Governance

Our President (2022-23): Andy Knight, BA CDir, FIRSE became the 98th President of the Institution on 21 April 2022.

He is Managing Director and owner of Signet Solutions Limited, the UK’s leading provider of railway signalling courses and training programmes.
In a S & T engineering career spanning over 39 years, Andy followed his father into the railway industry starting at the age of 17 as a trainee technician at Arpley Depot in Warrington. Always hungry to learn more from both colleagues and formal training courses, as his career progressed, he developed a keen interest in developing and mentoring trainee engineers, which led him to take on training roles within BR, rising to become Chief Instructor for the Crewe S & T Training Centre. Following privatisation he was part of the buyout team which took over all of the English BR training centres before joining Signet Solutions as Operations Director in 2001. He was appointed Manging Director in 2003.  Andy has been involved with the IRSE for more than 30 years and Signet has been a generous supporter of  the Institution and its education  aims for over two decades, establishing  the  IRSE Signet Award  in 2016.

IRSE Council

The IRSE Council is the governing body of the Institution. The role of Council and the duties of Council members are defined in the Memorandum of Association & Articles of the Institution, but in summary, they make decisions on behalf of the members, as appropriate, in the running of the Institution, and generally have to ensure that the objectives for which the Institution has been established are progressed in a professional and satisfactory manner.
They are the Trustees of the Institution, which is a Registered Charity in England & Wales, and are also Company Directors, since the Institution is also registered as a UK company limited by guarantee. Certain local rules which are agreed by Council but sit outside the Memorandum and Articles of Association can be found in the Bye-Laws approved from time to time by Council. The current Bye-Laws can be found here.
Council members are elected by the corporate members of the Institution, i.e. Fellows, Members and Associate Members, for two year terms, and they can stand for election for subsequent terms if they wish to do so, as defined in the Articles referred to above. The results of the election process are announced at the Institution’s Annual General Meeting held in April and are reported in IRSE News.
The Council is supported by a number of principal Committees. Click here to view an explanatory diagram of these Committees.
If you are interested in becoming a member of Council a guidance document can be accessed here. 

Council members 2022 - 2023: