EUROPE: Gwendoline Cazenave has been appointed as CEO of Eurostar Group with effect from October 1. She will succeed Jacques Damas, who has been CEO of Eurostar since October 2020 and CEO of Eurostar Group since it was formed as the holding company for Eurostar and Thalys on May 1.
Cazenave has been a partner at management consultancy Oliver Wyman for the last two years, working on the French and European transport and services markets with a focus on rail sector strategy and transformation.
Before that she was an executive at SNCF, with roles including Director of TGV Atlantique, Director of Finance, Strategy & Legal Affairs at SNCF Voyages and holding various of strategic and operational roles within the TER regional business.
Announcing the appointment on August 22, Eurostar Group said its ambition following the merger of Eurostar and Thalys was to provide an attractive alternative to road and air transport. It is seeking to accelerate modal shift and increase total ridership from 19 million passengers carried in 2019 to 30 million within 10 years, with Eurostar as the single brand.
Eurostar Group is owned by the French national railway’s SNCF Voyages Développement (55·75%), Canadian investor CDPQ (19·31%), Belgian national passenger operator SNCB (18·50%) and funds managed by Federated Hermes Infrastructure (6·44%). It is based in Brussels, and holds 100% of the shares of London-based Eurostar International Ltd (operating as Eurostar) and Brussels-based THI Factory SA (operating under the Thalys brand).
