Petr Zaluda has been appointed Chairman & General Manager of Czech Railways (CD). He replaces Josef Bazala, who recently became Chairman & General Manager of CD Cargo (RG 1.08 p17). Educated in Brno, Petr Zaluda studied management, marketing and information technology at the University of Utrecht and Sheffield Business School before joining Dutch engineering group Stork Demtec. In 1993-96 he worked for Ernst & Young, spending the following decade with Swiss-based Winterthur group in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2006 he joined the AXA insurance group as Country CEO for the Czech Republic.

Other appointments at CD include Petr Moravec, formerly General Director of Veolia Transport CR, as Deputy Director General for Passenger Operations, Jirí Kolár as Deputy Director General for Services and Petr David as Deputy Director General for Property Administration. Vladimir Filip continues in his position as Deputy Director General for Economy.

Following the move of several directorial staff from CD to CD Cargo, Miroslav Jasencák has taken over from Jaromír Kadlec as Director for Traffic Operation & Management, Jan Paroubek replaces Rostislav Novák as Director for Rolling Stock and Jaroslav Vasátko succeeds Oldrich Zatloukal as Director of the General Manager's Office. Vendula Raymová has become the CD Representative at the Community of European Railways in Brussels, replacing Jan Raym.