People in the News - October 2008 | News | Railway Gazette International

NR augments its board

Network Rail Chairman Sir Ian McAllister announced on September 18 that the UK infrastructure manager was strengthening its leadership team with the appointment of three senior managers to the company board, joining the existing three executive and eight non -executive directors. The three are Director, Operations & Customer Service, Robin Gisby, Director, Infrastructure Investment, Simon Kirby and Director, Planning & Regulation, Paul Plummer. McAllister said they would 'play a key role in helping to meet the challenges ahead - growth, development and expansion.'

Key team meets in Florida

A new top management team has been assembled to lead Florida East Coast Railway and short line operator RailAmerica from a combined headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. Both railways are now owned by private equity funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group.

The new executives include Senior Vice-President, Strategic Relations, Paul Lundberg; Senior Vice-President & Chief Administrative Officer Dave Novak; Senior Vice-President & Chief Commercial Officer Charles Patterson; Senior Vice-President & Chief Financial Officer Clyde Preslar; Senior Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer & President of Florida East Coast David Rohal; and Senior Vice-President & General Counsel Scott Williams.

Dr Walter Breinl has been named management representative at Railpool, the München-based railway asset manager launched as a joint venture by HSH Nordbank and KfW IPEX-Bank in July 2008 (RG 8.08 p485). He will remain Managing Director of Dispolok until taking up his new post on October 1.

Olivier Poitrenaud has replaced Jean-Michel Dancoisne as CEO of Thalys International. Dancoisne has moved to SNCF in the newly-created post of Permanent Representative in Brussels. Sophie Boissard has also joined SNCF as Director of Railway Strategy & Regulation.

Steve Howes has succeeded Antony Lain as Managing Director of Rail Settlement Plan, a subsidiary of ATOC which provides central retail support to UK train operating companies.

Manfred Michel is to assume management of DB Intermodal Services’ new business unit, International Terminals.

Kathryn McQuade has been appointed Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer at Canadian Pacific Railway, replacing Mike Lambert who has left to pursue other interests.

Ian Brown has replaced Roland Albert as Managing Director of Funkwerk Information Technologies York, following Albert’s move to Funkwerk’s Malmö subsidiary.

Frithjof Schäfer has succeeded Hugo Ruhmann as Chief Financial Officer at Schenker Deutschland.

David Zahorsky has been appointed Vice-President, Engineering & Project Management, at signalling and communications manufacturer Safetran Systems.

W Robert Bentley has been named Vice-President & ?General Manager of the Massachusetts Central Railroad.

Shashi Anantharamaiah has been appointed Chief ?Systems Architect at Invensys Rail Group.

Liz Rao, Manager of Planning & Development at Denver Regional Transit District, has left to take up the post of National Transit Development Director at HNTB.

Pierre-Denis Coux has been named head of the Réseau Ferré de France LGV Sud Europe Atlantique project team.

John Watkins has stepped down from the Parliament of New South Wales, where he was Minister for Transport.

Festus Lameck, chairman of the Trans-Namib board, has been suspended following a strike by railway unions. The action, which ended on September 10, was called in response to the suspension of TransNamib CEO Titus Haimbili. Marketing General Manager Mike Kavekotora has been appointed acting CEO.

Jenny Thunnissen has succeeded Johan de Leeuw as Inspector General to the Ministry of Transport & Water Management in the Netherlands.

Mary Kenny has been named Chief Operating Oficer at HSBC Rail. Other senior management appointments include Simon Purves as Head of Commercial Finance, Stephen Timothy as Head of Relationship Development, Richard Carrington as Head of Projects & Procurement and John Reddyhoff as Head of Asset Management.

Imre Kovács, General Manager at Hungarian freight operator MÁV Cargo, has been dismissed following an accusation of fraud. Miklós Völgyi will take over the position until the end of the year.

Following a court ruling in New York on September 15, Christopher Hohn and Timothy O’Toole have been invited to join the CSX board of directors, replacing Dr William C Richardson and Dr Frank S Royal who have stepped down.

Sérgio Avelleda has been appointed CEO of state-owned São Paulo passenger operator Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos.

Ernie Piper has been named Vice-President, Operations, & Chief Operating Officer of the Alaska Railroad. He succeeds Matt Glynn, who resigned recently.

Jacob Edri has stepped down from his post as General Manager at Jerusalem light rail concessionaire CityPass, while Yekhiel Lavi has resigned from the same position at Moriya Group.

Mohd Salleh bin Abdullah retired as Managing Director at Malaysian state railway KTMB at the end of September.

Charles Mbire has been appointed to the board of Rift Valley Railways, the concessionaire running the railways of Kenya and Uganda.