management qualifications, including a Diploma of Management (Deakin University) and Leadership in Action (Mt Eliza Business School). Graham is also qualified as a trainer and assessor and in early 2012 became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Graham has extensive technical knowledge and experience in Australian Rail Operations. He has a deep understanding of Industrial Relations and the implementation of industrial awards. Graham’s expertise extends into optimising and building additional workforce flexibility to increase productivity, including a tactical approach to the attraction and retention of a competent and productive workforce.
Over the years Graham has developed extensive rail support networks to assist clients best implement Greenfield and Brownfield projects from pre feasibility, feasibility, commissioning, steady state and eventually to project close out.
Graham is a committed leader in Rail Safety. The Butler family’s passion for Rail spans 3 generations with over 170 years combined service and knowledge in the rail industry.
Mr Brendan Williams has extensive rail & mine site supply chain management experience with a special focus on rail infrastructure projects and rail operations support in the Pilbara and South West of Western Australia. Brendan is a safety leader with hands on experience of planning and driving major employee safety initiatives and change management through work forces in response to work place fatalities and injuries. He is committed to ensuring all employees return home injury and disease free after each shift.
The Williams family resided in the Pilbara for several years, Brendan as Regional Manager for a major workforce services company. From this experience he is well practiced at working through and planning to effectively meet the challenges of gaining best outcomes from isolated projects, the accommodation of urgent requests and meeting tight project deadlines without increasing the risk profile or compromising the quality of works conducted.
Brendan has managed and operated large support & recruitment teams from Perth supporting the Pilbara, metro and Southwest regions of Western Australia. He has 13 years of significant experience in the rail and recruitment industries with a demonstrated track record and is passionate about providing excellent service to both clients and Railtrain employees. In early 2012 Brendan became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Mr Rick Barnett has 34 years’ experience in rail maintenance and construction commencing with WAGR in 1983. During his career Rick has gained experience across Australia on a wide range of systems including heavy haul, grain, coal and freight lines involving maintenance, re-sleepering, track machines, ballast cleaning, turnout construction and installation, siding construction and yard rationalisation.
Rick has successfully headed up a number of prominent projects in Western Australia as a General Superintendent for some of the major rail joint ventures, achieving excellent safety records along with timely completion within estimated budgets.
Rick heads up the rail maintenance team at RMC Rail, a Railtrain company specialising in private terminal services including inspections, maintenance and servicing.
Rick is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors & attended the company directors course in 2015.
Mathew is a Chartered Accountant with 16 years of commerce, private equity and big four professional services experience.
Beginning his career at EY as an auditor in the UK Mathew spent five years auditing large FTSE and ASX listed businesses in the UK and Australia.
Mathew spent the next nine years of his career as a corporate finance practitioner at Deloitte and EY in London, Sydney and Perth working for corporate and private equity clients across various industries on projects and M&A transactions ranging from $1m to in excess of $1bn in value.
Since 2014, Mathew has focused on applying his experience and skills to growth businesses in senior commercial finance and strategy roles.
As Chief Financial Officer of Railtrain, Mathew has overall responsibility for the finance function and also supports the Directors with key commercial decision making as well as strategy development and implementation.
Mathew Southgate, BCom (Hons), CA, MAICD, SA Fin
Mr Paul Griffin has held management positions within Rio Tinto, National Rail, Asciano and Pacific National.
He initiated his career in Information Technology and progressed to specialise in customer service delivery and business development across bulk commodity markets.
Paul has a comprehensive understanding of senior management, operations, regional delivery expectations and offers specialist knowledge of managing operations, stakeholder relationships, business development and customer relations especially as they relate to logistics management in the rail industry.
Paul Griffin, B.Comm, GradDipLogMgt, GACID
Mr Joe Angelucci is one of the significant leaders in the Rail Infrastructure industry, Joe has successfully developed and delivered projects and created high performing businesses in a career spanning 35 years.
Currently Joe is a Director at Agonis Group, prior to that he spent 23 years at John Holland Pty Ltd where he held roles including Key Account Manager, Director Rail Projects, General Manager Rail West and General Manager Operations.
During this time Joe was instrumental in the formation of the John Holland Rail Division, providing business development, tendering and project management services to the team and was involved in growing rail plant services to be the largest in the Australian private sector. Joe was also an Advisor and Member on numerous Joint Venture and Alliance Leadership team
Mr Chris Elston has 35 years experience as a senior Executive HR/OD professional across six (6) Industry Sectors with an emphasis on strategic organisational and transformational change underpinned by a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Australian IR system. Chris has a firm grounding in the fundamentals of HR which has positioned him to be able to bring about an alignment between business strategies and working practices.
Intertwined with his practical hands on experience Chris holds a Masters in Business Administration (Distinction), Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations, Bachelor of Business (Management) and a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.
Brendan is a Civil Engineer with 12 Years’ experience in Rail Construction, Rail Maintenance, Asset Management, Project Management and Delivery.
During his early career, Brendan developed a strong background in large-scale multidisciplinary projects both in track construction and project integration / management roles. Supporting the delivery of a total project portfolio in excess of $300M through various roles from Project Engineer to Program Manager.
In recent years, Brendan has held the position of Rail Infrastructure Manager for Aurizon Operations, leading delivery of Asset Management, Maintenance and Renewals Nationally, a depth of knowledge he has no hesitation is sharing with our clients.
Since commencing in 2018 as General Manager of RMC Rail, Brendan brings a strong focus on innovative delivery, high quality, safe outcomes to the RMC Business Unit.
Brendan Lane, BEng (Hons), PMP, Dip PM
