General Manager – CFR Marfa
With more than 23 years of overall experience as an International Executive, Mr. Mihuţ is, since April 2016, General Manager of CFR Marfa, the Romanian national operator that performs its activity on the whole railway network, offering the following services:
General Manager – CFR SA
In 1994, he graduated from the “Politehnica” Bucharest, Faculty of Transport, Section Rolling Stock, and had a diploma in mechanical engineering. Marius Chiper has began his activity as locomotive engineer in former SNCFR in 1994, and he had an technical evolution as Technical Inspector at AFER, Chief of Railway Division at an private Railway Undertaking, Project manager and Chief of Project Management Unit at CFR. Currently he is General Manager of CFR SA
CEO – CFR Călători
Mr. Szentes graduated in 1989 from the Faculty of Transports – Department of Transport Technology and Railway Remote Operations of the University Politehnica of Bucharest. He also completed several post-graduate classes, has a master’s degree in Project Management at SNSPA Bucharest and a PhD in Transports Engineering.
He held various positions at the Romanian National Railways Company – the Regional Division of Brașov and at the National Railway Training and Qualification Centre – CENAFER among which: project manager, expert-trainer, manager of CCIPTFT Centre CENAFER Brașov. Since 2012 he has been part of SNTFC “CFR Călători” SA where he has held positions such as: operations manager, international and institutional relations manager, consultant and member of the board of directors. Currently Iosif Szentes is the general manager of SNTFC “CFR Călători” S.A.
General Manager – Metrorex
Mr. Marin ALDEA was born on 19 August 1965. He has graduated from the Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering of Politehnica University of Bucharest and from the Faculty of Finance and Accounting of Athenaeum University of Bucharest. He holds a master’s degree in the Management of public services companies from the Faculty of Commerce of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. He has worked from 1989, as Technological engineer, with a couple of state companies (Lathe Plant, Târgovişte and the Institute of Research and Design for Manufacturing Technologies “Chema Proiect S.A.”, Bucharest), and from 1991 with METROREX S.A., as Senior Engineer, Head of Planning – Strategy Department, Management of Operations Director, Strategy, Planning and Resources Director.
As of December 2015, he is General Director of METROREX S.A.
Economist – Rail International Transport Forum – OECD
Mr. Casullo joined the International Transport Forum in 2015 to contribute the OECD’s programme of research and policy analysis – with a specific focus on rail transport. His background is in economics; he holds an MA from Cambridge University and an MSc from City University in London, where he specialized in economic regulation and competition. Prior to that, he was Senior Consultant at Steer Davies Gleave in London. As a consultant, he advised local, national and international institutions on issues of transport policy and regulation. He was heavily involved in the impact assessment of the Fourth Railway Package, working with DG MOVE and stakeholders across the EU, as well as regulatory measures relating to ERTMS and the review of track access charges regimes. He has also worked on the development of transport-led strategies such as ‘Midlands Connect’ and ‘Transport for the North’ in the UK, and has contributed to the analysis of traffic trends on road and rail concessions worldwide. Lorenzo held consultancy and advisory roles with the United Nations on issues of climate change, urban development and youth participation. At the OECD, Lorenzo has worked on the evaluation of efficiency measures in rail markets, including the analysis of impacts from open access competition. He has also contributed to the competition assessment of Romania’s rail freight market. He is currently advising the Chilean government on the formulation of their long-term infrastructure strategy.
President – European Passengers’ Federation
Graduated in Modern Languages at Oxford University 1969 and awarded Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Leeds University in 1970. Worked as teacher 1970 – 1987 and then as civil servant in what is now Department of Work & Pensions, until retiring in 2011. Commuted to work by rail for a total of 24 years. Active in campaigns for better public transport since early 1970. General Secretary of Railway Development Society (now Railfuture) 1986 – 2001. Member of Railfuture Board 2006-2013. Chairman of European Passengers’ Federation since 2002, currently it’s President. Long experience in dialogue with transport professionals and political decision-makers, has organised conferences and events and written to edited many publications.
Managing Director – Robson’s International Rail Consultancy
Mr. Robson is a time-served railway man having worked in the industry for 39 years. During this time he has held various senior positions both in the UK and in Europe including that of Secretary General of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM). In the UK Michael Robson has experience of working at a senior level in an integrated railway, British Rail, a private stock market listed infrastructure company, Railtrack, and a company limited by guarantee and privately financed, Network Rail, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the Network Rail policy on European issues.
During his 7 years working in Europe, he gained an excellent knowledge of how the European institutions work along with developing an excellent network of contacts. He was on the Board of the European Railway Agency (ERA) where he was involved in developing the strategy of the ERA and in reviewing the progress of the development of TSIs. During his career, he has been involved in Operations, Performance, Timetabling, and Contract Management, Asset Management, Funding, Technical Specification of Interoperability (TSI), Passenger and Freight Marketing and other retail activities in addition to the usual General Management and Project work. Michael Robson is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Transport & Logistics and the Institute of Management.
Scientific Secretary – AFER
Mr. Buciuman has graduated from the Faculty of Transport, section of Railway Remote Control, 1977, University of Polytechnics in Bucharest and from the Faculty of Economic Sciences, section of Finances-Accounting, 1997, “Babeş-Bolyai” University in Cluj- Napoca.
He worked as Engineer in Signalling Centralization Blocking, Head of Centralisation Remote Control Department, Installation Manager CFR SA (1998-2000, 2003-2005) and Service Manager AFER (2001-2003, 2005-2009). Since 2009 until 2012 he has been Executive Manager AFER and since 2012 he has been occupying the position of Scientific Secretary within the same company. He represented CFR SA at UIC for the projects on interoperability. He was Associate Professor at the Technical University in Cluj- Napoca in 1992/1993 and 1993/1994 and professor at the Polytechnics University in Bucharest since 1999, where he introduced the classes Track control elements and the operation of railway remote control equipments and transport management. Ioan Buciuman elaborated several technical and scientific works on railway remote control and railway transport management and published speciality books in 1983, 1988, 2002 and 2008. In 2006, he obtained his PhD from the Polytechnics University in Bucharest, with the thesis “Contributions to the modernization and maintenance of the command-control-signalling installations in Romania in view of achieving the interoperability in the Trans- European railway transport”.
Vienna University of Technology (TUW)
His scientific career started in 2002 when he joined the Institute for Railway Engineering at Vienna University of Technology. In 2005 he graduated as a Ph.D. by submission of his thesis “Choice of Location for Wayside Train Monitoring Systems”. He was involved in several studies for Infra Managers to cover their network by WTMS in a safe and economic way. Finally he became a Docent for the area of railway operation in 2011. Moreover he carried out many studies by simulation of railway operation to compare headways between conventional signalling and the new European Train Control System (ETCS).
Executive Director – Brussels Branch of JR East
Mr. Takahashi joined the Japanese National Railways in April 1985 and East Japan Railway Company in April 1987. His experience in JR East is mainly in the administrative and international divisions. He has assumed the position of Executive Director at the Brussels Branch in February 2013.