Ministro das Infraestruturas e Habitação

Pedro Nuno Santos was born in São João da Madeira, Aveiro, on April 13, 1977.
He holds a degree in Economics from ISEG-UTL, an institution in which he was chairman of the RGA Bureau and member of the Senate of the Technical University of Lisbon.
He began to participate in the Socialist Youth at the age of 14 and from 2004 to 2008 he was its Secretary General. During this time he fought vigorously for the legalization of the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy and helped to launch the public debate over the issue of same-sex marriage. He is now the President of the Socialist district federation of Aveiro.
He entered Portuguese Parliament in 2005, being a member of the X and XII Legislature. He was vice-president of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group and coordinator of the socialists in the Commission of Economy and in the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the Banco Espírito Santo's resolution.
He defines himself as a Social Democrat and a staunch supporter of understandings among the parties of the Portuguese left. He was the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the XXI Portuguese Government (2015-2019), whose main function was to manage the link between the Executive and the leftist parties that support the majority in the Parliament.
He was Minister of Infrastructure and Housing (2019) during the XXI Portuguese Government.

CEO of Alstom, on behalf of UNIFE - The European Rail Industry

Alstom Henri Poupart-Lafarge is Alstom Chairman and CEO. He was President of Alstom Transport and Executive Vice President of Alstom from 2011 until the company refocused on transport.

In 2010, Henri was appointed Executive Vice-President and President of Alstom Grid. From October 2004 to June 2010, he was Chief Financial Officer of Alstom and Member of the Executive Committee. From 2000 to 2004, he was Senior Vice President Finance for the Transmission and Distribution Sector. Henri joined Alstom in 1998.

Henri Poupart-Lafarge started his career in 1992 at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., before joining the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1994.

Born in France in 1969, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Henri Poupart-Lafarge has been elected as Chair of the European Association of Train-builders and Rail Equipment Manufacturers (UNIFE) in June 2020 for a mandate of 3 years.

Director of International Relations of IP- Infraestruturas de Portugal

Francisco Cardoso dos Reis is currently responsible for the International Area of IP, Infrastructures of Portugal, President of the Europe Region of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Portuguese Representative on the European Platform of Railway Infrastructure Managers PRIME.

In the public transport sector for about 39 years, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metropolitano de Lisboa, from 2010 to 2012, President of CP, from 2006 to 2010, where he began his career as an engineer in 1982, President of REFER from 2000 to 2002, Board Member from 1997 to 2000 and a member of its Installing Committee. Among several other positions of responsibility in the Sector, he chaired EMEF, Fernave, Ferbritas, RAVE and AVEP, and was also Vice-President of the GNFL (Cabinet of the Lisbon Railway Node) from 1992 to 1997.

Regarding its International activity, he was Vice-President of the European Railway Infrastructure Managers (EIM) and its founder, in 2001, was a member of the Management Committee of the European Railways Community (CER) in 2001 and from 2007 to 2010, as well as Member of the Management Committee of UIC Europe, also from 2007 to 2010. From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the Policy Board of the International Public Transport Union (UITP) and a member of the UITP European Union Committee, on behalf of Portugal.

CEO of WESTbahn, on behalf of AllRail - Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants in Europe

Erich Forster is CEO of WESTbahn Management GmbH and its parent company Rail Holding AG. He stands up for competition in the railway sector in order to increase the attractiveness of the sector for the customers with affordable prices and best quality.

He started his career at the Austrian Federal Railway, where he gained extensive knowledge of the sector through his functions in the various areas – freight transport, market research, marketing and manager for long-distance passenger transport. Supervisory Board activities and international projects also enlarged his know-how. At the European level he is working together with other private railway companies in the newly founded “Alliance of the Private Railways – ALLRAIL” for more competition in order to make the railways more competitive against other means of transport.

