Secretary General – International Rail Transport Committee (CIT)
Trained as a lawyer, he has held several senior positions within the railway industry over the past twenty years. He completed his studies in law at the University of Bern and was admitted to the bar in 1987. He worked from 1987 until 1989 as a clerk in the Court of Appeal of the Canton of Bern and from 1989 until 1991 as an independent lawyer in Bern. He then joined the Swiss Ministry of Transport as Head of the Legal Section of the Federal Office of Transport. In this position, he was involved in a senior capacity in the Swiss rail reform, which came into force in 1999 and played a major role on the success of public transport in Switzerland. In 2002, he moved from being a regulator to being an operator and was appointed to the position of Head of the Group Legal Department at Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). In 2008, he was made Head of the “Regulation and International Affairs” Division. In this position, he was responsible for representing the interests of SBB at European institutions and for the company’s regulatory strategy. In November 2011, he was elected by the CIT General Assembly as the new Secretary General and assumed his new duties at the beginning of 2012. Cesare Brand is well connected internationally and has excellent relationships with the international railways organisations and the European and Swiss institutions.