SPEAKERS

João Aguiar Machado

General Director
European Commission, DG Mobility and Transport, Belgium

João Aguiar Machado is Director General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. He is in charge of developing transport policies for the European Union. Its remit is to ensure mobility in a single European transport area, integrating citizen's needs, environmental policy and competitiveness. Before taking up his current position, Mr Aguiar Machado was Deputy Director General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade. He was responsible for bilateral trade relations with Asia, Latin America and Africa, including many of the EU’s free trade negotiations, and for trade in services, investment, intellectual property and public procurement. From September 2007 to December 2008 he was Deputy Director-General at the EC’s Directorate-General for External Relations – where he was in charge of coordinating overall EU relations with Asia and Latin America. Mr Aguiar Machado spent most of his career working on trade matters in Brussels and in EC Delegations in both Tokyo, Japan (1989 – 1994), and Geneva, Switzerland (WTO, 1994 – 1998). Mr Aguiar Machado studied economics both in Lisbon and at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Dan Ťok

Minister
Ministry of Transport Czech Republic, Czech Republic

2014-present: Minister of Transport
2008-2014: Skanska a.s., Chairman of the Board and CEO
2006-2007: KKCG Industry BV, CEO
2003-2006: Jihomoravská plynárenská, a.s., Chairman of the Board and Chief Commercial Officer
1999-2003: ALSTOM, s.r.o., Regional Director of the company for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, ALSTOM Power, s.r.o., CEO and Chairman of the Board
1996-1999: ABB Energetické systémy, s.r.o., CEO and Chairman of the Board
1992-1996: ABB První brněnská strojírna, s.r.o., Director of Boiler Division
1983-1992: První brněnská strojírna, a.s., designer of steam boilers
Education:
1978-1983: University of Technology in Brno, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Thermal and Nuclear
Machinery and Equipment
1974-1978: Secondary Technical School of Engineering in Uherské Hradiště
INSEAD University (Paris, France) – annual management course
Business Unit Program of ABB – two-year management training program for senior ABB management
IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland) – educational programs for Senior Management of RWE and Skanska

Josef Doppelbauer

Executive Director
ERA – European Railway Agency, France

Dr. Josef Doppelbauer holds a degree and a Doctorate, both in Physics. He started his career at the Alcatel Research Centre in Vienna, Austria, where in 1997 he became Technical Director. In 2001, he moved to Paris to become Chief Technical Officer for Alcatel Transport Automation Solutions. Dr. Doppelbauer joined Bombardier Transportation in December 2002, first working in the Rail Control Solutions division, where he held several positions in Engineering, Sales, and as President. In 2008, he moved on to the global headquarters of Bombardier Transportation in Berlin. From July 2008 to June 2012, he was Vice President Project Management, and from July 2008 to December 2013 Chief Technical Officer.
The key responsibilities in this role included leading the standardisation of processes, tools and products, product safety, and critical projects support. Between January 2014 and December 2014, Dr. Doppelbauer was appointed Vice President Research and Technology, Bombardier Transportation.
He has 25 years of experience in key aspects of railway technology, including signaling and communications and control. Since the early 1990's, he has been involved with the development of the European Rail Transport Management System (ERTMS). His international work experience includes stations in Austria, France, UK, Sweden, and Germany. Dr. Doppelbauer was chairman of the European Rail Research Advisory Committee (ERRAC), the European technology platform of the rail sector from 2012 to 2014. From 2011 to June 2014, he was the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Technology Initiative SHIFT2RAIL. He also represented Bombardier Transportation in the Governing Board of SHIFT2RAIL.

Vladimir Yakunin

Chairman UIC, President RZD
UIC / RZD, Russia

Vladimir Yakunin was born in Melenki in Vladimir region. He graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics in 1972. He began his career as a junior researcher at the State Institute of Applied Chemistry. After completing his military service in the Soviet army, he worked as an engineer and senior engineer at the Directorate of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers for Foreign Economic Relations and as Head of Department at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
1985-1991 - Member of the Diplomatic Service (Second and then First Secretary at the USSR’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations).
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CJSC International Centre of Business Cooperation and Head of the North-Western Federal District Inspectorate of the Main Control Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation.
From October 2000 - Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation.
From February 2002 - First Deputy Minister of Railway Transport Ministry.
From October 2003 - First Vice-President of OJSC Russian Railways.
14 June 2005 - appointed President of OJSC Russian Railways.

Jean-Pierre Loubinoux

Director General
UIC – International Union of Railways, France

Jean-Pierre Loubinoux was born in 1956. A graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris, he worked at the French Foreign Trade Delegation to Hong Kong (1977-1978) before joining French railways SNCF in 1978, where he held various responsibilities including Director of the SNCF General Delegation in North-America and Chief Executive of French Railways UK Ltd in Britain. He then joined the SNCF Freight Department where he successively managed the Coal-Steel Business Unit and the Human Resources, Data Processing and Finance Department before being appointed Chief Executive of SNCF Freight International (2001) and from 2001 to 2009 Chairman and CEO of SNCF International and SNCF Director of International Development.
In March 2009, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux was appointed Director-General of the International Union of Railways (UIC), the worldwide association representing the rail sector and encompassing 210 railways across all the continents. His mandate was renewed at December 2013 UIC General Assembly in Tokyo and is set to run until 2015.
In addition, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux holds responsibilities in a large number of institutions and associations: French Foreign Trade Advisor and Chairman of the Transport Committee, Chairman of the Medef International France-Argentina Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Ecole Centrale Association, Chairman of AFFI (the French association of railway engineers and managers), Member of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Member of the Board of the US High Speed Rail Association.

Philippe Citroën

Director General
UNIFE – Association of the European Rail Industry, Belgium

• Since June 2011: Director General, UNIFE
• 2002-2011: CEO, Systra
• 1999-2002: Strategy Director, SNCF
• 1993-1999: Manager and Chief of staff, RATP
• 1990-1993: Special Advisor, French Transport Minister Cabinet
• 1986-1990: Transport Advisor, French permanent representation to the EU
Philippe Citroën joined UNIFE in June 2011. He began his career as Transport Advisor at the French Permanent Representation to the EU in 1986 and then became Member of the Cabinet of the French Transport Minister in 1990. In 1993 he became Manager and Chief of Staff at RATP Paris, and joined the SNCF as Strategy Director in 1999. Prior to assuming his position at UNIFE, he served for 8 years as CEO of Systra, one of the world’s leading public transport engineering companies.
Mr Citroën is a graduate of Paris II University in Public Law, holds a Diploma from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and also studied at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), where he also lectured about Rail and Urban Transport. He is married and has three children.

Libor Lochman

Executive Director
CER – Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies, Belgium

Dr Libor Lochman has been Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) since 1 January 2012. Born in 1963 in Czechoslovakia, he graduated at the Transport University in Zilina and has a doctorate in electronics from the West-Bohemian University Plzen. Libor Lochman has a strong background in Control-Command and signalling systems. Prior to his role as CER Deputy Executive Director and leader of technical affairs (2007-2011), he acted as director of the Railway Test Centre, a facility for testing European rolling stock, infrastructure and signalling components, in Prague (2000-2005).

Arnošt Marks

Deputy of the Prime-Minister-Deputy and Director of the Division of Science, Research and Innovation
Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic

Arnošt Marks graduated from the Faculty of Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and earned his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He has many years of experience in state administration; he worked at the Ministry for Regional Development, the Senate and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. As a consultant, he participated in a number of EU projects. Arnošt also gained experience in the field of science policy, worked in the Technology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and participated in preparing the project of research infrastructures, CEITEC. He has lectured at several universities.

Dins Merirands

Deputy State Secretary
Ministry of Transport, Latvia

2013 Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Latvia
• Deputy State Secretary
2010–2013 Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
• Director of Energy Department
2009–2010 Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
• Acting Director of Energy Department
2008–2009 Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
• Deputy Director of Energy Department, dealing with issues related to legal framework of energy markets, international cooperation and energy security
2006–2008 Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
• Head of Electricity and Gas Market Unit, Energy Department
• Responsible for drafting legal acts supporting liberalization of electricity market in Latvia
2001–2006 Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia
• Desk officer in the Energy Department

Keir Fitch

Head of Unit Research & innovative transport systems
European Commission, DG Mobility and Transport, Belgium

Is Head of Unit of Research and Innovative Transport Systems in DG MOVE in the European Commission. The Unit task is to determine and formulate policies and provide overall direction of the activities within a unit on the basis of the work programme of the directorate general and/or directorate.

