People

Messrs Eric Gissler and Jean-Pierre Pronost have been appointed Directors-General for French infrastructure authority Réseau Ferré de France.

Dr Manuel Frasquilho has been confirmed as President of Portuguese infrastructure authority Refer. Eng Raul Vilaca e Moura has been appointed Vice-President. Other board members are Messrs M Fernandes, C Reis and E Chalpinto.

Mr V K Agnihotri has been appointed Member, Engineering, of the Indian Railways Board. He succeeds Mr Madhavan Ravindra, who took over as IR Chairman on May 1 (RG 8.97 p535).

Mr Abdullah Dabbagh has been named as President of Saudi Railways Organisation.

Mr John Sutton has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Victoria Rail Track Corp (Victrack) in Australia.

Mr Michael Paul Zeitlin has taken over as Secretary of Transportation in Brazil’s São Paulo state; he will be responsible for the privatisation of Fepasa.

Mr Bruno P Melnik takes over on September 1 as Director of Switzerland’s Brig - Visp - Zermatt Railway, succeeding Mr Remo Perren who has resigned.

Ms Maureen Sue has become General Manager, Bulk Freight, for Tranz Rail business unit Tranz Link. Ms Liesbet Spanjaard is General Manager, Cargo-Flo.

Mr Gerald Corbett takes over as Chief Executive of British infrastructure company Railtrack on September 29, when Mr John Edmonds retires. Mr John Smith joins Railtrack on October 1 as Head of Regulation. Mr Rod Muttram has become Director, Safety & Standards in place of Mr David Rayner, whilst Messrs Nick Josephy and Nick Pollard have been named Directors of the Great Western and London North Eastern Zones respectively.

Mr Donald G McInnes has been appointed Senior Vice-President & Chief of Staff for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. He is succeeded as Senior Vice-President & Chief Operations Officer by Mr Matthew K Rose, who is in turn replaced as Senior Vice-President, Merchandise Business Unit, by Mr Douglas J Babb.

Deputy Chief Engineer of the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail Dr Gou Fung-Yuan has been named Project Officer to head the task force reviewing proposals for the Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line concession. He will be assisted by the Head of BOTHSR’s Technical Department Dr Wang Ming-Hsiung.

Ms Nuria Fernandez has been appointed Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Mr Michael A Winter becomes Associate Administrator for Budget & Policy.

Dr Rainer Müller has been appointed to head the advisory board of Germany’s Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft.

Mr Jim W Gardner has been named General Manager of Railinc, the Association of American Railroads information technology department.

Dr Mike Powell has joined Transportation Consultants International as Group Director, Marketing & Business Development; he was Commercial Director of BR Research.

Mr David R Mosena has resigned as President of Chicago Transit Authority.

Mr James T Schultz has been appointed Associate Administrator for Safety at the US Federal Railroad Administration.

Mr Paul Davison has been appointed Managing Director of Britain’s Regional Railways North East. He takes over from Mr Bob Urie who will head a task force to promote TransPennine Express.

Mr Jose Fernandez has been appointed Executive Director of System Safety for Long Island Rail Road.

Ms Sandra Herbert has been appointed Information Systems Director for English Welsh & Scottish Railway.

Mr Gary E Ryker has joined Union Switch & Signal Inc as President & Chief Executive Officer.

Mr John Rice has been named President of General Electric’s locomotive unit.

Mr Ian Brooker has joined Sinclair Knight Merz as Manager, Rail Consulting Services Europe.

Mr Bill Tyson is to take over as Chairman & Managing Director of TMG Ltd, a subsidiary of Greater Manchester PTE.

Mr Michael Kelly has joined Interfleet Technology as Senior Electrical Engineer.

Mr Muhammad Afzal Khan, whose appointment as General Manager of Pakistan Railways was reported in RG 7.97 p438, joined PR in 1962, and has held a variety of posts including Divisional Superintendent at Peshawar and Rawalpindi, and Director of Planning at the Ministry of Railways. He also served as Project Director for Railcop in Saudi Arabia and as Federal Government Inspector of Railways; most recently he headed PR’s Civil Engineering Department.

Mr Bo Bylund has been confirmed as Director-General of Banverket. He graduated in Law from Uppsala University in 1971, and held legal posts in various companies and trade unions. He was General Secretary of the Swedish Metal Workers Federations, and an official with the International Metal Workers Federation in Genève. In 1994, he took over as Director-General of the Swedish National Board of Occupational Safety & Health.