Ashley Bray

Ashley Bray is the HR Director at Great Western Railway (GWR), leading the people agenda across a 7,000-strong workforce in one of the UK’s most operationally complex and unionised industries. Over the past 18 months, Ashley has reshaped the HR function to be a proactive partner to the business, focused on performance, culture, and transformation rather than risk mitigation.

A trusted member of GWR’s Executive Team, Ashley has driven measurable improvements in workforce performance, reliability, and engagement through data-driven decision-making, modernisation, and collaborative industrial relations. Under Ashley’s leadership, GWR has achieved record engagement, the lowest sickness levels since pre-COVID, and its most diverse workforce to date, exceeding Department for Transport gender and ethnicity targets.

Passionate about leadership capability, Ashley has redefined how GWR equips its managers to lead with agility, empathy, and accountability, leaning into challenge and change to deliver better outcomes for colleagues, customers, and the business.