Project Officer at EPF - European Passengers’ Federation

Sandra Lima works as a Project Officer for the European Passengers’ Federation. She specialises in passenger rights in mobility and public transport related issues, conducting mainly research related to user behaviour and the needs of specific user groups, such as people with reduced mobility and elderly people. She has participated in several EU research and innovation projects covering a wide range of topics, including smart traffic management (TMaaS), developing inclusive digital mobility solutions (INDIMO), urban air mobility (AURORA) and information technologies for Shift2Rail. She has also followed the current pandemic very closely, having conducted research for EPF on the effects of COVID-19 in public transport in Europe. Furthermore, Sandra contributes actively to EPF’s policy work at EU level and frequently represents EPF – the end-users – at transport and mobility related conferences, round tables, debates and other relevant events.

State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands, on behalf of IRP

Stientje van Veldhoven began her career in 1997 as personal assistant to Elly Plooij van Gorsel, a member of the European Parliament for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). From 1999 to 2003 she served as an innovation policy officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. From 2003 she worked at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the European Union as first secretary for research policy and as scientific and technological attaché. In 2007 Ms Van Veldhoven became a policy advisor at the European Commission, focusing on the coordination of intergovernmental initiatives. From 2009 to 2010 she was unit coordinator for the Zuidvleugel Randstad region at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

On 17 June 2010 Ms Van Veldhoven became a member of the House of Representatives for Democrats ’66 (D66), with policy responsibility for issues including sustainability, mobility, climate and energy, development cooperation, and agriculture, nature and food quality. From 2012 to 2017 she served as a member of the presidium and secretary to the D66 parliamentary party.

On 26 October 2017 Stientje van Veldhoven was appointed State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management in the third Rutte government.

Moderator | Director of Diário de Notícias 

Rosália Amorim has been Director of Diário de Notícias since November 2020. Before, she was  the Editorial Director of Dinheiro Vivo - Editorial Department of Economics of the Global Media Group (GMG) and  responsible for the economic area for Dinheiro Vivo, Diário de Notícias and Jornal de Notícias. She is also a Publisher of Motor 24, a GMG brand dedicated to the editorial area of mobility, since May 2018.

She is a commentator on economic issues at TSF radio and RTP.

She spent most of her career in the Impresa group, where she worked for 18 years, and was Editor of Exame Magazine, Coordinator of Revista Única of Expresso newspaper, Coordinator of Inteligente Life -The Economist in the Portuguese version, Economy Coordinator of Expresso newspaper and commentator on economic affairs at SIC and SIC Notícias, until January 2015.

European Commissioner for Transport

Adina Vălean is the European Commissioner for Transport. Before taking office on December 1st 2019, she was a Member of the European Parliament for 12 years. As an MEP she served as the Chairwoman of ITRE Committee (July-December 2019), Chairwoman of ENVI Committee (2017-2019) and as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2014-2017). She was also a Member of the Romanian Parliament between 2004-2007. Adina Vălean holds a Master degree in European Integration Studies and Security and a bachelor degree in Mathematics.

Executive Director of ERA European Union Agency for Railways

Dr. Josef DOPPELBAUER holds a degree and a Doctorate, both in Physics. He started his career at the Alcatel Research Centre in Vienna, Austria, where in 1997 he became Technical Director. In 2001, he moved to Paris to become Chief Technical Officer for Alcatel Transport Automation Solutions. Dr. DOPPELBAUER joined Bombardier Transportation in December 2002, first working in the Rail Control Solutions division, where he held several positions in Engineering, Sales, and as President. In 2008, he moved on to the global headquarters of Bombardier Transportation in Berlin. From July 2008 to June 2012, he was Vice President Project Management, and from July 2008 to December 2013 Chief Technical Officer.

The key responsibilities in this role included leading the standardisation of processes, tools and products, product safety, and critical projects support. Between January 2014 and December 2014, Dr. DOPPELBAUER was appointed Vice President Research and Technology, Bombardier Transportation.

