2021 speakers

Graduated as a Civil Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Master in urban management, diploma in mobility and transport planning. In my current position, I manage the roadmap of the mobility digitalization and the coordination of the Maas project, the new steering mobility plan...

Sergio Barcena, Director of Operations Planning and Maintenance in Ouigo Spain has long experience in high speed trains operations and maintenance across Europe. After graduation in Aeronautics Engineer, Sergio initiated his professional experience in the energy sector as power generation...

A big enthusiast of software development tools for analyses and cost reduction processes to make a company real time process control and management system. Intensively developing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Deep Learning on Python programming knowledge. Deep knowledge of...

Jens Bergmann was appointed to the Management Board of DB Netz AG in 2018 and has been responsible for network planning and rail infrastructure expansion projects since 2019.He has held various management positions at Deutsche Bahn AG since 2013. As Head of Network Investments, for example, he led...

Mr José Bertolin (male) UNIFE Technical Affairs Manager, joined UNIFE in June 2017. He is the UNIFE contact person for aspects related to the second Innovation Program (IP2) of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking. He is also the project coordinator of the projects ETALON and STARS. He has a technical...

Mr Carlo Borghini was appointed Executive Director of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking on February 2016 and is responsible for the overall management of the S2R JU activities. Prior to this posting, Mr Borghini was EDA Corporate Services Director, where he was responsible for the management of...

James Brown joined Angel Trains in 2015 where he has filled a new role to use data science to drive performance across Angel Trains asset base.  James works within Angel Trains? Product Technology Team which is introducing new Technology & Analytics to the industry in order to cut...

Between 1996 and 2011 Stephane worked at Siemens as a systems engineer before joining SNCF as a project manager. Currently focusing on interlocking and train control

Philippe Citroën joined UNIFE in 2011 as Director General. He began his career as Transport Advisor at the French Permanent Representation to the EU and then became Member of the Cabinet of the French Transport Minister. In 1993 he became Manager and Chief of Staff at RATP Paris, and joined the...

Deep Desai is serving as CCO of Frauscher Sensonic. In his previous role as Global Systems Manager for Frauscher’s FTS product line he managed a focused engineering team handling commercial FTS projects. Deep has been involved in numerous technical business development and product development...

Working Experience: 07/2017 - present: Head of Rolling Stock Technology, Deutsche Bahn 03/2014 - 06/2017: Head of Maintenance and Depot Leader, S-Bahn Berlin 10/2011 - 02/2014: Depot Leader and representative principal for renewal of the Depot, S-Bahn Berlin 08/2010 - 09/2011: Program Manager for...

Martin Frobisher is responsible for the safety, technical and engineering functions for Network Rail. This includes a varied mix of technical issues ranging from biodiversity to track engineering and future research. The team sets policy and technical standards and provides assurance to confirm...

Andy joined British Rail in 1984 and has spent his subsequent career in the development, implementation and operation of high technology command, control and signalling systems in the UK, Asia and Australia. He led Ansaldo STS through the delivery of the Cambrian ETCS Level 2 Early Deployment...

Ole is working as Head of Development at Kompetansesenteret in Vy-group - the biggest rail operator in Norway. His responsibility is to ensure that the training of all traindrivers and conductors in Vy is performed to the best quality at the lowest cost. Over the last four years Ole and his team...

Monika Heiming has been Executive Director of EIM since October 2011. Monika has been active in Brussels as a lobbyist and manager of international associations and groupings for a number of years. Mrs Heiming, a German citizen, studied languages at the University of Cologne, and holds a Master?s...

Dr Volker Hentschel has a doctorate degree in traffic engineering (aerospace sector) and has been employed in a managerial capacity at Deutsche Bahn AG since 2004. Since December 2017, he has been member of the Executive Board responsible for Production at DB Netz AG. Prior to that he was in charge ...

Alexander Horch (M.Sc. Engineering Cybernetics, 1996; PhD Automatic Control, 2000) held different research and management roles in the areas of industrial automation in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. Applications included process industries, electrical power grids, manufacturing industries and...

