Honours
Taking a hands-on approach to championing rail’s supply chain Colin Flack OBE on continuing to champion rail’s supply chain and support the industry’s SMEs
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olin Flack OBE has now had several weeks to reflect on being the recipient of an award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. These honours are never inevitable, but for someone who wears so many hats in the transport industry it was more a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ his sustained leadership, commitment to rail and his contribution to championing and supporting the UK’s rail supply chain would be recognised in such a high-profile manner. Yet getting the advance warning that an OBE was heading his way was not as simple a process as one might expect. Given lockdown, the Cabinet Office had taken to notifying recipients via email back in April, and such is the unusual nature of the email address such official missives are sent from that most of these messages were filtered as spam. Colin received a follow-up call to stress the importance of reading the email, which is when the penny dropped. Colin said: “I hadn’t seen it up to that point and then there it was. When I got the call a part of me thought, this better not be a wind up, then I looked at the screen and realised it was real. Getting the OBE still hasn’t sunk in and it was certainly not something I expected so it was a really humbling moment. “Given my military background I’m pretty good at keeping secrets but this was a difficult one to keep to myself. Then when the announcement was made I had a wonderful reaction from people I know and some I don’t know at all who sent some lovely messages of support.” Simple outlook Colin continued: “It is important to me that this honour can be used positively. I have a simple outlook on life and my career in both the military and business is founded on pretty basic principles, at the top of which is trust and loyalty. The OBE will help me to continue to do my work and gives people trust in what I can do.” Following a career in the British Army, which started in 1978 and saw him serve in Northern 36 | January 2021
Ireland, Hong Kong with the Gurkhas, the Gulf War, Kosovo and elsewhere in the world, and ultimately rise to the rank of Colonel, Colin then set up Quinton Rail Technology Centre (QRTC) with his wife, Ruth. QRTC is one of just four
Getting the OBE still hasn’t sunk in and it was certainly not something I expected so it was a really humbling moment Testing Centres of Excellence in the UK and the largest specialist off-lease rolling stock storage site in the country. QRTC is also the home of Rail Live, an event recognised as Europe’s largest outdoor railway show. Colin was responsible for transforming Rail Live into its current format, which benefits
from a strong partnership with Bauer Media’s Rail Magazine and brings the entire rail industry together in a working railway environment. Colin was also one of the key players in forming the Rail Supply Group, which is now working on delivering the Sector Deal. He was the founder of the West Midlands Rail Alliance via his work with the West Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service, which subsequently evolved into the national and international body that is the Rail Alliance. In 2019, the Rail Alliance became a fully integrated part of University of Birmingham’s Birmingham Centre for Rail Research and Innovation, where it continues to support industry and academic rail activities. Colin explained: “The Rail Alliance’s integration with the University will reap some really big, positive benefits in the future. “The whole point about the Rail Alliance is that it came about to address the void that existed for the large percentage of companies that would not describe themselves as ‘rail’ businesses because they supported and supplied a whole variety of industries, and therefore the rail industry did not really support them.” Catch-all for companies Colin said: “There were a lot of businesses that didn’t feel loved. So our role was to fish deeper and more broadly and be a catch-all for those companies that wanted to get involved. That’s more in vogue now, of course, but we changed things. Now, there’s a new evolution, with the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN), so we’re all working in a different space and the University will provide opportunities and routes in for companies to engage with rail. “The railway industry is a difficult place to do business because it is, inevitably, dominated by some very large players so it’s not an easy place for the SME to work. Yet it’s that space that I find absolutely fascinating and working with the Rail Alliance, supported by a brilliant team, we made the inroads required because OEMs, Tier 1 contractors, ROSCOs, they’re not really set up to nurture the supply chain and frankly do not railbusinessdaily.com
