Sir David Rowlands KCB (31 May 1947 – 11 May 2014) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

who rose to the rank of

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

to the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

. Rowlands left the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

to join the

Department of Trade and Industry Department of Trade and Industry may refer to: Current * Department of Trade and Industry (Isle of Man) * Department of Trade and Industry (Philippines) * Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (South Africa) Former * Department of Trade ...

in 1974. At the DTI he was appointed private secretary to the

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

for Industry. He moved to the then

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

in 1983 where he has held a number of posts with responsibilities for finance,

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

s and

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

. Before being appointed Permanent Secretary in May 2003, he was the director general for railways, aviation, logistics, maritime and security. In this role he was central to the creation of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

after

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the railroad, track, railway signalling, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the railway station, stations of the Transport in England#Rail, British railway syste ...

was put into administration and the delivery of public-private partnerships for the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

and the

National Air Traffic Services NATS Holdings, formally National Air Traffic Services and commonly referred to as NATS, provides en-route air traffic control services to flights within the UK flight information regions and the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area. It also provide ...

. Rowlands received a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the Birthday Honours List 2006. He retired at 60. Since leaving the civil service his career moves were subject to a number of controversies, including government blocks on his attempts to join the Boards of

British Airports Authority Heathrow Airport Holdings is a company that operates and manages Heathrow Airport based in London, England. It was formed by the privatisation of the British Airports Authority as BAA plc as part of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of governme ...

and

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...

. At the time of his death his roles in the private sector included chairmanships of

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the Airports of London, secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwic ...

and

Angel Trains Angel Trains is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs. Angel Trains was established in March 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In No ...

. He was also the chairman of High Speed 2 Ltd,.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, David 1947 births 2014 deaths English civil servants Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Transport Civil servants in the Department of Trade and Industry Civil servants in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions Civil servants in the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions Private secretaries in the British Civil Service Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford People educated at St Mary's College, Crosby Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath High Speed 2