Keir Fitch was the deputy head of cabinet of Siim Kallas, vice-president and Commissioner for transport where Mr. Fitch is responsible for land transport, security and state aids, inter alia. He also was the co-ordinator of the White Paper of the Future of Transport Policy in Europe. He has been a member of the cabinet of Kallas since 2004. In 1989 he received a degree in mathematics and law from Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge. His professional career started at Herbert Smith in 1989 where he served as a lawyer. He stayed at Herbert Smith until he joined the UK civil service as a European fast stream lawyer in 1993. Mr. Fitch joined the European Commission’s Legal Service as a member of the agriculture team in 1999. Before joining the cabinet of Kallas, he was a member of the cabinet for Vice-President Neil Kinnock, a former Commissioner for Administrative Reform.

Andy Doherty

Interim Chairman
ERRAC – European Rail Research Advisory Council / NetworkRail, United Kingdom

Andy Doherty is an Ambassador for Network Rail leading Engineering interaction with the UK railway industry and within the European railway sphere. Andy is chair of the UK Vehicle Track System Interface Committee, and a member of the cross industry Technical Strategy Leadership Group. Andy is chair of a number of European Associations and Committees; he represents the entire European railway operating community as the Vice Chair of ERRAC (European Rail Research Advisory Group) and with the ERA (European Railway Agency) in a number of areas such as Interoperability issues.
Andy is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, he is an Electrical Systems Engineer, with expertise in; the railway system, rolling stock design, the mechanical interface between the train and track, transmission based signalling systems such ETCS and electro magnetic compatibility. Andy is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield, Southampton, and Newcastle Universities
Previously Andy was the chair of the Network Rail Acceptance Panel for some 9 years, setting policy and approval of all Systems and Products used by Network Rail, and has held a number of senior roles in London Underground, including; Project Director and Engineer for the upgrade of the Central and Northern Lines and the conversion of the Underground to Driver Only Operation project.

Cesare Brand

Secretary General
CIT – International Rail Transport Committee, Switzerland

Cesare Brand is 55 years old and holds Swiss citizenship. Trained as a lawyer, he has held several senior positions within the railway industry over the past twenty years. He completed his studies in law at the University of Bern and was admitted to the bar in 1987. He worked from 1987 until 1989 as a clerk in the Court of Appeal of the Canton of Bern and from 1989 until 1991 as an independent lawyer in Bern. He then joined the Swiss Ministry of Transport as Head of the Legal Section of the Federal Office of Transport. In this position, he was involved in a senior capacity in the Swiss rail reform, which came into force in 1999 and played a major role on the success of public transport in Switzerland. In 2002, he moved from being a regulator to being an operator and was appointed to the position of Head of the Group Legal Department at Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). In 2008, he was made Head of the “Regulation and International Affairs” Division. In this position, he was responsible for representing the interests of SBB at European institutions and for the company’s regulatory strategy. In November 2011, he was elected by the CIT General Assembly as the new Secretary General and assumed his new duties at the beginning of 2012. Cesare Brand is well connected internationally and has excellent relationships with the international railways organisations and the European and Swiss institutions. His mother tongues are Italian and German, but he is also fluent in French and English.

Olaf Krüger

Chairman of the Executive Board
IBS – Community of European Rail Forwarders, Germany

Mr. Krueger is as European manager responsible for rail forwarding company VTG Rail
Logistics GmbH. Previously, since 1992 he was responsible for the development of the
rail freight division in the Kuehne + Nagel Group. Prior to Kuehne + Nagel, since 1990
he was responsible for the Cargo Division of Deutsche Reichsbahn (East German Railway).
Olaf Krüger is co-founder of the Europäischen Interessengemeinschaft der
Bahnspediteure (Community of European Rail Forwarders) founded in 1996, since
when he was kept reelected as its Chairman. Main objective of IBS is to coordinate
business environment and frame regulation in further development of Railfreight
transport services.

Ralf-Charley Schultze

Director General
UIRR – International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport, Belgium

Mr. Ralf-Charley Schultze is 51 years old and lives in Vienna with his family. Before going to Austria he was responsible during five years within the freight department of the swiss railways (SBB Cargo) for the combined traffic, the automotive business and the partner management. In this time he had the opportunity to practice liberalization and to experience so called coopetition. He has an international background, speaks fluently five languages and studied law in Germany, France and England. 10 years in different logistics and forwarding companies in Europe gave him a solid logistics background and enabled him understanding, organizing and implementing logistic processes, meeting the real needs of the market. The last five years he was director for multimodal logistics within the GEFCO group, responsible for the development of multimodal business all over Europe, with a strong focus on Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Since the 1st of January 2014 Mr. Ralf-Charley Schultze is director general of the UIRR, the international union for road-rail combined transport in Brussels.

Štefan Mestický

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Štefan Mestický earned his Master’s degree at the Transport University in Žilina, Slovakia. From 1987 to 1997, he was assigned various posts at Czechoslvak and Czech Railways. As its founder, he established the company OLTIS s.r.o. in 1997 and transformed it to OLTIS Group in 2004. In 2008, he became the leader of JERID, which was merged to OLTIS Group in the same year. Within the group, he gradually established subsidiaries in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Currently, he stands at the forefront of one of the most important groups of IT companies for transport and logistics in Central Europe.

Leoš Novotný

Chief Executive Officer
LEO Express, Czech Republic

Leos Novotny is a Chief Executive Officer at LEO Express, a Central European open-access passenger railway operator founded in 2009 by an investment group owned by the Novotny family. He is also a Managing Partner & Founder of AAKON Capital, a private equity investment company based in the Czech Republic. As a son of a successful entrepreneur, Leos Novotny has started his professional career very early and gained a lot of business experience before establishing LEO Express and AAKON Capital. Alongside his studies he held managerial and minority equity positions within HAME A.S. where he was primarily engaged in the UK and Chinese markets. As a Foreign Markets Manager he was fully responsible for HAME’s exhibition representation and organization, for example he held presentations at the most important exhibitions in the food industry across Europe and in Asia. Leos has also played an active role in the sale of HAME to Nordic Partners in 2008. After the sale of HAME Leos joined Raiffeisen Investment AG in Vienna to work on private equity deals within the CEE region as a member of the Financial Sponsors & Real Estate team. Then he became the Secretary of the Czech Minister of Agriculture but he did not stayed in the position for a long time. He quit after 6 months in order to establish AAKON Capital. AAKON Capital is a private equity investment company that sources, arranges, invests and manages private equity investments into small and midcap opportunities in the Czech Republic, the DACH and CEE regions on behalf of its investors. Under AAKON Capital Leos also concluded several private equity deals in the United States’ distressed real estate market worth 25 mn. USD.In the light of inefficiencies, overpricing and lack of services in the CEE rail passenger segment Leos has originated, structured and executed a Czech start-up open-access railway operator LEO Express. Leos acts as the overall sponsor, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of LEO Express. The operation of LEO Express started in November 2012 and since the nef of 2014 it is operating 18 connections per day on the selected route in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Leos is responsible for further development of LEO Express, currently negotiating with partners in the CEE region and preparing the company for the expansion. He is well prepared for the negotiations as he studied 7 foreign languages including English, French, Russian and Chinese.

Petr Mlsna

Deputy Minister
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic

JUDr. PhDr. Petr Mlsna, Ph.D. – Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for Legislation and Strategy (2014 – present); in the years 2003-2014 he worked at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in various positions in the legislative section (2007-2010 – Director of Government Legislation, 2010-2011 – Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Government Legislative Council Chairman, Director of the Chairman Section of the Government Legislative Council; 2011-2012 – Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Director of the Government Legislative Council; 2013-2014 – Deputy Minister of Justice). In 2012-2013, he was Minister and Chairman of the Government Legislative Council. In the years 2010-2014 he was Vice Chairman of the Government Legislative Council. He has worked or is working in several Boards of Appeal of central administrative authorities (Government Office of the Czech Republic; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Defence; Ministry of Transport; Ministry of Justice). He is currently Chairman of the Board of Appeal of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Since 2005 he has worked at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in the Department of Constitutional Law, and since 2004 at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University at the Department of German and Austrian Studies. He has published more than 100 articles, papers and studies on the subject of constitutional law and economic and social system in German-speaking countries. He is a co-author of the monograph International treaties in the Czech legal system, co-author of commentaries on the Constitution of the Czech Republic (Wolters Kluwer 2015), editor of several collective monographs (Czech Constitution – the creation, development and perspectives; German centres and peripheries). He is a member of the editorial board of the magazine Administrative Law and of the editorial board of Czech Yearbook of International Law. In 2010, he received the Leopold Heyrovský medal from the Faculty of Law of Charles University.

Boris Lapidus

Chairman of IRBB-UIC
UIC-IRRB – International Rail Research Board, France

March 2010 – Present: Director General, Joint Stock Company “Railway Research Institute” (JSC VNIIZhT) and Senior Adviser to the President of the JSC “Russian Railways”
October 2003 – March 2010: Vice-President, Senior Vice-President, JSC “Russian Railways”
March 1997 - September 2003: Head of the Division of Economics, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation
June 1996 – February 1997: Director General, Corporate Transport Services, Ministry of Railways of RF
January 1994 – June 1996: Head of the Division of Economics, Member of the Board of Ministry of Railways of RF
July 1965 – January 1994: Privolzhskaya Railway, Assistant driver, Senior Engineer, Head of the Division, Chief economist
Membertship:
Member of the Board of JSC “Russian Railways”
Chairman of the UIC International Railway Research Board (IRRB)
Chairman of the Joint Scientific Council of the JSC “Russian Railways”
Chairman of International Scientific Technological Committee of Railways of CIS members and Baltic states

Dong Jianmin

Deputy Chairman
OSJD – Organisation for Cooperation between Railways, China

Experience:
2014-present OSJD committee – Deputy chairman
2013-2014 Supervision Department of the National Railway Administration – Deputy Chief of department
2000-2013 Department of transportation of the Ministry of Railways – Senior engineer, Chief of division
1994-2000 Beijing Railway Bureau – Engineer
1991-1994 Northern Jiaotong University – Teacher
Education:
1988-1991 OSJD committee Northern Jiaotong University, Railway transportation – Master of engineering
1984-1988 Northern Jiaotong University, Railway transportation – Bachelor of engineering

Johann Pluy

General Manager of Railway Systems at ÖBB-Infrastruktur, Authorised Officer of ÖBB-Infrastruktur
ÖBB-Infrastruktur, Austria

Dr. Johann Pluy is the division manager of “Railway Systems” and authorized representative of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) since 2014. In this position he is responsible for the provision and operation of telematics services, energy supply and train control-, command-, and signaling systems. Mr. Pluy and around 600 people of the division ensure the reliable and sustainable energy supply of the railway system as well as an efficient asset- and operations management.

Simon Fletcher

Regional Coordinator Europe
UIC – International Union of Railways, France

Simon Fletcher joined the UIC in 2003 on secondment from Southern in the UK, initially taking on the role of leading the system safety and operations portfolio at the UIC’s headquarters in Paris.
Deeply involved in the work of interoperability and with an operations and safety background and many roles in the UK including as Operations Director and Head of Safety and Standards, it was natural that Simon would be involved in significantly contributing to the development of interoperability and safety management systems. He spent two years as part of the AEIF team, the forerunner to the European Railway Agency.
Moving to Brussels in 2007 he has since then been responsible for the UIC’s presence there and for coordinating the UIC’s European region where over 65% of the UIC’s members companies are located. He has been a member of the UIC Board of Directors since 2009.
Now the focus is on the vision and strategy for the future European railway system. Developing innovation and standardisation programmes to support the vision to become reality, the leadership role performed by the UIC in Europe is central to ensuring that tomorrow’s railway is one that plays a clear and key part in the economic strength of Europe.
In previous lives he has had experience in the preparation of operational rules and the setting of standards at national level and the development of international operations as one of the pioneers of interoperability at Eurostar. In a very much earlier phase of his career, he was a train driver as well as a driver tutor.

Hans-Günther Kersten

Director Freight
UIC – International Union of Railways, France

Hans Günther Kersten has studied business administration and law at the University of Cologne, worked in a law firm in Cologne and joined Deutsche Bahn in Frankfurt in 1999.
He held the position of Senior Legal Advisor in the DB Passenger Division until 2002 when he became Senior Manager at the International Relations department in Berlin.
In 2004 be joined his DB’s Technology department as the representative of the Head of Technology and Procurement in charge of external organizations and committees.
Later he became Head of External Relations of Rail Technology, Head of the Coordination Group of German railway standarisation at DIN-FSF and Head of the German delegation of CEN TC 256.
On June 1st, 2012 he joined the UIC as Director Rail System and on January 1st, 2015 he became Director Freight of UIC.

Giorgio Travaini

Senior Corporate Advisor
UNIFE - Association of the European Rail Industry, Belgium

Giorgio TRAVAINI, has been working at UNIFE since 2007. Now Senior Corporate advisor on topics including and notably Shift2Rail, he had been responsible in the past for the coordination of EU-funded research projects and assistance on UNIFE technical committees. He had also been significantly involved in ERRAC where he covered the secretary role. He has an engineering (Polytechnic of Turin) and public affairs background (London South Bank University) and he assisted Mr. Paolo Costa, Chairman of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament, before joining UNIFE. He also worked for the European association of Chamber of Commerce in Brussels, the Brussels Regional office representation of his native region – Valle d’Aosta (IT) – and had other international experiences in Rome working for Procter&Gamble and in Paris working for BNP Paribas Cardif.
Giorgio Travaini is the UNIFE contact person for Shift2Rail related matters.

Miroslav Fukan

Executive Director, UNIFE SME Committee Chairman, UNIFE Member of the Presiding Board
OLTIS Group / UNIFE, Czech Republic

Miroslav Fukan, born in 1963, graduate of Technical University in Brno, specializing in Electronic Computers.
He held the position of Director of Software Development in Czechoslovak State Railways, ICT Center.
Later he co-founded the company JERID (now part of OLTIS Group), where he held the position of Managing Director.
Currently he resides as the Chairman of UNIFE SME Committee, Member of UNIFE Strategy Committee and Member of the Presiding Board of UNIFE.
WORK EXPERIENCE:
▪ 1987–1988: Czech Railways, Railway Computer Center – PROGRAMMER: Programming in Pascal and C programming language, Product testing and implementation.
▪ 1988–1990: Czech Railways, Railway Computer Center – MANAGER OF DEVELOPMENT: Leading software development, Responsible for product implementation.
▪ 1991–1993: Czech Railways, ICT Center – DIRECTOR OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: Software development, Administration.
▪ 1994–2009: JERID – CEO: All business matters related to establishing a company, Supplier base / customer base, Projects.
▪ 2009–2014: OLTIS Group – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: International business, Managing software development, Responsible for the implementation division, Research and Development projects (EU projects), Internal organisational operations, Supplier contracts, Human resources.

Hans Ring

Director International Affairs
Trafikverket, Sweden

Born 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden
Mr. Ring is currently appointed Director International Affairs at Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) and Non-Executive Director at the Swedish National Road Consulting AB (SweRoad)
Mr. Ring has been employed within the railway and light rail sector since 1977. Mr. Ring has also been engaged in a number of delegations and boards e.g. the Swedish Rescue Board, which is being chaired by the Swedish Minister of Defence. He has been appointed Independent Non-Executive Director at Railway Safety U.K. and later at the Railway Safety & Standards Board, U.K. He has been acting National Expert at the European Union Article 21 Committee. Mr Ring has also been CEO for Banverket IT and Vice Chair for Banverket ICT profit centre as well as CIO for Banverket. He is currently acting on behalf of the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications in the Executive Board of ScanMed Rail Freight Corridor.
Mr. Ring studied aviation at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He has a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering.

