York: A 21st-century rail hub Allan Cook, James Farrar, Andy Jackson and Sarah Thompson (Chair)

Allan Cook is the Executive Director of York Central and founder and Managing Director of Arlington Real Estate, which was appointed along with McLaren Property as the strategic development partners for York Central. Arlington is a family run Property Development business based in the North of England which has been responsible for delivering several large scale mixed used regeneration projects including the 85-acre DurhamGate development, as well as Freemans Reach in Durham city, where they delivered new offices for HM Passport Office and National Savings & Investments. Arlington is also working on the development of Milburngate, on Durham City’s riverside, as well as York Central which is recognised nationally as one of the UKs most significant regeneration schemes. 

James Farrar was appointed as Chief Executive of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) in June 2024. He was the founding Chief Operating Officer of the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which has now been integrated into YNYCA. During his time as LEP Chief Operating Officer, James built the team and oversaw an investment portfolio of over £200 million into the region. Previous to his role in the LEP, James was at Yorkshire Forward, where he led its response to the recession with a focus on business support and access to finance. Committed to collaborative working, James recognises the importance of a strong public private partnership and is committed to ensuring stakeholders across the region work together to deliver for our communities.

Andy Jackson is a rail development leader in York, with 20 years’ design experience on projects across the north of England for Arup – an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists, working across every aspect of today’s built environment. Andy’s experience at Arup started with designing urban public realm and infrastructure to support buildings, transitioning over the past 10 years to focus on design leadership of multidisciplinary teams for station buildings, regeneration schemes around stations, and evaluating options for new rail lines. As a Chartered Civil Engineer his approach is grounded in considering practical considerations of delivery but coupled with the individual needs of rail users and stakeholders. His passion is enabling collaboration and understanding across rail users, engineering considerations, and organisational drivers at play in order to maximise the potential of our future of rail.  

Professor Sarah Thompson is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research at the University of York, UK and leads the University’s Transformational Initiative on Building Industry Engagement and Income. She has previously held the roles of Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Sciences and Head of the Department of Physics at the University and served as Vice President of the Institute of Physics (Science and Innovation) from 2015-2019. Her research interests are in nanomagnetism and nanoscale thermal transport and she has also won awards from the Institute of Physics and the British Association for science outreach. In 2012 she was awarded an MBE for services to Higher Education.