Stuart Kemp Baker O.B.E. was born in 1954 and joined British Rail as an Operations Management Trainee in the Leeds & York Division in 1977. He was seconded to Area Manager York between 1977 to 1978. He was Freight Shift Supervisor/Operations Planner at Barrow Hill from 1978 to 1980. He was Duty Manager at Preston between 1980 and 1984 and at York from 1984 to 1989 before being a Relief Manager for the York area in 1989. He then moved to InterCity East Coast as a Project Manager from 1989 to 1991 and worked for Regional Railways North East as Retail Manager from 1991. Between 1994 and 2001 he served as Production Director and Deputy Managing Director for Regional Railways North East, Northern Spirit and latterly Arriva Trains Northern. He then joined the InterCity team at the Strategic Rail Authority from 2001. He has been Chairman of Groundwork in Leeds and Chairman of Netlipse. He has been project Sponsor for various projects and a Department for Transport Project Sponsor. He has also served as the Chairman of the British Railways Board.