Aleksandra Röhricht

CEO / Managing Director
ERMEFRET, Germany

• 1996 – 2002 Studies of Marketing and Management at the Warsaw School of Economics
• Since 2000 living in Berlin, Germany
• 2002 – Master of Science Degree in Economics at the Warsaw School of Economics
• 2000-2002 – Working as a consultant by ABU Consult GmbH in Berlin (EU and World Bank financed development projects, responsible for Northern Africa and Middle East)
• 2003 – Working for a Carl Duisberg Society project in Musoma, Tanzania
• Since May 2004 – Project Manager at Ermefret GmbH
• Since Feb 2009 – Managing Director of Ermefret GmbH

Rütger Fenkes

Head of Project & Programme Management Passenger Transport Division
Deutsche Bahn, Germany

Since spring 2011 Rütger Fenkes has been leading the implementation of the TAP TSI Regulation on behalf of the European rail sector and the European Commission. In April 2014 he was nominated President of the UIC Passenger Commercial & Distribution Forum.
Within DB, Rütger was nominated Head of Project & Programme Management Passenger Transport Division at the beginning of 2013, and subsequently promoted to lead the division’s “EU Projects & Special Assignments for the Board Member Passenger Transport” unit. He remains in charge of the European TAP TSI implementation project and associated passenger-focused activities.
Rütger started his career in 1997 at Deloitte Consulting with a focus on advising newly liberalised industries in strategic and distribution matters. In 2006 he joined Deutsche Bahn as a corporate development manager with a focus on internationalisation strategy. He holds a degree in International Business Administration from Newcastle Business School and Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.

Krzysztof Niemiec

Vice-President
Track Tec S.A. Group, Poland

Krzysztof Niemiec graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and then completed postgraduate studies at the Cracow University of Technology. For more than 20 years he worked for the Polish State Railways (PKP), beginning as Deputy Manager of the Cracow Nowa Huta railway station and advancing to a member of the PKP S.A. Management Board. His further career lead through the Management Board of CTL Logistics to the current position of Vice President of the Management Board of Fusion Invest Polska. His employers include also Track Tec Group, a major supplier of railway superstructure elements.

Ján Simčo

Director of Strategy and Development Department
ZSSK Cargo, Slovakia

05/2012 – present: ZSSK CARGO, Headquarters, Strategy and Development Department, Department Director
11/2010 – 04/2012: ŽSR, General Directions of ŽSR, Director of Commercial Department
10/2006 – 09/2010: ZSSK CARGO, Member of the Board of Directors and Director of Trade Division
03/2003 – 09/2006: ZSSK/ZSSK CARGO, Director of Dep. of Strategy and Investment Development
01/2002 – 02/2003: ZSSK, System specialist/engineer and project manager of rail projects;
01/2000 – 12/2001: Head of railway dispatchers and railway engineer in operations;
01/1994 – 12/1999: Railway operation of Slovak railways (ZSR), engine driver (electrical and mechanical power transmission – passenger and freight service, shunting and marshalling service);
07/1992 – 12/1993: Maintenance of rolling stock (electrical and diesel locos and freight and passenger wagons)
International and domestic experience:
Direct activities at the UIC (International Railway Union, Paris), AEIF (association of railway engineers), CER (Community of European Railways) and other academic and business organisations in Slovakia

Tom Jones

Senior Advisor Industry Affairs
Amadeus IT Group, Spain

Born in the UK in 1959, Tom graduated with a degree in History and Politics from Warwick University, and a post-graduate diploma in orchestral studies from Goldsmith’s University, London. After a mixed career spanning criminal law to professional violinist for the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland, Tom entered the travel industry as a software engineer in Travel agency-Provider ticket sales settlement for Galileo in 1990. Tom moved to Amadeus in June 1993 as a Product Definition analyst in Ticketing and Settlement, and, following a successful role as principal functional designer of Amadeus’ new generation ticketing and settlement applications for indirect and direct sales channels, became head of Amadeus Ticketing and Settlement product definition, driving implementation of the new applications into 40 international markets within 2 years.
Tom moved on to head Amadeus product management for Ticketing&Fares and then Ticketing&Reservations, before migrating through Business Development, Project Management (including Technical Coordinator of the Eurostar GDS gateway distribution project), Program Management and Strategy Analysis, arriving in 2011 at his current post of Senior Advisor for Industry Affairs. Since 2012 Tom has been active representing Amadeus in TAPTSI and subsequent Full Service Model initiatives; managing the founding and successful tender submission of the All Ways Traveling consortium; and, participating fully in Shift2Rail-IP4 and IT2Rail initiatives.

Bo Olsson

Chief Strategist
Trafikverket, Sweden

M Sc in Civil Engineering
Licentiate of Technology in Transportation, Studies in economics, Lund University
In rail sector since 1991:
Positions: Chief Strategist, Head of Research Coordination, Regional Director, Regional Technical Director, Head of Regional Estates
Fields of expertise: General Technology, Societal planning, Research and Innovation
Earlier profession: Lund University: Research Liaison, SBC, Ideon Reseach Village: CTO in a high-tech innovative aviation equipment company

Yves Perreal

Advanced Projects Director
THALES, France

PhD in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Centrale in Lyon. Starting his carrier in a major French Telecom enterprise, he joined Thales in 1990. After 10 years in the Thales Central Research laboratory as R&T manager, he moved in the Aeronautical division in 2000, as program manager of big avionics systems, then as program department director. In 2005, he becomes Chief Security Officer of Galileo Industries, Joint Venture created to manage the 1.5BEuros ESA/EC Contract of the Galileo IOV phase. In 2008, he becomes director of ThereSIS, the Innovation Center of Thales D3S. Since Summer 2009, he is working in Thales Ground Transportation System, in charge of the Advanced Projects, and has been the focal point for the Shift²rail set up.

Petr Kroča

Director Research, Innovation and Marketing
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Born in 1967, Analyst, Project Coordinator, Marketing Director, President of the IRFC/ERRIC Conferences and Director of Research and Innovation at OLTIS Group. Earned his Master’s degrees at the Transport University in Žilina, Slovakia, specialisation Operation and Economy of Railway Transport with focus on Informatics. Worked for Czechoslovak and Czech Railways and went through various positions: Station Dispatcher, IT Administrator, Chief-Analyst of freight IT systems and Head of IT teams. In 1993 co-founder of the company JERID (now part of OLTIS Group). Responsible for preparation, management and evaluation of projects focused on research and development of systems for European rail freight transport, particularly specialized on digital content, railway infrastructure and wagon monitoring. Coordinator of R&D projects in 7th Framework Programme and EUREKA. In 2009 awarded the prize EUREKA Innovation Days Award 2009 for the best European research project E! 3161 E-RAILMAP. In 2014 during InnoTrans, awarded the honour Golden Chariot as the Manager of the Year. Responsible for coordination of OLTIS Group involvement in the JTI Shift2Rail preparatory phase.

Athanasios Ziliaskopoulos

President and CEO
TRAINOSE S.A., Greece

Professor Athanasios Ziliaskopoulos has been President and CEO of TRAINOSE S.A. since April 2010 and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Thessaly since 2003.
Professor Ziliaskopoulos established the Systems Optimisation Laboratory in 2004 and since then he has managed to competitively secure numerous projects from the European Union, the USA, the Greek Government and Industry.
Professor Ziliaskopoulos is an Associate Editor in Transportation Science, Transportation Research Part B and Networks and Spatial Economics, among other journals and has also published over 50 papers in refereed journals and numerous reports and conference proceedings.
Professor Ziliaskopoulos is active with INFORMS and TRB’s transport security and logistics chapters as well as various committees of the European Commission.

Miroslav Haltuf

State Representative of the Czech Republic
Shift2Rail State Representative Group, Czech Republic

Miroslav Haltuf was born in 1958, graduated at the University of Žilina, Faculty of Operation and Economy of Railway Transport. He has been dedicated to railway transport since 1981. He worked for Czechoslovak State Railways in various operational positions and later on, in Czech Railways, he mainly attended to international affairs activities in the field of UIC and Pan-European Transport Corridors. Since 1999 he has acted in private sector as advisor, project manager and as self-employed person (independent expert and H-Comp Consulting owner). Currently, his professional activities are focused on Shift2Rail; he was designated by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic as a Full Member of the Shift2Rail JU State Representative Group. In addition to that he cooperates e.g. with companies within the Czech railway industry, with UNIFE, UIC and ERA; H-COMP Consulting is a member of UITP since January 2015. He is also active in the field of railway research. He is involved in ERRAC and IRRB and is working in his own projects under EUREKA program mostly related to the telematics application and information technology.