Jorge Iglesias is Doctor Engineering by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. After working at this University, he joined CEDEX (Research and Studies Centre of Ministry of Fomento of Spain) in 1986 to work in the areas of Power Electronics, Electric Machines and Energy Systems. From 2000 to 2006 he ...

Carel Jonckheere recently joined RailNetEurope as senior leader for the European programme called “Smart Capacity Management”.Before joining RailNetEurope, he was senior leader for 14 years for several complex transition and digitalization projects for Infrabel, Belgian’s rail infrastructure...

Maximilian Kaiser is responsible for international sales and business development of the Intermodal Mobility Solutions Business within Siemens Mobility, working with public transportation agencies and other mobility players in Europe and South America. During the past years he gained experience in...

Esmé started her career as an attorney-at-law for more than 10 years and then started working for one of her clients, Dutch Railways. For almost 15 years she has worked in different functions within the company. Achieving joint goals with different parties in difficult circumstances is her...

Florian Kappler joined BLS in 2017 as head of strategic planning railway. In this role he was responsible for the strategic services development, demand forecasting, customer oriented design of rolling stock as well as customer services. Since November 2018 Florian is the BLS project leader and...

Mr Kirschbauer studied transport engineering at the Technical University of Dresden, specialising in CCS. Following his diploma, he completed an internship in Switzerland before he started in the department of ETCS System Specification and Design in Munich at the state owned German infrastructure...

Karolina Korth is a trained psychologist with passion for innovation and has over 10 years of experience in transformation in multinationals. She has a wealth of experience in corporate innovation and business development in healthcare and smart cities. Currently, she is Chief Digital Officer and...

As Project Manager of ETCS at DB Kommunikationstechnik (Telecommunication technology), Christine Kraft has implemented the transmission technique at the Corridor A in Germany Region West, since 2015. Furthermore, she has also implemented key projects with transmission technique, such as the newly...

​​​​​​​+16 years in this railway niche business

Carmen Librero holds an advanced degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and is a member of the Corps of Aeronautical Engineers. From 2012 to 2018, she held the post of Secretary General for Transportation. Prior to this, she served as Aena?s General Director of ...

Andy is the Managing Director of London Underground (LU), the world's oldest underground railway. He's responsible for the safe, reliable and effective operation of the service, and for delivering the priorities and objectives set out in the Mayor's Transport Strategy and TfL Business...

2008-2012 AVL List, Global Sales Operations2012-2014 Altran Group, Business Development Northern Europe2014-2020 PJ Monitoring, Project Manager “Automated Brake Test”, Business DevelopmentSince 2020 PJ Monitoring, Member of the Management Board

Anja-Maria Sonntag is since 2014 Head of Transformation and responsible for the Program ?Automation and Digitalization? at SBB Cargo. Between 2007 and 2014 she was responsible as Program Manager for various rolling stock projects for passenger trains, both at SBB and at Bombardier...

Since 2012 Pilz Austria, System IntegrationSince 2017 Pilz Austria, Head of System IntegrationFSM (functional safety management) and railway expert

Pedro has extensive experience in LRT systems, having worked in projects both in Europe and in the Middle East. His strong, comprehensive understanding of metro´s O&M is complemented by previous experience in industrial maintenance in the automotive sector. He refined his analytical skills with ...

Karsten Oberle received the Dipl.-Ing. (FH) degree in communications engineering from the University of Applied Sciences "Fachhochschule für Technik" Mannheim, Germany, in 1998. In the same year, he joined the Alcatel Research Center in Stuttgart and worked for Bell Labs Research in...

Has been working with Research & Design Institute NIIAS, subsidiary of Russian Railways, for over 10 years in various positions related to research, signalling business unit and international cooperation. He is Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Development of Electro-technical and...

Pascal Plank joined ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) in 2017 as Data Scientist and Special Skills Manager. With his academic background in computer science and visual computing, he currently works on a variety of projects in the domain of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, and...

Recently Paul retired from his role as Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) which brings together the infrastructure and operating companies that run Britain’s railway. Previously he was Group Strategy Director at Network Rail and prior to that he was Chief Economist at the Office of...

