Richard Howard Brown was born in 1953. He undertook Planning & Marketing Management training with British Rail in 1977. He then held various planning and sales posts for Freightliner Ltd. from 1977 to 1984. He then worked as a Personal Assistant to the British Rail Joint Managing Directors and then held various roles in InterCity, finally serving as Managing Director Midland Mainline from 1984 to 1996. He then became Chief Executive of the Trains Division, finally working with nine train operating companies. He then worked as Group Commercial Director and served as a Board Member for National Express Ltd. from 1996 to 2002. Between 2002 and 2010 he served as the Chief Executive of Eurostar Group Ltd. and Eurostar (UK) Ltd. He has also held various Non-Executive roles including Special Director of Network Rail, Board Member of the Department for Transport, and has been a Non-Executive Director of HS2 from 2010.