Efim Rozenberg

1st Deputy General Director
NIIAS – Scientific Research and Design Institute for Information Technology, Automation and Commun., Russia

Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineering (MIIT).
After graduation he was employed by the Design Bureau of the Main Directorate of Signaling and Communication, Ministry of Railways.
In 1983 Mr. Rozenberg was awarded the degree of Candidate of Engineering, then Doctor of Engineering in 2005.
In 1998 the Academy of Electrical Engineering awarded him the degree of Doctor of Electrical Engineering. In 2004 the Higher Attestation Commission awarded him the title of Associate Professor. In 2005 he was made full member of the Academy.
In January, 2008 Mr. Rozenberg was appointed First Deputy Director General of JSC NIIAS. He is the Chief Designer of train safety systems on Russian railways.
E. Rozenberg is Deputy Chairman of the Academic Council of JSC NIIAS. He has authored over 80 patents and inventor's certificates and over 60 scientific publications.

Jürgen Maier

Head International Affairs
BLS, Switzerland

Experience
6 years – Railway Industry, Holding and Freight (BLS), Different positions in:
– Political Affairs (National and International)
– Project- and Risk Management Freight
– Strategy Freight
4 years – Railway Industry, Infrastructure (SBB), Different positions in:
– Support- / Process-Management
– Strategy Development Freight
– Quality- and Risk Management, Strategy Development
3 years – Aviation Industry, Airport Zurich, Different positions in:
– Innovation Management/Business Development
– Corporate Development
– Consulting for Airlines and Airports
6 years – Aviation Industry, Airlines Crossair and Swissair, Different positions in:
– Route Development/Strategy
– Market Research
– Consulting for Airlines
8 years – Teacher for transportation topics

Gert Fregien

Vice President Support Railway Operators
Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Schienenfahrzeuge, Germany

Dr.-Ing. Gert Fregien graduated in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen. After being responsible for converter and locomotive development at ABB/ADtranz and a 2 years employment at PA Consulting he was responsible for the rolling stock of DB Fernverkehr AG for 9 years. Since April 2012 he is affiliated to Knorr-Bremse SfS and is now responsible for Innovation and Technology.

Harald Jony

Director of Energy Management
ÖBB-Infrastruktur, Austria

Since 2014 Harald Jony is Director of Energymanagement & Sales of the business division railway systems at the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and has been active in the railway sector since 2003. Before 2014 he was five years the Director of Sales of the energy department at ÖBB. He is now responsible for the sales and purchasing part of energy in Austria and also responsible for energy management services in Europe including metering and services in an international context especially in Central Europe. In addition he is in charge of the energy saving project of ÖBB and the energy supply of sites.

James Lewis

Head of European Research & Innovation Programme
NetworkRail, United Kingdom

James graduated in Construction Management, is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a member of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors, and a Member of the International Council on Systems Engineering. Prior to his career in Network Rail he gained experience across several industries including rail, utilities, property, construction, security, and entertainment providing high-end technological solutions to clients. Projects have included Crossrail, Thames Tideway Tunnel, and many significant transport and urban regeneration schemes.
Within Network Rail James leads the European Research and Innovation programme which includes significant programmes such as Shift2Rail and In2Rail, is Chairman of the Network Rail Seedcorn Fund, and manages commercial activity within his function. His previous experience in Network Rail included a seat on Network Rail Approval Panel where James had responsibility for the introduction of new products into the business

Michael A Robson

Managing Director
Robsons’ International Railway Consultancy, United Kingdom

Michael Robson is Managing Director of Robsons’ International Railway Consultancy which was established in 2010. Prior to setting up his consultancy Michael was Secretary General of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) from 2006 to 2010, having previously held senior positions in British Rail, Railtrack and Network Rail during which time he served as a Board Member of the European Railway Agency Board. He is currently a member of the EURNEX Advisory Board, the Institute of Transport and Logistics, the Institute of Management as well as being the Chairman of the SMARTRAIL project Board from 2011 to 2014.
Mr Robson has experience in managing operations, passenger sales, general management, freight, performance regimes, asset management, research and project funding, train and engineering planning in both nationalized and private railways.
Mr Robson is experienced in studying the effects of new and proposed European Railway legislation on the rail sector.His recent experience has covered the trends in infrastructure investment, maintenance and renewal in addition to new rail projects mostly in Europe but with some world exposure, research and development projects. He is also experienced in work on financing and replacement of rolling stock (locomotives, passenger vehicles and freight wagons), development of new train services and investment schemes, in addition to safety and security aspects of the operational railway. He is a well known Chairman and presenter at railway conferences in addition to lecturing at Loughborough University and the UIC.

Volker Sustrate

Founder and Member of the Advisory Board
HaCon, Germany

Dr. Volker Sustrate, born in 1947, is company founder, partner, former managing director (1984-2012), senior consultant and member of the advisory board at HaCon. Headquartered in Hannover, Germany, HaCon creates high-quality software solutions for traffic, transport and logistics.
In 1984, after completing his PhD in Civil Engineering, he took the step into self-employment by founding HaCon. Besides his support for the continuously growing software development activities, he acted as advisor for national ministry and other stakeholders and acquired extensive experience in managing research and development projects such as DELFI, Wayflow and BAIM and further EU projects like EU-SPIRIT, IM@GINE-IT and ASK-IT.
Moreover, Dr. Volker Sustrate has long been responsible for all marketing activities surrounding HaCon’s timetable information system HAFAS and train planning system TPS. Today, HAFAS is used by transport companies and associations all over the world. Every day, passengers in 25 countries place over 40 million journey planner requests that facilitate the use of public transport. Long-time HAFAS customers such as German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) benefit from ever new and innovative developments for mobile applications, internet journey planners and printed timetables. A powerful solution for train planning and capacity management, HaCon's TPS software enjoys a growing European user base.

Alberto Grisone

Managing Director
Hupac Intermodal, Switzerland

Alberto Grisone was born in 1970. He studied Law at the State University of Milan and took his degree in
1996. For the following two years, he worked as researcher and consultant for several research institutes in the field of transportation, among others at the Certet Institute of the Bocconi University of Milano.
In 1997 he went to MH Way as Assistant Export Manager. In 1998 he became Account Manager at Hupac
Intermodal Ltd in Chiasso and at the Maritime Inland Services branch in Basle. In 2001, he was appointed
Business Manager Rolling Highway and Member of the Board. In his function of responsible of the Rolling
Highway service, he also became Director of the associate company RAlpin AG.
In 2004 Alberto Grisone was appointed Director Network Development. In his present position, he is
responsible for the development of new intermodal connections and for the opening up of new markets.
In November 2011 he was designated chairman of the board of directors of Intermodal Express LLC,
Moscow, a company of the Hupac Group.
Furthermore, he is member of the CCTT Working Group on increasing competitiveness of Transsiberian
transportation.

Alena Loudová

Project Coordinator
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Born in 1984. Earned her master’s degree at the Brno University of Technology. Worked for RWE, DEKRA as Environmental Specialist, Dangerous goods safety advisor, Trainer of ADR, lecturer, project evaluator and legislation expert. She participated in projects focused on intermodal transport of dangerous goods. She published articles in technical magazines, prepared expertizes concerning transport of dangerous goods, is ISO 14 001 and 9 001. Internal Auditor, Qualified Person in Fire Protection. Nowadays Project Coordinator at OLTIS Group, responsible for international R&D projects in railway transport and for participation in Shift2Rail. She represents OLTIS Group in UNIFE SME Committee and in ERA Working Group on Risk evaluation and assessment in the context of rail, road and inland waterways transport of dangerous goods.

