The Future of Rail Freight in Europe

Christoph Wolff

Member of the Management Board Region East, DB Schenker

Biography

Dr. Christoph Wolff , member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail since May 2007, holds the position of 'Chairman Region East and Network Management'.
Dr. Wolff is responsible for expanding DB Schenker Rail's drive into Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, he is leading the build up of DB Schenker Rail Polska, a 350 Mio EUR operator, holding No 2 position in the Polish market. He also manages fast growing subsidiaries in Romania and Bulgaria.

Having studied engineering in Aachen and Zurich, Wolff joined McKinsey in 1992, becoming director of their German office in 2005. From 2001 he headed McKinsey’s Global sector dealing with railways and shipping, expanding operations into Asia (China, India and Russia).

Wolff previously spent four years in the United States as a Professor of operations management at Northwestern University and Managing Director of a logistics software firm in Chicago.

Wouter Radstake

Senior VP Land Transport Research, DVB Bank

Biography

Between 1989 and 1995 Wouter Radstake studied Technical Business Administration and Science of Public Administration at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, with the specializations Civil Engineering and Transportation. One thesis covered a set up how to organize the admission procedure for new railway companies in the Netherlands on behalf of ProRail and the Dutch Ministry of Transport. In 1994 Mr. Radstake started his working live as co-owner and managing director of courier company Ritzen Koeriers Twente v.o.f. which used the fact that students got an almost free pass to use the train. But rail forms the thread in his later working life as well. Mr. Radstake was involved in the establishment of Lovers Rail B.V. (1995; the first rail passenger competitor of the Dutch Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the Netherlands since 1917, now part of Veolia Transport), ShortLines B.V. (1995-2001, now part of Veolia Transport) and ERS Railways B.V. (2001-2005, now fully A.P. M¢ller owned). In 2005 and 2006 he was Senior Economist Rail at the Dutch Rail Regulator Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit, working on topics of capacity allocation and infrastructure charges.

Since 2006 Mr. Radstake keeps track of market developments which influence the market outlook and values of land transport assets in Europe and North-America in his position as Senior Vice President Land Transport Research at the leading specialized international transport finance bank DVB Bank. This task consists of amongst others independent analysis of the global and regional economy forecasts, transported commodities, rail and road volumes, raw material and fuel prices, fair market values, innovations, development of the European rail liberalization and rolling stock orders. On top of that, some M&A advisory work is done for key clients.

Patrick Rousseaux

Principal Administrator DG TREN, European Commission

Biography

Principal Administrator, Rail Transport and Interoperability Unit

DG Energy and Transport – European Commission

Civil Engineer and Graduate in Economics

After 2 years as Research Assistant at the University of Louvain (Belgium), he worked as computer engineer (several fields and functions) in banks and later at the European Commission.

He has a deep knowledge of liberalisation and regulation of network industries.

Since 1993, he has followed the whole process of liberalisation of electricity markets.   He is has been involved in the economic and legal aspects of the electricity sector in the European Union. He has also been strongly involved in the Cross-border issues of electricity. (Transmission Pricing, Congestion Management).

He has also launched the TransEuropean networks of energy. 

Since June 2006 he has joined the Rail Transport and Interoperability Unit, in charge of freight issues.

He is in charge of the Commission proposal for a European rail network for competitive freight.

He is also desk officer for the Benelux.

Mats Nyblom

Chief Executive Officer, Hector Rail

Biography

Mats Nyblom graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1984.

He started in the railway business in 1986 and worked for the Swedish State Railways until 2000, the last four year as Business Development Manager. In 2002-2003 he held a similar position in IKEA Rail.

In 2004 he, together with Ole Kjörrefjord and the Höegh family, founded Hector Rail. He has since the start had position as Managing Director for the company. During these five years of operation Hector Rail has developed to a company with operations in four countries and with a turnover > 30 MEUR/year.

Michel Croc

Regional Director, Réseau Ferré de France

Biography

Michel Croc has developed his career in major international infrastructure projects. Firstly in Algeria he participated in the design and construction of the new port of Arzew. Then in the new works department of the Paris Airports Authority (Aéroport de Paris), he was particularly responsible for the new airport at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He was also in charge of the design and construction of the Marseilles metro, and it was in this capacity that he engaged in technical exchanges with the Montreal, Mexico, Caracas and Algiers metro authorities.

From July 2004 to October 2009, he was head of the Provence-Alps-Riviera Regional Division of Réseau Ferré de France. Here he was in charge of infrastructure upgrading and development, the management of the railway network in the Marseilles area and the French Riviera, and the new high speed line project between Marseilles and Italy.

He is currently responsible for increasing the presence of RFF in the countries who wish to benefit from RFF’s experience of new and incremental HSR projects.

Sebastian Doderer

Project Manager Hinterland Traffic, Port of Hamburg

Biography

Project Manager

Holding a degree in industrial engineering and management with focus on logistics, Sebastian Doderer has worked for several consulting companies in Germany before joining the Port of Hamburg Marketing Association in 2007. Starting at the department of market research, he first was responsible for the analysis of the hinterland traffic at Germany’s largest seaport. Since 2008, he coordinates the association’s international logistics research activities, focusing on intermodal transport chains and port optimization concepts.

Mr. Doderer is married and father of a son.

Port of Hamburg Marketing Regd. Assn.

Being an association under private law, Port of Hamburg Marketing takes over the location marketing for the Port of Hamburg as well as for the member companies of the association. According to regulation its activities regarding companies and competition within Hamburg remain neutral. Port of Hamburg Marketing in Hamburg and its worldwide representative offices are the first addressees to answer any question concerning the Port of Hamburg.

