Giorgio Travaini as the Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, successor of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, activities since he took up the position in March 2023. Before this posting, Mr Travaini served as a Head of Programme at the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, responsible for the coordination of the JU’s programme with a view to ensuring that the activities contribute to the fulfilment of the objectives of the Europe’s Rail Master Plan. Mr Travaini was also the Head of Research and Innovation of Europe’s Rail predecessor programme Shift2Rail since 2015.  

Giorgio Travaini

Prior to these postings, he was a Senior Corporate advisor at UNIFE, advising on strategic topics and preparing Shift2Rail. He had been coordinating since 2010 the preparation phase of Shift2Rail, now  Europe’s Rail, that lead to the JU regulation proposals of the European Commission. 

Since 2007, Giorgio Travaini was responsible as Senior Technical Manager for the supervision and coordination of more than 30 successfully EU-funded research projects, the UNIFE dedicated team and technical committees. He had also been significantly involved in ERRAC – the European Technology Platform for Rail Research – where he covered the secretary role. 

In 2006, Giorgio Travaini assisted Mr Paolo Costa, Chairman of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament, in all legislative dossiers both in Brussels and Strasbourg. 

He joined the EU environment in 2004, working for the European association of Chamber of Commerce in Brussels and for the Brussels Regional office representation of his native region – Valle d’Aosta (IT).

Prior to that, Giorgio Travaini had other international experiences from 2001 in Rome working for Procter&Gamble and in Paris working for BNP Paribas Cardiff. 

Giorgio Travaini holds an Engineering Degree (Polytechnic of Turin) and a Master Degree in public affairs (London South Bank University). 

In accordance with Article 14 of GB Decision 03/2018, the annual declarations of interest of the Executive Director are accessible at the HR office of the EU-Rail JU. Requests to view these documents can be made at the following email address: hr[at]rail-research.europa.eu