Genesee & Wyoming
From CFO Leadership to Enterprise-Wide Transformation Across the UK’s Largest Rail Freight Operator
At a Glance
Sector: Rail Freight & Logistics
Team Size: 3,000+ UK employees
Sites: Multiple UK terminals (nationwide rollout + new National Operating Centre)
Project Duration: 12-month compliance & integration programme, evolving into a 6-year technology and transformation partnership
Summit Services: Fractional CFO Services
Key Results:
- G&W awarded the 2023 UK Rail Freight Innovation & Talent Award
- Sarbanes-Oxley compliance achieved within first audit cycle
- Full financial and systems migration to global ERP (Great Plains)
- Roles and processes mapped to COBIT & COSO frameworks
- Shared Service Centre established for unified financial operations
- Successful integration of Pentalver into the Freightliner Group
- Foundation laid for a £25m digital transformation programme
Background & Context
Genesee & Wyoming is a global rail operator generating over $5 billion in annual revenue. In the UK, its Freightliner business employs more than 3,000 people and stands as the country’s largest rail freight provider.
Following G&W’s acquisition of Pentalver, a £100m-turnover business offering road and terminal container services, the organisation faced a critical moment. The outgoing CFO had departed just as compliance expectations tightened and integration demands accelerated.
G&W needed someone capable of stepping into the CFO role immediately but also someone who could stabilise operations, lead compliance for a US-listed parent company, unify HR and IT functions, and oversee a full financial and systems migration into Freightliner’s global architecture.
Craig stepped into a high-stakes environment:
- People uncertain of their futures
- Processes misaligned to US compliance standards
- Systems not fit for long-term scale
- A culture bracing for change, but unsure how to navigate it
What started as a tactical appointment rapidly became the catalyst for a period of transformation spanning finance, operations, systems, and technology.
The Challenges
Compliance Risk
Pentalver’s teams were unfamiliar with the technical requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).
Cultural Tension
Employees anticipated redundancies, creating anxiety and resistance.
Systems Fragmentation
Financial processes were running on Sage while G&W standardised globally on Great Plains.
Role Gaps
Key financial and operational activities lacked defined controls or ownership.
Resource Strain
Craig simultaneously led finance, HR, and IT through the transition.
What Success Looked Like
- A clean SOX audit
- Successful migration of financials, people, and processes to Freightliner systems
- A unified Shared Service Centre with clear controls and accountability
- Minimal disruption to ongoing business operations
The ambition was not simply to integrate Pentalver, it was to leave the organisation stronger than before.
Our Approach
Craig’s first step was simple: understand the people before changing the processes.
Step 1:
Listen, Learn, Contextualise
Craig met every team and individual across finance, HR, and IT to understand:
- their history
- their roles
- their fears
- their motivations
Human context anchored the technical work.
Step 2:
Map and Evaluate Every Process
Each role was mapped against a compliance framework built with G&W’s global audit team. Where gaps emerged, solutions were co-created, respectful of individuals, but uncompromising in compliance.
Step 3:
Migrate to a Unified Global ERP
Financial systems transitioned from Sage to Great Plains, aligning the business with global G&W standards.
With this came redesigned processes, standardised controls, and centralisation into a new Shared Service Centre.
Step 4:
Build Alignment Across HR, IT, and Finance
Because Craig held responsibility across all three functions, transformation was fully integrated rather than siloed. This cohesion proved essential in maintaining operational continuity.
Step 5:
Apply Global Standard Frameworks
COBIT and COSO frameworks were used to design controls, structure governance, and lay the foundation for audit success.
Step 6:
Lead Through Change
Clear communication, training, and empathetic leadership helped employees navigate uncertainty, participate in the redesign, and ultimately transition successfully.
Implementation & Execution
The full review, migration, and control design programme took 12 months, spanning:
- Process mapping & risk assessment
- Development of a unified compliance framework
- ERP migration from Sage to Great Plains
- Organisational redesign for the Shared Service Centre
- Training, communication, and change management
- Preparation for the first SOX audit
Key Challenges
- Managing staff anxiety around redundancy
- Maintaining business continuity during major system changes
- Aligning UK operations with stringent US-listed compliance standards
Despite the complexity, the programme stayed on time and delivered exactly what the business required.
Results & Impact
The transformation delivered measurable, strategic, and cultural impact.
Operational Results
- All processes remapped, standardised, and aligned to COBIT/COSO
- New Shared Service Centre operational and integrated
- Successful migration to Great Plains
- Improved visibility and financial control across the organisation
Compliance & Governance
- Clean Sarbanes-Oxley audit on first cycle
- Controls embedded sustainably across teams
- Staff trained, confident, and aligned
Long-Term Impact
Here’s where the story takes its unexpected and extraordinary turn.
Impressed by Craig’s ability to deliver complex change with real organisational buy-in, G&W asked him to review their end-to-end technology application stack across all UK operations.
A casual observation from the Managing Director – “You seem to know a little bit about IT…” triggered a transformation of national scale.
It became:
What began as a six-month CFO assignment evolved into a six-year partnership that reshaped G&W’s UK operations.
Through it all, Craig maintained one principle: Every project must deliver measurable ROI.
This is what allowed financial leadership to extend far beyond finance, into technology, systems, operations, and culture. Read all about it in our separate case study here.
Why We’re Different
Not to blow our own trumpet here but Craig’s work at G&W is a blueprint for what modern CFO-level expertise should look like:
- strategic enough to see the whole landscape
- technical enough to design enterprise frameworks
- operational enough to deliver outcomes on the ground
- empathetic enough to lead people through change
It demonstrates how a CFO can do far more than manage numbers, they can architect the future of an entire organisation.
