EUROPE: Oana Gherghinescu has been appointed as the next Executive Director at the EU Agency for Railways, following an extraordinary meeting of the agency’s Management Board on March 19.
Most recently head of the Executive Office Unit, she takes over from Pio Guido, who has been acting as interim Executive Director since Josef Doppelbauer stepped down at the end of his second five-year mandate in November. Guido remains Head of ERA’s Railway System Department.
Holding a PhD in International Monetary Economics and an MBA from the University of Craiova, Gherghinescu joined ERA in 2013 as an Economic Evaluation Officer. She held a variety of roles before becoming Head of the agency’s Corporate Assurance & Performance Unit in July 2022. She moved to the Executive Office Unit in November.
The Romanian was one of three candidates shortlisted for the post of Executive Director. The others were Laurent Cébulski, Director General of French rail safety authority EPSF, and Slovenia’s Matej Zakonjšek, Director of the Western Balkans Transport Community and a former head of cabinet for European transport commissioner Violeta Bulc.