Lars Deiterding

Executive Director
HaCon, Germany

Lars Deiterding has been working for HaCon since 2004, developing the business of the freight & logistics department of HaCon from a more national and consulting oriented focus, to a European wide approach, initiating and coordinating some of the largest and most successful R&D projects in the logistics sector. He is leading a multidisciplinary team of rail experts since 2006 and has been appointed as Executive Director in 2012.
In parallel to the research and project oriented action fields, his team supported the development of state-of-the-art software solutions for rail freight and intermodal operators, aiming at improved operational effectiveness and competitiveness.
Having studied railway engineering at the University of Hannover, he started his career nearly 20 years ago with studies for rail operations and infrastructure assessments in Germany, Austria and South Africa. In 2000 he joined a former daughter company of HaCon and acted for 4 years as consulting engineer and advisor for the State Rail Authority of New South Wales (Australia), developing new operational concepts and timetable improvements including incident concepts. Combining daily operational experience with state-of-the-art network simulations, he was responsible for the determination of efficiency and robustness of railway systems.
Seeing rail as a complex but powerful system was one of his drivers to get deeply involved over the last two years in the preparation work of the Innovation Program for freight in Shift²Rail, in which he lead the working group on the technology demonstrator “Access and Operation”.

Zdeněk Malkovský

General Director
VUKV – Research, development and testing of railway rolling stock, Czech Republic

1975-1980 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Prague
Since 2009 PhD degree program in combined studies at the Faculty of Traffic Engineering, ČVUT, study branch Transportation Systems and Technology.
1980-to date VÚKV Praha a.s. (formerly Research Institute of Rolling Stock)
1980-1990 Computation technician, testing engineer
1990-1997 Head of Department for Strength of the rolling stock
1997-2000 Head of Development of Rolling Stock and Deputy Technical Director
Since 2002 Director of Department for Rail Vehicles and Containers Testing
Since 2003 Technical Director and Director of Department for Rail Vehicles and Containers Testing
Since 2004 CEO and Director of Department for Rail Vehicles and Containers Testing
Since 2005 Chairman of the Board
2005-2011 University of West Bohemia, Research Centre of Rail Vehicles
Since 2000 Expert of the Federal Railway Authority in Bonn for the area of strength of the rolling stock (ID 05 F 08 A 003)
Since 2005 Member of WG2 working group “Railway applications - Structural requirements” of the European Committee for CEN TC 256 Standardization
Since 2006 Member of the Scientific Council, Jan Perner Transport Faculty, University of Pardubice

Lilia Krutonog

Head of Intermodal
Rail Cargo Logistics, Czech Republic

Graduate Russian State Open Technical University of Transportation, Moscow (certificate of legalisation of the university degree and qualification in the Czech Republic No. 21 535/2001 – 30), Faculty: Economic policy and administration
Experience
2012 Rail Cargo Logistics Czech Republic (Express Interfracht Czech s.r.o. Member of Rail Cargo Group) - Head of Intermodal
2010 Express Interfracht Czech s.r.o., Member of Rail Cargo Group Head of Department - rail/road/sea transport to Russia
2005-2010 ČSKD INTRANS s.r.o. - Head of Department - intermodal transport to Russia
2001-2002 Russian railways – representative office - Team leader
2000-2001 Inter Trade Praha s.r.o., Praha - Marketing manager/logistik
She speaks Czech, English, German and Russian.

Werner Bach

Referent int. Affairs and Lobby Activies, Implementation TAF-TSI
DB Schenker, Germany

Mr Bach started working for Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1971. After working in several departments of production branch he studied at the Fachhochschule für Öffentliche Verwaltung, faculty Rail business at Cologne.
1990 Graduation as Diplom-Verwaltungsbetriebswirt
1990-1993 Sales manager for DB passenger traffic
1993-1995 Sales manager for DB freight traffic, general goods
Since 1995 working in different branches of international affairs at DB Cargo, Railion Deutschland AG and actual working at DB Schenker Rail AG.
Special interests: International cooperations, tariff management and tariff policy, International Operations

Amedeo Pata

CTO Security & Information Systems
Selex ES, Italy

Amedeo Pata, Head of Products/Applied Research Developments, in the Selex ES Security & Information Systems CTO, manages the Divisional R&D Initiatives Budget and ensures that product development programs are aligned with both strategic, product and technological objectives. He ensures the execution is progressed in accordance with the approved investments plan within the Division.
Formerly was Head of Technologies and Products / CTO of SELEX Elsag with responsibilities for Technological Plan and Product Catalogue.

Armand Toubol

Vice Chairman NewOpera AISBL
NewOpera, France

• Born in 1947
• Engineer from Polytechnique Paris in 1966 and from National Road and Bridges High School 1971
• High civil servant for Public Works Department in North Region in France 1971-1975
• Equipment and Development Director of Dunkirk Port Authority 1975-1981
• Regional Executive of a civil contractor company (CGTH-SADE) in Normandy Region 1982-1984
• CEO of French part of SEALINK , a cross Channel ferry company 1984-1990
• Chairman and CEO of CNC : a combined rail transport operator 1990-1995
• Freight Director and executive board member of SNCF (French Railway undertaking) 1995-2000
• Chairman and CEO of SNCF-Participations (Financial Holding of SNCF) and executive board member of SNCF 2000-2004
• SNCF Chairman Advisor 2004-2009
• SNCF Honorary General Manager Delegated for freight and private consultant for Logistics from June 2009 technical Coordinator of FP7 Marathon project, member of Tiger, ViWas, SpiderPlus, Capacity4Rail European Projects
• During his career has been board member of several companies Geodis, Keolis, STVA, Ermewa, Sealogis, CNC, National Printing Company, STSI…
• Today board member of Bureau International of Containers (BIC), member of ERRAC
Vice-Chairman of New Opera AISBL

Daniel Lopour

Market Development Officer
GSA – European GNSS Agency, Czech Republic

Daniel Lopour is an experienced project manager with special focus on the area of transportation and telecommunication. After graduating from the Faculty of Transportation Sciences of the Czech Technical University in Prague, he started career at Henkel Czech Republic as Project Manager for Electronic data interchange. In 2005, Daniel joined GS1 - a not-for-profit organization providing the most widely used identification and communication standards for retail and fast moving consumer goods industry as a Project manager for Radio-frequency identification. Between 2010 and 2012, he managed a large RFID infrastructure upgrade project at Czech Technical University in Prague and has been representing Czech Republic in the Internet of Things expert group of the European Commission. Additionally, he was teaching Information technology in Logistics in double-degree EU-US programme Atlantis and was a leadership team member of the Centre of Automatic Identification of the Czech Technical University in Prague. In September 2012, Daniel joined European GNSS Agency as Market development officer, where he is directing multiple R&D projects and managing market innovation activities in Rail segment and Logistics market segments.

Mick Haynes

Strategy Director
Hit Rail BV, United Kingdom

Mick is the leading rail consultant with a career specializing in all types of rail applications spanning 40 years.
He began his career in 1968 as a Railway Management Trainee for British Rail in the Birmingham Division and was trained in a wide range of rail operations and management. From 1970 he moved into IM and worked on a broad spectrum of projects both operational, engineering and technical.
He was Project manager for Reservations, Engineering Payment by Results, TOPS, Payroll and Freight systems.
Has been President of the European Wide data networking group Hermes for over 30 years and has working on a wide ranging number of European Consultancy Studies.
Has carried consultancy studies for the following countries and railways. Spain for ADIF.(cost algorithms); Netherlands for Prorail; Hungary for MAV; Romania for CFR Marfa CFR Calatori CFR SA (cost allocations and access charging) Business Strategy; Bulgaria for BDZ; France for SNCF; Italy for FS; Russia for RDZ; Poland for PKP; Switzerland for BLS; Switzerland for RhB; Sweden for SJ.
Specialist on TAF and TAP TSIs. Has for the last year been working on the future needs for rolling stock databases both for performance, engineering and safety needs. Has been Chairman of the pan-european network group project Hermes (GPH) for over 20 years. Has completed a study for EU DG MOVE on TSI functions and database needs. Has specified interoperability needs and solutions for Hitrail. Is led specialist for the GB TSI implementation programme for all RUs and the IMs.

