Nick Kingsley Executive Editor Railway Gazette Group

Nick is Executive Editor of Railway Gazette Group. He has covered global rail technology and policy stories for Railway Gazette since joining the title as News Reporter in 2006. Nick has visited more than 50 countries to report on rail and metro projects, and he has become a familiar face within the rail sector by presenting Railway Gazette Group’s flagship Interactive Broadcast series, and by chairing and moderating blue-chip events across the industry, including the UNIFE General Assembly and the World Congress on Railway Research. 

Nick has been an active supporter of the campaign to develop a domestic high speed rail network in the UK, and a member and advocate for the Young Rail Professionals networking association, which seeks to promote rail careers to the next generation and boost diversity within the industry. He is a regular commentator on public transport issues in mainstream media channels, including BBC television and radio, Sky News, and broadsheet newspapers. 

Born in Rochdale, UK, Nick graduated with a BA (Hons) in History from the University of York in 2002. Before joining Railway Gazette Group, Nick spent a year working in a specialist school for children with learning difficulties in rural France, and he was a digital journalist and editor covering the energy and financial services sectors for market analysis company Datamonitor.

Chris Jackson Senior Editor Railway Gazette Group

Chris Jackson is Senior Editor of the Railway Gazette Group at DVV Media International.

Chris joined Railway Gazette International in April 1982, and held a variety of posts including Production Editor and Deputy Editor before being appointed Editor in April 2006. He also served as Editor of Metro Report, Managing Editor of Rail Business Intelligence and webmaster for www.railwaygazette.com. He was named Editor in Chief for the Railway Gazette Group in 2007.

Brought up in south London, Chris studied Business Administration & Transport Planning (Combined Honours) at the University of Aston in Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport & Logistics, an Affiliate of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers. 

Jon Bunyan Director JB Rail Consultancy

Jon was formerly the GM of Service Development at Freightliner, UK.

Gilles Peterhans Secretary General International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP)

Mr. Gilles Peterhans studied finance and economics at the University of St. Gallen ‐ School of Management, Economics, Law, Social Sciences and International Affairs (HSG) in Switzerland. After he graduated in 2001, he transitioned through various field of operating positions in the railway industry. In 2003, he joined a Swiss rolling stock leasing company and was shortly promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer. In 2005, he took over the CEO responsibilities of a newly founded Swiss railway undertakings. Recently, Mr. Peterhans focused on originating and executing private placements and was involved in merger acquisitions transactions. Since January 2013, he acts as Secretary General of UIP, the International Union of Freight Wagon Keepers.

Carlo Borghini Executive Director Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking

Mr Carlo Borghini was appointed Executive Director of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking on 16 February 2016 and is responsible for the overall management of the S2R JU activities.

Prior to this posting, Mr Borghini was EDA Corporate Services Director, where he was responsible for the management of financial and human resources, as well as programme management and administrative issues.

Previously, Mr Borghini held the position of Deputy Executive Director for the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) in Brussels from 2008 to 2014. In this capacity, he had specific responsibilities for corporate governance, administration and finance while contributing the overall management of the programme. More specifically, he managed a budget amounting to over €2 billion, with a portfolio of more than 300 different projects undertaken by the 16 SJU Members.

Prior to that, Mr Borghini was Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised Agency of the United Nations based in Roma, Italy. In this position he managed an annual budget of about $200 million, with an overall portfolio of around $9 billion of on going loans.

From 2001 to 2006, Carlo Borghini worked at the European Commission’s, until 2005 as Internal Audit Supervisor within DG AGRI and after as Head of Internal Audit Unit in DG BUDG.

Before he joined the EU institutions, Mr Borghini held several finance-related positions in the private sector. From 1999 to 2001, he worked as Director, CFO and Country Controller for American Express Bank in Luxembourg. From 1997 to 1999, he was Director Financial Controller for Sopaf Group in Milano, Italy.

Born in Italy on 1 September 1964, Mr Borghini holds a Master Degree equivalent in Business Economics. He is a native speaker of Italian and also possesses an excellent proficiency in French. He is married with three children.

