Robert William Breakwell, known as Bob Breakwell, was born in 1945. It is thought he joined British Rail: Southern Region as a Clerk at the South Eastern Staff Office in 1965, before becoming a Management Trainee from 1967 to 1969. He then worked in station area management in British Rail’s Southern, Eastern and London Midland Regions. He then undertook train crew management on British Rail: London Midland Region and for British Railways. He then became Managing Director of West Anglia/Great Northern. In 1993 he became Managing Director of Great Eastern, Network SouthEast and was appointed as First Great Eastern’s Managing Director in 1996. He became a Board Member of First Group in 2002.