Network Rail director of safety strategy Emma Head will join the HS2 team as corporate health and safety director in August.

With 16 years’ experience in UK rail, she led the strategic safety agenda focusing on technology, working practices, culture change, risk management and system safety both internally and across the industry.

She has worked on both the client and contractor side of the industry across major engineering schemes like the West Coast Route Modernisation Project and London’s Crossrail.

Before Network Rail she worked for nearly two years with Morgan Sindall and for over six years with Barhale.

HS2, chief executive Simon Kirby said: “Emma represents a hugely important addition to the HS2 team.

“Her experience of driving through effective and lasting change on the existing rail network and her unfailing commitment to delivering the highest levels of safety for employees, passengers and local communities will be vital as we move closer to the start of construction in two years’ time.

“Building from scratch, HS2 has the opportunity to ensure safety is always our key priority. Freed from the constrains of working with an essentially Victorian rail network, HS2 will be able to provide a step change in the way we approach risk management and system safety as well as working culture and practices.”