Tomáš Kroča

Business Director
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

2015 – present OLTIS Group a.s., division TSL, Sales manager
2008 – present OLTIS Polska sp. z o. o., Chairman of the Board
2005 – 2008 OLTIS Polska sp. z o. o., Procurement specialist
2004 – 2010 JERID, spol. s r. o., Implementation director
1999 – 2004 Information systems consultant
Education:
1995 – 1999 Higher vocational school, Valašské Meziříčí – Processing of Scientific, technical and economic information

Martin Pichl

Head ITS, Research and Development
Ministry of Transport, Czech Republic

Mr. Martin Pichl is deputy director of Space Activities and ITS Department and head of Unit for Intelligent Transport system and Research & Development at the Czech Ministry of Transport. He received his M.Eng. degree in transportation technology and traffic control and management from the University of Transport and Telecommunication Sciences in Zilina and from the University of Pardubice. He received his Ph.D. degree in technology and management in transport and telecommunications from Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Transportation Sciences. Before joining the Ministry of Transport he started his carrier as a Czechoslovak state railway’s train dispatcher within operating section of Prague and Central Bohemia area. Then he held the position of a Czech Railways sales manager for rail logistics services. Martin Pichl joined the Czech Transport Ministry in 1997 and worked in the area of transport policy, strategic planning and sustainable transport development. Since 2008 he was a head of the newly formed unit and worked on program deploying satellite systems and integrated applications. Martin Pichl’s responsibilities are in the development and deployment of space based technologies and intelligent systems in the field of transport and also in related research and development activities and in awareness of advanced technologies among the professionals and public.

Michal Pavel

Chief Researcher
AŽD Praha, Czech Republic

Michal Pavel graduated at the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1984, obtaining Dipl. Eng. degree in physical electronics. Since then he has worked in a number of engineering and management functions. He started as a Project engineer in the field of automatic test systems for large scale integrated circuits. Later he was engaged as a Project manager and team leader for a number of R&D projects for precise measurement, data acquisition and safety-critical medical electronics. Since 1995 he managed a development department of transmission systems at TTC TESLA TELECOMS company and in 2003 he joined AZD Praha as an electronics expert, Sector Manager and finally a Chief Researcher for railway signalling systems. For more than 10 years he has managed or coordinated AZD Praha participation or leadership in a number of national and international collaborative research and innovation projects. He has authored and co-authored several patents and published many papers dealing with advanced control, signalling, test and measurement technology.

Antonín Felber

Sales Director
UniControls, Czech Republic

1992-1998 Czech Technical University in Prague
1998-2002 ZPA-DP a.s., Nejdek: Programmer, Head of Software Department
2002-2003 UniControls a.s.., Prague: Programmer
2003-2004 ZPA Industry a.s., Prague: Main section manager
2004-2009 UniControls a.s., Prague: Head of Department
2010-2015 UniControls a.s., Prague: Business Manager
Since 09/2011 ZPA Industry a.s. Member of the Board
Since 05/2011 to 06/2014 UniControls a.s., Vice-Chairman of the Board
Since 05/2014 UniControls a.s., charged with the function of CEO

Marek Neustadt

Head of IT Development Unit
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Marek Neustadt graduated in University of Žilina, Slovakia, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications. He worked at different positions of České dráhy, state organisation e.g. as CIO at České dráhy, state organisation and Head of OSS at SŽDC (Czech infrastructure manager). Since 2004, he has been involved in activities of RNE (Rail Net Europe), a member of GA and of different Workings Groups, e.g. the Timetable working group, He was member of WG 5 for implementation TAF TSI dialogue Path Request and EG 1 TAP TSI – Path Request and TG 1 a TG4 for TAF and TAP TSI. During 2009-2013 he was responsible for the implementation of TAF TSI at SŽDC and in relation to carriers. He is member of ERA TAF Implementation Monitoring Working Group. Marek Neustadt speaks English and Russian.

Michael Bares

Head of Traction Power and Key Account Management
ÖBB-Infrastruktur, Austria

Since 2012 Michael Bares is the Head of the Key Account Management and traction power of the business unit Railway Systems at the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG) and has been active in the railway sector since 2008. He is responsible for the sales and metering part of energy in Austria as well as energy services in an international context, especially CEE.

Michal Vítěz

Sales Support Specialist
ČD Cargo, Czech Republic

Michal Vítěz is a traffic engineer with international practice.
In the last ten years, he has gone through various positions in railway companies, such as ČD and ČD Cargo, with a primary focus on trade and international cooperation, including the management of several international projects.
On a long-term basis, he was working in Brussels (CER) and Moscow (GZ). Currently, he encompasses the activities toward CIT, CER, UIC and OSŽD. He is a member of several workgroups, also focusing on the support for Eurasian transports such as NL CIM/SMGS, for example.

Jaroslav Novák

Combined Transport Expert
University of Pardubice, Czech Republic

Jaroslav Novák graduated at the University of Žilina, Faculty of Operation and Economy of Railway Transport. He is an expert with 40 years experience in the field of combined transport and transport logistics and with extensive experiences with rail freight and road transport.
He is engaged in lecturing and publishing activities in the field of logistics, intermodal transport and forwarding.

Václav Fencl

Secretary General
National Technology Platform for Road Transport, Czech Republic

Vaclav Fencl, civil engineer since 1970, was active as a traffic engineer for the town Brno, (Czech Republic) and was involved in many traffic-engineering studies.
After that he joined Institute for Road and Public Transport as a research worker on the field of traffic engineering and public transport. During his activity in Road Research Institute he was involved in various projects on road safety, pavement management system, road management system, surface characteristics, technical and economic appraisals of road projects, road databank.
He joined Transport Research Centre in 2001 in the position of International Project Director responsible for all CDV international activities and he was involved in several projects of EU Framework programmes.
Since 2010 he is secretary general at National Technology Platform for Road Transport.
At European level he is acting as Czech delegate for the HORIZON 2020 Transport Programme Committee.

Petr Buchníček

Project Manager
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Petr is an analyst focused on SW solutions for public transport. Born in 1974, he earned his master degree (Ing.) at the University of Žilina, Slovakia, Faculty of Information and Control Systems, specialization Applied Informatics. He has participated on projects IDOS (multimodal journey planner, winner of the 1st Smart Mobility Challenge organized by the European Commission in 2012), mainly as a leader of its integral part CIS JR (Nationwide Information System on Timetables, also known as NTIS), and SPADO (used for optimization of transport service in the region). He coordinated several R&D projects for Ministry of transport. In last years he was responsible for development of SW for advance-sale and booking of tickets (AMS), including e-ticketing and solutions for mobile phone platform. Petr is a deputy speaker of UNIFE in the ERA TAP TSI CCM. He speaks fluently English and Slovak, Russian on intermediate level, German on basic level.

Hacer Uyarlar

Advisory Board Member
UTİKAD - Association of International Forwarding and Logistics Service Providers, Turkey

After 20 years of experience in the field of transport business- mainly the railway business in Turkey, established own company in 2003 till 2010. Became a board member of UTIKAD in 2008 (Turkish Freight Forwarders Associations in Turkey) till 2014 as responsible of railway business activities in Turkey. During Utikad, joined to the rail working group of FIATA in 2009, still active member. Presently, 5 months ago started working at UPM Trans LTD as Director, who has own rail and ferry investment on Black Sea between Turkey and Russia.

Petr Jindra

Project Manager
ČD Cargo, Czech Republic

Petr Jindra (1963) is a project manager in the department of Process Engineering within the freight railway transport company CD Cargo, a.s., with more than 30 years’ experience in the railway industry. As a graduate of University of Pardubice, Jan Perner Transport Faculty, he has an MSc in Transport Management, Marketing and Logistics and a PhD in Transport Technology and Control.
Mr. Jindra has extensive experience in operational traffic management, coordination and planning as well as in business processes of a freight railway undertaking. For the last 15 years, he has acted as a partner’s project manager in several international IT and R&D projects with participation of the holding of Czech Railways, e.g. INTERFACE, MONITOR, INTEGRAIL.
He has also direct experience in evaluation of subsidized projects, both in the national and EU scope.

David Krásenský

Business Consultant
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

For David, railways are both the profession and the lifelong love. He earned his master degrees at the Masaryk University in Brno (ICT) and at the Jan Perner Transport Faculty of the University of Pardubice. His experience includes translating from English, designing interlocking systems, and analysis, designing, and system architecture of information systems for the railway industry. Now he is a strategy consultant at OLTIS Group; he publishes articles in technical magazines and regularly speaks at international conferences and industrial events.

