Michael Beswick was born in 1954 and joined British Rail: Southern Region as a Traffic Management Trainee in 1975. He then went on to undertake local operational jobs in London area before joining the Policy Unit at British Railways Headquarters. He then undertook various commercial and marketing jobs, eventually becoming Marketing Strategy Manager for InterCity. He worked for the British Rail Restructuring Team to 1993 to 1994. He then moved to the Office of the Rail Regulator in 1994, working as Assistant Director Passenger Access and Network Regulation and then Director Network Regulation until 2003 when he was appointed Director Rail Policy, serving this capacity until 2013 (the organisation was known as the Office of Rail Regulation from 2004).