Phil Verster

Phil Verster is the President & Chief Executive Officer at Metrolinx.

Phil oversees a team committed to transforming transportation in the GTHA. With a strong community and customer service emphasis, Metrolinx is delivering quality transportation services on time and on budget, and working collaboratively with our partners – all key elements to delivering on the promise of Metrolinx’s Regional Transportation Plan.

Prior to joining Metrolinx, Phil was one of the UK’s rail leaders, having managed train operations, infrastructure builds and infrastructure management for passenger rail systems in England, Scotland and Ireland.

An engineer by training, Phil began his career in the electricity sector in his native South Africa. From 2001 to 2003, he was Depot Manager and Production Director for a UK division of Bombardier Rail. In 2003, Phil moved from the supplier side to passenger rail operations at Southeastern Trains. He then spent five years at Irish Rail, where he served in different roles, including Deputy CEO.

In 2011, Phil joined Britain’s Network Rail. His first assignment was Managing Director London North East and East Midlands Route , the second largest route in the Network Rail system. He pioneered a new approach to structured continuous improvement that delivered improved safety and train performance as well as an enhanced passenger experience. Phil put the same innovation and discipline to work in his subsequent assignment for Network Rail running Scotland’s ScotRail passenger rail service, from 2015 to 2017. In early 2017, Phil served as Managing Director of Network Rail’s East West Railway.

Phil has a Bachelors of Engineering and a Masters of Engineering, both from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He has an MBA from the University of Newcastle Business School and an LLM Post Graduate Diploma (Commercial Law) from the University of Northumbria, both in the UK.