The head of the project for developing autonomous commuter trains (GoA3) Popov has 11-years experience in the railway industry. He has been the head of the ITARUS-ATC project (adaptation for the Russian railway and deploying ETCS level 2 system with virtual balises) as well as the head of the...

Alain Quinet, an Inspecteur Général des Finances, has worked in French public institutions since 1988.  He has been Economic and Financial Advisor at the Prime  Minister?s Office (2002-2007), and Chief Financial Officer at Caisse des Dépôts (2008-2010). He is now Chief Operating Officer of SNCF...

Graduated from an engineering school and a master's in Management, I started my professional career as Project Director at Renault. I lead project management teams in the rail industry beetween 2009 and 2011.Then I focused on IT and Data projects, from 2011 I took responsibility of several IT...

UPPER CIVIL ENGINEER (6 years) PHD Cum Laude Special Award. CURRENT POSITION: Planning and Development Director of Puertos del Estado. Currently, member of the Board of Directors of Bahía de Algeciras Port Authority and "Renfe Mercancías". Previously, President of ConteRail (operator of...

Florian Kappler joined BLS in 2017 as head of strategic planning railway. In this role he was responsible for the strategic services development, demand forecasting, customer oriented design of rolling stock as well as customer services. Since November 2018 Florian is the BLS project leader and...

Position: Program leader Automated Train Operation at SmartRail 4.0 Company: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, SBB AG? Career history: 2017: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB AG, Bern, Infrastructure; Programleader ATO at SmartRail 4.0 2015: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB AG, Bern, Infrastructure; Head...

2019 to now – RFI - Head of ERTMS National Program2016 up to 2018 - RFI Railway - Head of department of Standard Technologies16 October 2011 up to July 2016 - RFI Railway - Head of department of Train Control Command System (CCS) and TelecommunicationMarch 2012 to march 2014 - ERTMS USER Group –...

Anja-Maria Sonntag is since 2014 Head of Transformation and responsible for the Program ?Automation and Digitalization? at SBB Cargo. Between 2007 and 2014 she was responsible as Program Manager for various rolling stock projects for passenger trains, both at SBB and at Bombardier...

Since 01.08.2018 Hupac Intermodal AG Intermodal Operator Function: CEO since 2018 Delegate ?Innovation? Netzwerk europäischer Eisenbahnen-NEE since 2009 Nominated by EBA in the Customer Board of DB Netz AG 2010 - 2018 SBB Cargo International AG, Olten, Switzerland International rail freight...

Pierre Tane is Head of Digital Modelling at UIC, notably coordinating efforts on RSM (Railway System Model) and OntoRail (Ontology for Rail). He held various positions spanning standards, customer solutions and architecture in Nortel Networks, Kapsch CarrierCom and Kontron working on wireless...

As the CEO of High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd, Mark has the privilege and ultimate responsibility for leading the company that has been charged with delivering a new high speed railway that will connect the major cities of the UK. The vision is for HS2 to be a catalyst for growth across Britain and become ...

Giorgio Travaini as Shift2Rail Head of Research & Innovation is responsible for coordination of the JU's programme with a view to ensuring that the activities contribute to the fulfilment of the objectives of the S2R Master Plan. Prior to this posting, Giorgio Travaini was Senior Corporate...

I have a degree in political science, a field of public analysis in the field of environmental protection. Right now I do have the main goal that is to develop collaborative innovation projects which would shape the Lithuanian mobility sector.

Formal education Industrial engineer Professional background  Since July 2018, Manel Villalante has been the Chief Strategy & Development Officer of Renfe Operadora. In addition, since January 2019, Manel has been the Chairman of UIC?s Global Passengers Forum and High-Level Passengers...

Amar has spent over 6 years in the space industry, with experience in both the upstream and downstream sector. Currently, he works within the European Space Agency?s (ESA) Business Applications team as a Space Applications Engineer, managing activities across several industries that develop...

Martin Zsifkovits joined the Rail Cargo Austria AG in 2018 as the manager of the ?Smart Cargo? project, digitalizing the wagon fleet using IoT-wagon-trackers. Since 2019, he has taken the role of Head of Innovation Management at the Rail Cargo Group (RCG). Today, his main topics are wagon fleet...