$re = '/(?<=^User name:)\s*(\S.+)$/m';
$str = 'Action: NEW
User name: Matthew Thomas
Job title: Dealer Account Manager
Direct report: Craig Carlson
Department: Dealer Account Management
Location: Milton, QLD
Employment type: Permanent Full Time
Start date: 15/07/2013
Finish date:
__________________________________________
Decision Point 3
--------------
Read Only';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php