Through its many and varied activities both in Germany and abroad, Port of Hamburg Marketing contributes to the strength of the Port of Hamburg’s competitive standing. Within Port of Hamburg Marketing, the departments of Market Research and Project Development are responsible for a wide range of tasks in the field of maritime traffic, port operation and hinterland traffic. Their personnel work in close cooperation with the associations member companies and are involved in the daily port business.

Géraldine Planque

Manager, Marketing and Strategy Department, Port of Marseille Fos

Biography

Geraldine Planque has been working at the Port of Marseille-Fos for seven years, first as the marketing and statistics manager then as the head of the Marketing and Strategy department of the Port. Her department is in charge of the corporate strategic plan, a reference document that provides an in depth analysis of the competitive, social and economic situation of the port (which is characterized by a 45 million tons annual traffic of crude oil out of a 100 million tons total traffic). She is also in charge of the definition of the port’s inland transportation strategies (rail, river, pipeline) including the development of dry ports in the hinterland, and of the traffic statistics.

Tony Berkeley

President, European Rail Freight Association

Biography

Tony Berkeley is President of the European Rail Freight Association, the grouping of private operators and other companies promote European rail freight transport and its stakeholders active in that area through the complete liberalisation of the market:  He is also chairman of the Rail Freight Group, the representative body of the UK rail freight industry.

Tony sits in the UK House of Lords and was an opposition Transport Spokesperson 1996-7.  He is Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Rail Group and of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group.

He was Public Affairs Manager of Eurotunnel from 1981 until the end of construction of the Channel Tunnel in 1994

He is a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He is President of the UK Marine Pilots Association and a Harbour Commissioner for the port of Fowey in Cornwall.

Dick van den Broek Humphreij

General Manager, EVO

Biography

Via insurances (Winterthur Versicherungen), transport (Royal Nedlloyd Group), legal practice(Clifford Chance/Trénité), trade & production (Hunter Douglas), living and working in various countries, among which Germany, the U.K., France, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands Antilles, he is now, as its general managing director, active with EVO, the leading lobbyists organisation of shippers and of own account transport in the Netherlands.

He is also chairman of the European Shippers’ Council in Brussels and member of the Presidential

Executive of IRU in Geneva.

mr. Dick van den Broek Humphreij holds the Netherlands nationality.

Juergen Maier

Head of International Affairs and Projects, BLS Cargo

Biography

Jürgen Maier is a department head with BLS Cargo and responsible for projects and international affairs. 

In the past he has held diverse management positions with SBB, Airport Zurich and Crossair / Swissair with main focus in strategy, quality and general consulting.

He is very involved in the Know-How-Exchange between railways and aviation and experienced the advantages of ZEUS from a user perspective right from the beginning.

His last education part was a MBA at European University and University of Dallas

Eric Peetermans

Chairman, UIC Combined Transport Group, International Affairs, SNCB Holding

Biography

Eric Peetermans was born in April 1950. After his education and his military
service, he joined the SNCB/NMBS (Belgian National Railways) in 1972, and
after his formative years, stepped into the rail freight activities.
He held several junior positions in administration, organisation and sales
before, after a stint at the Cabinet of the Minister of Transport in 1983-1984,
becoming at the end of 1984 the Head of the Brussels Area Commercial
Division of the SNCB.


From 1987 to 2001, he was Head of the Combined Transport Division of BCargo,
the freight unit of SNCB. In that quality he actively and directly
participated to most of the crucial issues that have structured the development
of Combined Transport since the beginning of the ‘90s.
From 2001 to beginning of 2004 he was head of the Sales Department of BCargo.
Since 2004, he is with SNCB Holding, and animates European affairs,
international institutional relations and international interface RU/IM issues in
freight. He is the leader of the UIC team that developed the GCU contract with
UIP and ERFA, and continues to work on the wagon issues, among others
with the joint working group that developed the wagon keeper status at
European level. He is presently also deeply involved in infrastructure capacity
issues, with the view of improving the place of Rail Freight on the rail
infrastructure.


Eric Peetermans is also the Chairman of the UIC Combined Transport Group
and Chairman of the UIC Wagon Users Group. He is also the Immediate Past
Chairman of Interunit.
He holds a Master Degree in Public Management (ULB, Ecole de Commerce
Solvay) and is married since 1972, with two children and two grandchildren.

Michael Robson

Secretary General, EIM

Biography

Michael Robson, Secretary General of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), is a time-served railwayman having been in the industry for 35 years. During this time he has held various senior positions. He has experienced of working in an integrated railway, British Rail, a private stock market listed infrastructure company, Railtrack, and a company limited by guarantee and privately financed, Network Rail.

Working in these three different environments has given him a unique insight into railway structures there complexities and cultures. During his career, he has been involved in Operations, Performance, Timetabling, and Contract Management, Passenger and Freight Marketing and other retail activities in addition to the usual General Management and Project activities.

His previous post, prior to taking over as the EIM Secretary General, was as the Head of European Affairs for Network Rail where he was responsible for developing and implementing the Network Rail policy on European issues.

He sees his current role as promoting the railway, and in particular the interests of infrastructure managers, at all European levels including interfacing with the European Commission, Council of Ministers and MEPs. The other key role consists in ensuring that the EIM views are heard in the European Railway Agency (ERA) discussions on TSI development and in other standardisation bodies involved in this area.

Michael is married with one daughter. His hobbies include walking, gardening, travel, and good food and wine. Michael is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Transport & Logistics and the Institute of Management