In April I was very honoured to be named as the Management Consultants Association’s (MCA) Change Management Consultant of the Year at their prestigious awards ceremony. Of course I knew I had been short listed which is quite something in itself – the MCA awards are the “Oscars” of the management consultancy industry.

Atkins had been short listed in the Change Project in the Public Sector category too for the project team that went in to help Network Rail set up the level crossing programme. Atkins took a number of clients, including some of the national level crossing team from Network Rail, to the awards dinner and ceremony and of course it turned into quite a celebration when we were named winners in both of the categories we entered!

The entry for me was based on the work I have been doing with Network Rail since Sir David Higgins, the Chief Executive of Network Rail asked me to become their Level Crossing User Champion in July 2011.  At the time the company was under investigation from the Office of Rail Regulation following discovery of previously undisclosed risk assessments.

The MCA Award submission can be read here.

The Times sponsors the awards and published a supplement about the winners on 22 May 2014 which can be read here.

The article about me is entitled “the mother who took on Network Rail” which is a little more ‘tabloid’ than I expected but I guess it’s true.

The Sunday Times took a slightly different angle for an article they published on 18 May 2014 which you can read here. The photo was taken soon after the successful prosecution of Network Rail over their failings at Elsenham and an old friend commented “Nice photo – who is the old bird in the background?” So no chance of my success going to my head!