The Future of Rail Freight in Europe

Bernard Guillelmon

Chief Executive Officer, BLS Group

Biography

Bernard Guillelmon is CEO of BLS AG since July 2008. He started his career as electronic engineer with the BKW and followed an MBA program at Fontainebleau in Paris. From 2001 he held various positions with the SBB, his last position as Head of Operations with 3500 employees. Besides his engagement in the train business the 45 year old manager prefers to spend time with his family and takes time to follow his versatile cultural interests, amongst others by playing the cello at the Bernese music council. Bernard Guillelmon is married and has a 6 year old son.

BLS AG is the second largest train company in Switzerland. It operates a regional public transportation net of 700 kilometres and holds a market share in the transalpine freight service of 43%. The 34 kilometre long NEAT base tunnel through the Lötschberg (opened 2007) is part of the BLS infrastructure. The BLS group employs roughly 2850 people in Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

Geert Pauwels

Chief Executive Officer, SNCB Logistics & IFB

Biography

Since May 2008, Geert Pauwels leads SNCB Logistics, SNCB's freight division. The group is going through a major restructuring, in order to become a high performing European multimodal player, offering rail and barge transport. Geert is also CEO of subsidiary IFB, intermodal operator. He holds a master in economics (UFSI Antwerp) and international business (ESC Grenoble). Before joining SNCB, he held positions at McKinsey and was located in the US, Asia and Europe where he advised CEO's during the restructuring of multinational companies in the logistics sector. During two years Geert worked in a governmental environment on air traffic issues and was governmental commissioner at Belgocontrol.

Wolfgang Schnabel

Supply Chain Director, Dow Europe

Biography

Education: Machine Construction, and Diploma in Business Administration

Present Position: Supply Chain Director at Dow Olefinverbund

Experience: More than 38 years in Logistic and Supply Chain Positions in the Chemical Industry in various Locations in Europe, USA and the Pacific.

• Supply Chain Planning and Logistic
• Customer Service
• Procurement of Logistic Services
• Planning of Integrated Production Sites
• Supply Chain Design and Optimization
• Network Optimization
• Information System Implementation
• Supply Chain and Logistic Projects
• Outsourcing of Logistic Activities
• Integration of Logistic Service Providers

Nathan Zielke

Head of Business Development, SBB Cargo

Biography

Nathan Zielke is Head of Corporate Development and Member of the Management Board of SBB Cargo AG. Mr. Zielke started his career at Lufthansa German Airlines where he managed various international projects in the passenger and cargo business. During the last 6 years he was a strategy consultant at Arthur D. Little, focusing his work on the Travel & Transportation industry, covering aviation as well as rail companies. He joined SBB Cargo in March 2011. He holds a master degree in business administration, is founder of a trading company and co-founder of a global eBusiness service provider.

Mats Andersson

Chief of Staff, Road & Railway Dept, Transportstyrelsen

Biography

Mats Andersson has been the Chief of Staff at the Road and Rail Department at the Swedish Transport Agency since February 2011. Mats is responsible for international coordination for both road and rail regulation.

Mats was previously the Research Director at Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute. He has a research background in transport economics, specifically rail infrastructure wear and tear charges. Mats have also worked at the Swedish Road Administration with strategic planning issues and development of cost-benefit models for road investments.

Mats holds a PhD in Transport and location analysis from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (2007) and a B.Sc. in Economics from Uppsala University (1992).

Tony Berkeley

Chairman, Rail Freight Group

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.

Brian Kogan

Deputy Director Railway Markets and Economics, Office of Rail Regulation

Biography

Brian Kogan has worked in a range of different roles at the Office of Rail Regulation since 1997. Currently, his responsibilities include the consideration and approval of access applications for both passenger and freight services on the British railway network. In addition, he has been instrumental in the implementation of a number of changes to the structure of track access contracts designed to facilitate competition on the railway network.

Brian Kogan studied at Oxford University and later completed an MBA at Brunel University. His early career was as a manager in the British coal industry. Subsequently he became a policy administrator at the Department of the Environment before moving to the Office of Rail Regulation.

Konstantin Skorik

European Business Development Director, Freightliner

Biography

Konstantin Skorik is European Business Development Director of the Freightliner Group since June 2008. He is responsible for Freightliner's subsidiaries in Poland and Germany and for developing new business opportunities in Europe outside of the UK. Konstantin has joined Freightliner in the UK in 2002 and had held various commercial and strategy positions within Freightliner Heavy Haul and Freightliner Group. He has overseen establishment of the Freightliner's first ever international business in Poland in 2005-06. Prior to joining Freightliner, Konstantin gained 6 years of experience in project finance at the World Bank. Konstantin has MBA from the London Business School and Masters of Computer Sciences from Kiev Polytechnic University, Ukraine.

Henry Posner III

Chairman, Railroad Development Corporation

Biography

A founding principal of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) (www.RRDC.com) based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), Mr. Posner entered railway service at Conrail in 1977, where he served in various Operating, Marketing, Planning and Sales positions.

Mr. Posner serves as Chairman of RDC, a railway investment and management company with interests in the USA, Argentina, Peru and Guatemala. RDC was also a shareholder in Eesti Raudtee (Estonia) until its renationalization in January 2007, and a shareholder in the Nacala Corridor in Malawi and Mozambique until the sale of its shares in September 2008. In March 2009, France’s Secretary of State for Transport announced the formation of a joint venture with RDC to help revive that country’s wagonload freight business; and in October 2009 RDC announced its participation in the European intercity passenger business with the formation of Hamburg‐Köln Express.

A graduate of Princeton University (BS – Civil Engineering), Mr. Posner also holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School. He serves as Chairman of Iowa Interstate Railroad; Chairman of Ferrovías Guatemala; a Director of América Latina Logística–Central and Mesopotámico (Argentina); Managing Director of RDC Deutschland; and Vice Chairman of The Hawthorne Group.

Nick Gallop

Managing Director, Intermodality

Biography

Nick started out as Freight Officer at Kent County Council, where he helped draft the first Countywide freight plan. He then moved to management consultants Deloitte, working on global supply chains and helping Stobart Group make its first tentative steps into rail freight. A spell with Australasian consultants SKM saw Nick help Bristol Port Company secure a £15m government freight grant (the largest to date) to improve rail access. Nick established Intermodality in 2002, the team now working alongside retailers, manufacturers, logistics providers and developers, helping establish a new network of intermodal freight services and interchanges, the latter covering more than 30 sites and 4 million square metres of rail-served floorspace.

Current rail projects include support to Stobart and Tesco on new rail freight services in the UK and mainland Europe, supporting M&S with the roll-out of their new rail-linked warehouse hub at Castle Donington, the launch of a new service for timber by Colas Rail, together with EC-funded projects for new rail services and interchanges on High Speed 1 (with DB Schenker), at Northfleet (with Kimberly-Clark), Sittingbourne (with Morrisons and Knauf) and Spalding (with Kilbride Group).

Nick is a technical adviser to the Institute for Sustainability and a member of the Freight Transport Association and the Rail Freight Group. Nick won Support Service Provider of the Year at the 2011 Rail Freight Group awards.