Asset management and engineering business, Porterbrook Leasing Company keeps the UK moving every day. Established as part of the privatisation of British Rail, it has been the heart of the UK rail network for more than 25 years and owns over a quarter of the national passenger rail fleet.

Headquartered in Derby with an office in London, Porterbrook has so far invested over £3bn in more than 2,500 new passenger and freight vehicles, including the UK's first hydrogen-powered train, HydroFLEX, developed in partnership with the University of Birmingham, introduced in 2019.

More than three quarters of the 150-strong team are engineers and project managers and more than a third of the workforce is female, including chief executive Mary Grant, who led the private sector firm's “family-first approach” to supporting staff through the pandemic and encouraged volunteering to help the local community. Grant began a weekly vlog to keep staff abreast of what was going on and to ask how they were coping. She also spearheaded the 25 press ups for 25 days challenge to raise awareness of mental health issues.

Porterbrook, which was awarded Investors in People Gold accreditation in December, takes a listen-and-learn approach to creating a high performance culture from hearing people's views in staff forums led by the boss to involving the team in focus groups on areas from health and wellbeing to flexible working and reward and recognition. The flexible working group has developed guidelines for a hybrid of office and home working post pandemic.