Constanze Bannholzer Programme Manager Digital Automatic Coupling ÖBB-Holding AG

Constanze Bannholzer comes from Vienna. Since 2021 she has been working in ÖBB Holding as project manager for Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) supporting strongly the European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP), enabled by Shift2Rail, which offers a unique platform dedicated to the successful implementation of DAC as a means to revolutionise rail freight systems in Europe. After completing her bachelor studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, she studied environmental and bioresource management with a focus on transportation and mobility. After she devoted herself to representing the interests of the public sector at an association, she dealt with the rail sector in the intermodal area. Because of her passion for the international environment, she moved to work at UIC in Paris as Senior Freight Advisor. At UIC Constanze was working as project manager for European projects and responsible for the management of working groups dealing with combined transport and quality. Constanze is a rail enthusiast business economist with a strong belief in sustainable development through the potential of the rail system, which can still be exploited.

Shantanu Joshi Advanced & Creative Design Manager Alstom

Experienced Senior Designer with a strong history of working in transportation design industry with multiple MNC’s. Specialized in Transportation Design Strategy, Creative design development,  Design Research & Team Building. Being a Creative designer & a design generalist, Shantanu is keen on identifying diverse design opportunities. He holds Master's degree in Industrial / Transportation Design from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India and currently holds a position of Advanced & creative design team leader for India and Asia in Alstom. In the past he has been engaged on projects for Mahindra Group, Hyundai Motor India Ltd., Bombardier Transportation.

Burak Ozaltin EMEA Segment Manager – Transportation 3M Commercial Solutions Division

Burak is an Engineering graduate from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey and has completed his Master’s in Automotive Engineering from Bosphorus University, Turkey.

He joined 3M in 2012 as an application engineer and after holding diverse responsibilities across mutliple disciplines, he is responsible for developing and executing an integrated, long term strategy for 3M transportation market as well as leading EMEA business development activities as Transportation Segment manager.

In his 3M career, Burak has actively been involved in creating customized application solutions and developing business models for transporation markets.

Andy Sykes Senior Designer dgdesign

An industrial designer with a rare blend of creative intuition and specialised technical knowledge, Andy is passionate about making transport better. With an in-depth understanding of both the human side of transport design and the rail industry’s unique requirements Andy has a track record of developing creative, deliverable solutions.

For 13 years Andy has delivered a range of projects from first concept to production support and everything in between for clients including Heathrow Express, Saudi Arabia Railways, Flytoget, Angel Trains, SWR, EMR and Bombardier Transportation.

Richard Thomas Industrial Fellow in Data Integration and Cybersecurity University of Birmingham

Richard Thomas is a UKRRIN  Industrial Fellow in Data Integration and Cybersecurity.

His Ph.D. Thesis reviewed the cybersecurity for some of the UK and European railway standards, identifying the challenges and proposing solutions to ensure future security. His research interests include the security of the ‘industrial internet-of-things’ and how we can leverage the wealth of data available from the rail sector. He also takes an interest in general cybersecurity topics including cybersecurity education and consumer issues, featuring on the BBC’s Rip Off Britain programme in mid-2018.

Richard was part of the Research Institute in Threats to Industrial Control Systems and is now a member of the Research Institute in Trustworthy Interconnected Cyberphysical Systems, receiving a grant to address the challenges the rail sector faces when moving towards compliance with the EU Network and Information Systems Directive.

Dr. Jesus Molina Critical Infrastructure CyberProtector Waterfall Security Solutions

Jesus Molina is Waterfall’s Director of Industrial IoT. He is a security expert with years of experience in both OT and IT security, with a focus in rail networks and critical infrastructure. A former hacker, his early research on offensive security for building automation has been echoed by many publications, including Wired and The Register. He co-authored the Industrial Internet Security Framework, which is regarded as one of the most comprehensive studies on securing connected operational systems.

Mr. Molina holds several security-related patents and has published many research articles (1732 citations and counting) on diverse topics including intrusion detection, building security infrastructure, cloud security and IIoT security. He also co-organized the IoT Sandbox at the RSA conference, demonstrating real time hacks of everyday IoT items. Jesus holds a M.S. and a Ph.D from the University of Maryland.