Mr Valeri J Kovalyov has been appointed Vice-Minister of Railways in Russia. Mr Michail P Likhachov has become President of Russian Railways’ Volga Region.
Mr G K Malhotra has taken over as Chairman of Rail India Technical & Economic Services (Rites).
Mr Christian Cochet has been named Director of the Cabinet of SNCF President Louis Gallois. He replaces Mr Olivier Marembaud who has moved to SNCF bus subsidiary Sceta. Mr François Roussely has taken over as Secretary-General from Mr Pierre Fa.
Mr Martti Mäkinen takes over on March 1 as Director of Communications for the Finnish Railways Group. He replaces Mr Jan-Peter Paul, who has moved to Brussels to head the European Comissioner for Transport’s office of transport policy and planning.
Slovak Railway has named Divisional General Managers for its new divisions which were created on January 1 (RBR 97 p58). They are: Messrs Rastislav Polcer, Infrastructure; Miroslav Horecny, Freight; Pavol Stetulic, Passenger; and Miloslav Luzak, Rolling Stock.
Mr James Wagner has joined RailTex as Chief Mechanical Officer. He was previously Vice-President & Chief Mechanical Officer for Southern Pacific.
Mr Erik Elsborg has been confirmed as Chief Executive of the Danish National Railway Directorate, Banestyrelsen (RG 2.97 p113); he has been Director of Infrastructure at Danish State Railways since 1993. Reporting to him will be six Directors: Messrs Bent Nygaard, Safety; Jesper Toft, Infrastructure Services; Eigil Sabroe, Traffic Management; Torben Kronstam, Infrastructure Management; Preben Olesen, Consulting Engineers & Planners; and Ms Lene Grønfeldt, Administration & Strategic Planning.
Mr John Robb has been appointed Business Development Director for the British rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook Leasing.
Mr Hanspeter Siegrist has joined Swiss Federal Railways as Director of its new Brünig Division covering SBB’s metre-gauge lines.
Mr Jack Evans has been elected Chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In San Francisco, Ms Margaret K Pryor has been re-elected President of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District board for the third time.
Mr John Nelson has joined Railtrack as Director, London Developments.
Mr Mark Smith has been appointed Director of Central Services for Intercontainer-Interfrigo.
Mr David Morphet has been named Director General of Britain’s Railway Forum.
Conrail has appointed five new Senior Vice Presidents: Messrs Bruce Wilson, Merger; George Turner, Merger Consolidation; Timothy O’Toole, Law & Government Affairs; John A McKelvey, Finance; and Lester M Passa, Automotive Service Group. Mr Gary M Spiegel becomes Vice President, Service Delivery.ir
Mr S Ramanathan has been appointed General Manager of South Eastern Railway in India. He moves from the Railway Board, where he was Additional Member (Production Units). He graduated as a mechanical engineer from IIT Kharagpur in 1961 before joining the Southern Railway, and has held senior posts at Chitteranjan Locomotive Works, North East Frontier and Northern Railways
