Elio Catania was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of Italian state railway company FS Holding SpA on May 18. Formerly head of IBM in Italy, he succeeds Giancarlo Cimoli who has been appointed President & CEO of state-owned airline Alitalia. Elio Marco Staderini, Luciano Canepa,Stefano Zaninelli and Roberto Ulissi have been appointed to the FSadministrative board.

Giancarlo Cimoli has also stepped down as Chairman of the recently-renamed Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies (p324). Vice-Chairmen Maciej Meclewski of Polish State Railway and Karel Vinck of Belgian National Railways will become joint Acting Chairmen until a new Chairman is elected. Carl-Henrik Lundstrøm has returned to Danish State Railways, and is succeeded as CER Deputy Executive Director by Colin Hall.

Russian Railways’ First Vice-President Hasyan Zyabirov has been appointed Chairman of the recently-established Central Commission for Control of the Implementation of Passenger & Suburban Traffic Timetables. Vice-Presidents Sergei Kozyrev, Viktor Sekhin, Valentin Gapanovich, Sergei Ivanov and Vladimir Sazonov have also been appointed to the Commission.

Patrick Persuy has been appointed Finance Director at Réseau Ferré de France. He joins the infrastructure authority from Gaz de France where he was latterly Director, Finance, Budget & Risks.

Tomislav Josip Mlinaric was appointed General Manager & Chairman of Croatian Railways on April 22, replacing Marijan Drempetic who resigned in March.

Vladimir G Sosnovskyi has taken over as Director-General of the Public Transport Department of Minsk City Executive Committee, with Vasilyi M Schrubock named as Director of Tramways.

Allan Rutter is to step down this month as US Federal Railroad Administrator, to become Deputy Executive Director of the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Frank Wilson has been named President & Chief Executive Officer of Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority in Houston, Texas, following the retirement of Shirley DeLibero.

François Gauthey has been appointed to head the team of advisors to French Secretary of State for Transport François Goulard (RG 5.04 p262).

Bernie Boucher retired as Executive Vice-President of OmniTRAX on May 15. Darcy Brede has become Executive Vice-President, Rail Operations, following the promotion of Bob Parker to Chief Operating Officer. In further changes at the group, Greg Sullivan has rejoined Hudson Bay Railway as General Manager, Kevin Woods has become General Manager of Carlton Trail Railways and Dennis Sawchuk will oversee the Okanagan Valley Railway and TransCanada Switching.

Shivendra Kumar has been appointed General Manager of the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, succeeding V S Ramani.

Dr sc tech Ulrich Weidmann is to succeed Prof Heinrich Brändli as Professor of Transport Systems at Zürich Technical University on June 1.

Louis S Fuller, Philip J Ringo and Mark A Scudder were elected directors of Genesee & Wyoming Inc at the shortline operator’s annual general meeting.

Chief Civil Engineer of Jarvis Facilities Richard Thornton was appointed Engineering Director of Jarvis Rail last month.

Sven Ödeen has been appointed Regional Director of Interfleet Technology AB inSweden (p369), reporting to Group Managing Director David Rollin. Catharina Lindahl has been appointed to the new position of Operations Manager. Hugo von Bahr becomes Development Manager, Anders Malm Financial Manager and Hans Svensson Sales & Marketing Manager. In the UK, Mark Gardner has joined Interfleet as Head of Project Management, and the company has opened its third Australian office, in Melbourne, with Peter Metcalf as State Manager, Victoria.

The former CEO of Wabtec Corp Willian E Kassling has rejoined the board as President &CEO in place of Gregory THDavies, who announced in May that he was stepping down because of ill health. Robert J Brooks and James P Miscoll have been elected Directors for three years. In changes at the group’s UK arm Wabtec Rail Ltd, Chris J Weatherall has been promoted to Commercial Director and Martin Sutton to Fleetcare Director. David Haynes has moved from the Vapor Stone UK subsidiary to become Operations Director of Wabtec Rail.

Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez has announced the appointment of Antonio Gonz

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