Mike Hodson was born in 1951 and graduated from Keele University in 1970 and the University of Manchester in 1997. He joined British Rail: Eastern Region as a General Management Trainee in 1974. He went to hold various operational and planning roles in the Areas, Divisions and the Regions on British Rail: Eastern Region and British Rail: London Midland Region. In 1982 he became Area Manager at Southend Central on the Eastern Region, before moving to be Area Manager for Doncaster in 1985 and then Area Manager for West Yorkshire in 1987. In 1989 he worked as Operations Planning Manager in British Rail: Eastern Region and then was appointed as Commercial Director for Regional Railways North East in 1995. In 2000 he was appointed as Commercial Director for Thames Trains, before serving as their Managing Director from 2003. He served as Go-Ahead Group’s Director Rail Development Strategy from 2004 before moving to become Operations & Safety Director for Southeastern in 2006. Between 2009 and 2012 he was the Managing Director of London Midland. After his retirement from full-time work in 2012, he became Director of Transport Lines Limited and has served as a Non-Executive Director of Heathrow Express from 2018.