Chris E.W. Green joined British Rail as a Trainee in 1965. He went on to serve as Area Manager, Hull and subsequently Operations Manager for ScotRail. In 1986 he was appointed as the Managing Director of Network SouthEast, serving in this capacity until 1991 when he became the Managing Director of InterCity. In 1993 returned to the Scotrail train operating company as Director, departing in 1994.

In 1995 he was appointed as Chief Executive of English Heritage and left the organisation in 1996. Between 1999-2005, he worked as Managing Director of Virgin Trains.