Andy Billington,

Innovation and Sustainability Manager

Rail Baltica

Andy is the Innovation and Sustainability specialist at RB Rail AS, the joint venture for the implementation and coordination of the Rail Baltica development. This greenfield project will connect Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the wider European rail and transport networks and forms a unique opportunity to deliver a world-class sustainable and digital railway, along with infrastructure synergies and wider economic and environmental benefits for the region.

Prior to joining the project, Andy was directly involved in rolling stock and infrastructure digitalisation / analytics projects at Transport for London, and has worked in enterprise and mission-critical IT and telecoms projects both in the UK and worldwide, as well as working with large financial services organisations and investors. Seeing similar systems and equivalent requirements across a range of different organisations has created a strong drive to transfer lessons learned and to make the most of synergies across sectors, to use open standards and to adapt commercial off-the-shelf solutions to increase flexibility, reduce costs and long-term risks, and to enable innovative and sustainable solutions.

Fernando Liesa,

Secretary General

Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE)

ALICE is The European Technology Platform on Logistics recognized as such by the European Commission. ALICE is setting up the medium-long term vision for logistics and supply management and building consensus on the research and innovation agenda towards Physical Internet (2030) and Zero Emissions (2050).

Fernando has coordinated and participated in several national and European Research and Innovation projects and led the creation of ALICE. He cooperated with the European Intermodal Research Advisory Council in the definition of the Intermodal Strategic Agenda 2010‐2030, and is a member of the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum launched in 2015 by the European Commission (DGMOVE).

Julianna Moats,

Principal Engineer

WSP

Julianna is a railway engineer, working as a Principal Engineer in the Future Mobility team at WSP in London. Her favourite project at the moment is a rail strategy for western England which integrates design-centred thinking to ensure that the railway and its wider public transport network will succeed in the face of emerging future mobility modes, changing societal trends, and climate change. Outside of work, Julianna is the National Communications Manager for the volunteer-run Young Rail Professionals, where she promotes the rail industry to children and young people and creates development opportunities for young people within the rail industry.

Pio Guido,

Head of Railway Systems Unit

EU Agency for Railways (ERA)

Pio is the Head of the Railway Systems Department at the European Union Agency for Railways. Born in Italy in 1962, he is an electronic engineer who developed his career in Europe and in the USA in the field of automation and transport systems.

He joined Italian Railways in 1997 in the signalling department. In 2001 he moved to Brussels as Deputy Managing Director of the ERTMS Users Group. He has been working at the European Railway Agency since its initial establishment in 2005.

Philippe Citroen,

Director General

UNIFE

Philippe 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 SNCF as Strategy Director in 1999. Prior to assuming his position at UNIFE, he served for 8 years as CEO of Systra, one of the world’s leading public transport engineering companies. Philippe is the coordinator of the coalition Industry4Europe which gathers 154 industrial organisations .

Jean-Marc Bedmar,

Head of Systems and Operation Department

Rail Baltica

Jean-Marc is Head of Systems and Operations at RB Rail. His fields of responsibility include the organization and the preparation of the future railway operation and maintenance phase, as well as the strategy and the development of the Control-Command-Signaling and Energy subsystems. Jean-Marc is a public transport professional and has been involved in numerous high-speed railway, metro and tramway projects across 15 countries, including Denmark, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Iran and Vietnam. His focus is on the long-term sustainability and environmental benefits of rail transport projects.

Simon Fletcher,

Director Europe

International Union of Railways

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.