He has 25 years of experience in key aspects of railway technology, including signaling and communications and control. Since the early 1990's, he has been involved with the development of the European Rail Transport Management System (ERTMS). His international work experience includes stations in Austria, France, UK, Sweden, and Germany. Dr. DOPPELBAUER is the current chairman of the European Rail Research Advisory Committee (ERRAC), the European technology platform of the rail sector. From 2011 to June 2014, he was the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Technology Initiative SHIFT2RAIL. He also represented Bombardier Transportation in the Governing Board of SHIFT2RAIL.

Since January 2015 Mr. DOPPELBAUER is the new Executive Director of the European Railway Agency (ERA).

CEO of MAV Hungarian Railways, on behalf of CER - The voice of European Railways

President-Director General of MAV Co., lawyer

He was born on 5 April 1977 in Eger, Hungary. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. He worked as a trainee lawyer from 2000 and as a lawyer between 2004 and 2010.

He was appointed Executive Vice-President  of the National Development Agency in 2010 and in parallel he was elected Vice-President of the Public Procurement Council. From 2012 he was Legal Director of the Hungarian National Asset Management Inc., then Deputy State Secretary leading the Development Agency of the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2014-2015 he was Chief Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministerial Commissioner responsible for the codification of the Act on Public Procurement and President of the Development Policy Coordination Committee until 2016. He held the position of Government Commissioner responsible for road and railway development at the Prime Minister’s Office as of 2016. He was appointed State Secretary responsible for transport policy of the Ministry of National Development in 2017. He has been President-Director General of MAV Co., President of HUNGRAIL Hungarian Rail Association since 2018. He was elected Vice-President of Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) in 2020.

He is married and has one child.

Director of Institutional and International Relations of CP - Comboios de Portugal

With 28 years of experience in the railway sector, is Director of International Affairs since July 2008, Head of the Cabinet of the President of the Board of Directors of CP as of June 2018, Director for International and Institutional Affairs, and Safety since January 2020. Representative of CP in international institutions (CER, UIC and the CIT) for a long time, is also President of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Railway Platform.

General Manager of Europalia Trains and Tracks

Studies
Financial Management, Insead Paris, 1998
MBA, University of Ghent, 1990-1993 (Vlerick)
Marketing Management, EHSAL Brussels, 1987-1988
European Studies, Bonn, Germany, 1986-1987
Master: Romance Philology (French / Italian), KU Leuven, 1982-1986

Career
Brussels: General manager Europalia Arts Festival January 2017 -
Amsterdam: CEO WPG Uitgevers April 2008 - December 2016
Brussels: Member of the general management of De Persgroep Publishing 2006 - 2008
Antwerp: general manager Magnet Magazines 2000- 2006
Brussels: daily general manager De Morgen, 1994 - 2000
Brussels: daily marketing director De Morgen, 1993-1994
Brussels: marketing manager De Persgroep, 1990-1993
Junior Product Manager Daily Het Laatste Nieuws, 1988-1990

Functions

Past:
ATV Board of Directors (Antwerp regional television)
Belga Board of Directors (press agency)
Board of Directors VPRO (cultural television channel in the Netherlands)
General Assembly of the Belgian Comic Strip Museum 

Currently :
Board of Directors Standaard Uitgeverij (children's books, comics)
Studio 100 Board of Directors (live entertainment, amusement parks)

Chair of the TRAN Committee European Parliament 

Elected at the European Parliament in 2009, Karima Delli has been being chairwoman of the ‘transport and tourism’ committee of the EP since 2017. Mrs Delli has been very involved in relaunching trains – especially night trains – for years, in the view to make the transport sector greener across the EU

Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA

Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg is a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA and has been in office since 2019. The French-German-Swiss ecologist and scientist stands up to fight climate change, biodiversity loss, for green mobility and for a transformative economy in the committees on Transport and Tourism (TRAN), Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) and Regional Development (REGI). Also she is very committed to the topic of the Economy for the Common Good and the relations between France and Germany. She has been the rapporteur for the “2021: European Year of Rail”.