Petr Červinka

Process Engineer
ČD Cargo, Czech Republic

Petr Červinka (49) graduated as railway transport and economics engineer at the University for transport and communications in Žilina in 1988. He started his career in production domain as station dispatcher (1988 -1991).
Since 1991 he turned to railway IT. Since 1992 he is responsible for international freight data exchange applications at CD and since 1997 at CD Cargo. He leaded development of international interfaces for freight train pre-advice, wagon localisation, wagon trip planning (HIPPS), locations data (ENEE), bilateral consignment data exchange and wagon trip reporting (ISR) and in ongoing ORFEUS interface development.
Petr was and is involved in many international railway IT projects as DOCIMEL, HIPPS, ENEE and ISR. He represents his company in RAILDATA and in the UIC/OSZD Joint Group for Coding and IT. He is also active in the UIC bodies as IT Study Group Chairman and GRU member.
He is responsible for CD’s HERMES network connection and participated on design of the HOSA FTP interface. Since 2000 he is secretary of the Hermes Production Group (GPH) and member of Supervisory Board of HIT Rail.
Petr has knowledge of the TSI-TAF specifications. He was involved in the CEN works for coding of rail objects. He also participated in SEDP working group which defined requirements for the Common Interface. In 2008-2011 he worked as leader of the WG3 which revised the TAF messages for Train Preparation process. He used this expertise also at design of the TAF based interface of new CDC applications for data exchange with IMs.

Jiří Čáp

Project Manager
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Jiří Čáp graduated from the Jan Perner Transport Faculty of the University of Pardubice in 2005. The theme of his thesis was “The basic legislation used in international road freight transport and their application in practice.” In 2011, he defended his doctoral thesis on “Costs of transport users and their relation to the public finances.” Jiří Čáp was employed at the Department of Transport Management, Marketing and Logistics as an assistant professor; he focused on cost calculations and legislation in the field of transport, including projects and grants. Then he worked for Kobra-Cargo s.r.o. and Mott MacDonald Praha s.r.o. as a consultant-economist. He has extensive experience in the organization and management of motorsport, and holds important functions within the Automobile Club of the Czech Republic where he also participates / participated in projects of the FIA Institute.
Since 2014, he is a member of the evaluation committee and an opponent of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. He is working in the company OLTIS Group as a Project Coordinator in the projects of freight transport, especially with international scope. He speaks English.

Milan Omasta

Head of the Research Section
Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic

He graduated from the University of Technology in Brno, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Since 2009, at the same faculty, he was dealing with basic and applied research in the field of lubrication, friction and wear; in 2013, he earned his Ph.D. Since 2011, he was studying tribological aspects of wheel-rail contact within several research and development projects. Currently, Milan leads the section dedicated to tribological problems in transport.

Konstantin Kim

Professor
University of St. Petersburg, Russia

Kim Constantine Constantinovich is holder of chair “Theoretical basis of electrical engineering” in Petersburg State Transport University of Emperor Alexander I [1], Doctor of technical Sciences, professor, member of IEEE, corresponding member of Academy of Electrical Engineering Sciences of Russian Federation, current member of New York Academy of Sciences, full member of European Academy of Natural Sciences.
Fields of scientific interest; electrodynamics of continuous media, the special Rail transport, applied superconductivity, High-speed transportation with the use of the magnetic suspension, advanced types of weapons.
He is author of 440 publications including 180 copyright certificates and patents, 9 monographs, 56 textbooks and tutorials.

Peter Sorger

Expert Advisor
Slovakia

Mr Sorger was born in 1945. In 1969 he graduated from the Technical University in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and in 1995 he received his post graduate degree from the Transport University in Žilina, Slovakia. He has undertaken a great deal of training on various railway-related issues.
Following experience in the implementation and servicing of different IT systems and computers, he joined the ČSD (Czechoslovak State Railway) in the accounting centre for international traffic. Throughout 1991 and 1992 he was a member of the team that carried out the UIC’s DOCIMEL project (electronic consignment note). In 1993 he was appointed to the position of head of the Department of International Affairs at ŽSR (Railways of the Slovak Republic). In 1996 he was the General Representative of ŽSR in Vienna. Until August 2006 he held various positions in the Business Area of freight transport of ŽSR, later ZSSK Cargo Slovakia. In September 2006 he joined OTIF as a technical expert in the technical section He retired in July 2014.
In October and November 2014 as an individual consultant for United Nations Development Programme, he successfully completed the project "Legal framework for the access to the railway market and safety on railways in Moldova".

Monish Sengupta

Research Fellow
University College London, United Kingdom

Monish Sengupta is a physicist and Chartered Engineer by profession with a special interest in Communication Based Train Control system (CBTC)/European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) signalling. Currently carrying out a research at Centre of Transport Studies, Centre of Civil and Geomatic Engineering, University College of London on understanding the problem of location uncertainty for a CBTC/ERTMS equipped train. His experience lies in testing, commissioning, design and implementation of signalling for automatic train control (ATC) systems. He has pursued his career along three broad themes within the field of railway signalling:
• Automatic train control system for a CBTC railway for underground metro,
• Main line signalling implementing high speed railway, and
• Legacy signalling design around UK main line and London underground signalling principles.
The implementation, project engineering and system level thinking while understanding the methodologies for estimation, design and management, are of special interest to him. He is currently associated with London Underground as an ATC consultant responsible for delivering GOA4 (Grade of Automation 4 – unmanned train operation) where he is exploring opportunities presented by emerging information and communications technology and other railway systems to promote cooperation among users, between users, and among components of the transport system. He is a member of Institute of Physics and a member of Institute of Railway Signal Engineers.

Imrich Korpanec

Secretary General
European Federation of Railway Trackworks Contractors, France

PhD degree in Civil Engineering, specialisation in railway infrastructure, Senior Lecturer at Prague Technical University and lectures at University Delft in NL Technical Adviser at ORE – Office for Research and Experiments of UIC, Managing Director of ERRI – European Railway Research Institute in Utrecht, UIC Deputy Director with responsibility for railway research managing participation of UIC members in EC projects, UIC representative in ERRAC, WCCR (world research), Member of EC Advisory Group, participation at CEN and ERA working bodies and EFRTC Secretary General since 2008. Numerous publications, research reports and presentations at Conferences in Europe in English, French, German, Czech and Russian (active knowledge of these languages) and worldwide in USA, Australia, Japan and China.

Axel Simroth

Group Manager Operations Research
Fraunhofer Institut, Germany

Born in 1975, Axel received his graduation in Mathematics from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in 1999. He started his professional carreer as a Project Manager for optimisation and simulation software in a German SME. In 2006 he joined the Fraunhofer Institut for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (IVI) in Dresden, where he since then manages the working group Operations Research. The group's field of research covers decision support for infrastructure management and freight logistics amongst others, where Axel coordinates national and European R&D projects. He has technical expertise in mathematical modelling, combinatorial and stochastic optimisation, which is applied to logistics planning and condition- and risk-based maintenance.

Miroslav Škota

Project Manager
OLTIS Group, Czech Republic

Born in 1982, analyst and project manager, expert for infrastructure manager sector. Earned his master’s degree at the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, Technology and Management in Transport and Telecommunication. Miroslav works as a business consultant and analyst at for railway sector since year 2005. Except the Czech republic, his work is focused for central European countries as Poland and Slovakia. Main spheres of his projects are:
-TSI TAF and TAP projects (Analysis for H01 translator, Short term planning for Czech railways, TSI TAF/TAP implementation study for ZSR)
-Railway energetics (specialized study for PKP Cargo and CD Cargo, participation on MERLIN project)
-Business processes evaluation (implementation of controlling for Czech railways)
-Other projects and studies (Transportation of exceptional loads in Poland, HR web portal for SZDC and other projects)

Josef Sabor

UPDATE Editor
FEDECRAIL – European Federation of Museum & Tourist Railways, Belgium

Ing Josef Sabor was born, and lives in Austria. From 1979 to 2010 he worked for the “Wiener Linien”, the official traffic company of the Vienna city, responsible for electrical supply of underground stations, from 2000 to 2010 responsible for the battery supply for safety lighting of the Vienna underground stations, then he retired.
Since several years he is the chief editor of the monthly issued non profit Austrian train- and tram-magazine DIE SCHIENE .
Since 2013 he is the Editor of Fedecrail’s periodical UPDATE.

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