Johnny Schute

Johnny joined RSSB in May 2018 as Chief Operating Officer and leads our Chief Operating Group. He was formerly the Deputy Chief Inspector of Railways and Deputy Director, Railway Safety at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), having assumed the appointment in January 2017. He had responsibility for health and safety regulation of the mainline rail network, all operating companies (both train and freight), light rail, metros (including TfL) and heritage. Prior to this, he was Deputy Director, Policy, Strategy and Planning within the Rail Safety Directorate of ORR.

Before joining ORR in October 2015, he served for 34 years in the British Army as an infantry soldier, undertaking operational tours in Northern Ireland, Southern Arabia, the Balkans and Iraq. In his final appointment as Chief Environmental and Safety officer for the army—and responsible to the head of the army for all health and safety matters—he introduced a new safety management system derived from lessons learned from the Nimrod disaster (RSSB member report available). He was also closely involved in setting up the first defence safety regulator, the Defence Safety Authority.

Johnny has an MBA from the Open University and a MSc in Design of Information Systems from Cranfield University. He was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2005.