Herald Ruijters,

Director Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport

Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), European Commission

On 1 February 2017, Herald was appointed Director of Directorate B - Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport in DG Mobility and Transport, while at the same time continuing as Head of Unit responsible for the Trans European Network (TEN-T) until 1 April. He assumed the role of Head of Unit in 2009 and was directly involved in developing the TEN-T Guidelines. He previously worked in the same DG from 2005 to 2009, in order to promote the implementation of TEN-T projects in cooperation with the European Coordinators, and for the development of road safety policy, from 1997 to 2005. Before coming to the Commission he held various positions in The Netherlands related to transport.

Kaspars Briškens,

Head of Strategy & Development

Rail Baltica

Kaspars is Head of Strategy & Development at RB Rail responsible for long-term development, commercialisation and international promotion activities of the Rail Baltica Global Project. He is a transport and logistics industry professional with a keen interest in transport economics, intermodal logistics, supply chain development and aviation. He also serves as Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Air Baltic Corporation.

Kristjan Piirsalu,

Chief Procurement Officer

Rail Baltica

Through his procurement roles, Kristjan has been involved with numerous projects internationally, having had integral involvement in major railway infrastructure projects in the UK, for example, the West Coast Re-modelling and Northern Hub. For the past two years he successfully managed procurement exercises in the energy sector in Estonia. The multi-disciplinary projects, where he was involved on the procurement side, exceed the value of EUR 2 billion. Kristjan is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, which is supplemented by certification in Business Administration and Project Management.

Sandro Francesconi,

Head of Administration

Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT SE)

After work experience at the Technical Direction of the Autostrada del Brennero SpA, Sandro worked for three years as Policy Officer in the “Road Safety” Unit of DG TREN within the European Commission in Brussels.

Since 2008 he has been working for the European Company “Galleria di base del Brennero – Brenner Basistunnel BBT SE”. As Head of the Department “Administration – Finance and general services” he coordinates the administrative offices of BBT SE (Finance, HR, General services, Translation services, IT). Responsible for financing procedures and for relations with the EU, he coordinates BBT SE’s activities related to EU funding.

Giuseppe Venditti,

Head of Realisations Department - Italian sector

Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT SE)

Giuseppe has over 28 years of experience in the design and project management of railways, highways and road infrastructure.

Since January 2020 he has been working for BBT-SE in the role of Head of Realisations Department for the Italian sector. Until 2019 he worked for ITALFERR SpA, the engineering firm of the Italian State Railways (FS) as Project Coordination Manager. He managed the most important railway projects developed by Italferr, such as the Italian H.S. line, as well as the upgrade of the Italian conventional railway lines.

In 2015 he earned the Project Management Professional certification.

Valentina Monaco,

Global Head Rail Infrastructure

TÜV SÜD

Valentina gained her doctorate (Ph.D.) in trackworks from the Graz University of Technology. She specialises in trackworks and system integration with great experience in the fields of ISA, RAMS, NoBo, DeBo AssBo.

Valentina has assessed trackwork systems (from design to operation and maintenance), and tested and certified the new and innovative track components of the leading companies in the world. She has assessed the safety of infrastructure sub-systems and overall system integration of railway lines for major projects, such as the “Marmaray project” in Turkey, including the immersed tunnel under the Bosphorus crossing, the High Speed Line between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Mexico City’s Metro line L12. Valentina supported the Rail Baltica team with a “Supplier Market Study” in the infrastructure field.

Simon Fletcher,

Director Europe

International Union of Railways (UIC)

Simon has been a railway professional since 1977 and has a vast array of strategic experience in operational, safety and standardisation topics in regional, national and international positions. This has included 10 years at Eurostar from conception to inception and responsibility for the entire suite of operating rules and regulations in the UK.

Simon has been with the UIC since 2003 and was responsible for establishing the UIC’s safety dossier and supporting unit at the time when the European Safety Directive was emerging. He has been a member of the UIC Board of Directors since 2009 and as Director Europe leads the coordination of the UIC’s European portfolio.