She has been politically active with the German Greens since 2008. Before being elected as a Member of the European Parliament she was engaged for 10 years at the local level as an active City Councillor and chairwoman of the Greens in Stuttgart (Germany). She has a diploma in Forestry and Environmental Sciences from the University of Freiburg, Germany and the University of Vancouver, Canada. Prior to her work in the European Parliament she worked as an independent seminar leader in education for sustainable development and deep ecology. Ms Deparnay-Grunenberg is married, has three children and lives in Stuttgart, Germany.

Executive Director of Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking

Carlo Borghini is responsible for the overall management of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking activities since he took up the position of Executive Director in February 2016.

Prior to this posting, Mr. Borghini held senior management positions in different domains in private and international organisations, at corporate level. He was the Deputy Executive Director for the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) in Brussels from 2008 to 2014, and prior to this was Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised Agency of the United Nations based in Rome.

Mr Borghini holds a Master’s Degree equivalent in Business Economics and speaks Italian, French and English. He is married with three children.

Chairman of Rail Freight Forward - European Rail Freight Vision 2030

Doctorate in theoretical physics and chemistry, Vienna and Clausthal University.

Clemens Först has many years of experience in logistics, especially in the areas of production and finance as well as corporate strategy. He is Spokesman of the Management Board and is responsible for Finance and Production in Austria as well as Service Delivery and thus for the entire order management and shipment scheduling of the Rail Cargo Group. At the European level, Clemens Först is Chairman of the CEO Taskforce of UIC and CER and is committed to creating competitive framework conditions for rail freight transport.

Chair of the Railway Section of ETF - European Transport Workers’ Federation

Giorgio Tuti is the Chair of the Railway Section of ETF – European Transport Workers Federation, Vice-President of SGB – Swiss Trade Union Confederation and President of SEV – Swiss Transport Workers’ Union.

Co-Founder of FreeInterrail on behalf of Herr & Speer

Martin Speer is a Berlin based author, activist and consultant. Together with Vincent-Immauel Herr (HERR & SPEER) he started the #FreeInterrail movement that led to the implementation of the DiscoverEU scheme, a Erasmus+ flagship initiative. The idea enabled over 70.000 young people to discover Europe by train for free. HERR & SPEER are passionate train travelers and are advocating for a united, inclusive and green Europe. In 2018 they received the Jean Monnet Prize and in 2021 a special acknowledgement at the European Railway Award.

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms

Elisa Ferreira is the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms (1 December 2019 onwards).

Before that, she was Vice-Governor of the Bank of Portugal (‘Banco de Portugal’). She joined the bank in June 2016, becoming Vice-Governor in September 2017. During her tenure, she was Portugal’s representative in the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism.

Between 2004 and 2016 she was a Member of the European Parliament. Throughout her mandate, she was the coordinator for the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the EP’s Economic and Monetary (ECON) Committee, and was rapporteur, co-rapporteur or shadow rapporteur of many key legislative files, including the Six-Pack and Two-Pack, the BRRD or the Regulation creating the Single Resolution Mechanism.

She was a member of the Portuguese National Parliament between 2002 and 2004.

Elisa Ferreira was Portugal’s Minister for Planning (responsible for the Portuguese EU Multiannual Framework for regional policy) between 1999 and 2002.

She was Portugal’s Minister for the Environment from 1995 to 1999.

Between 1992 and 1994 she was Executive Vice-President of the Porto Industrial Association.

Before that, she worked at Portugal’s Northern Region Coordination Commission, a central government regional development institution of which she was the Vice-President from 1988 until 1992; in parallel, she was also a member of the Board of the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Statistics Portugal).

Elisa Ferreira has a degree in Economics from the University of Porto, and a Master’s Degree (1981) and a PhD (1985) from the University of Reading, in the UK. She is a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (on leave of absence).