Iolanda Vitiello (PhD in Transport Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 2014) previously worked for the Ports and Logistics Unit at RAM – Logistica Infrastrutture e Trasporti S.p.A. and the Department of Business and Quantitative Studies at the University of Naples Parthenope. She took part to many professional project and research activities in transport sector. During the PhD course, she also joined the Transportation Research Group of the University of Southampton (UK), as a visiting PhD student. Afterwards, she attended a sixteen-month post-doctorate course in strategic management of ports and interports, supported by a research grant from the Italian National Research Council.

Alessandro Carano is Senior Adviser in European Commission’s Recovery taskforce, which is responsible for the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and related partnership with the EU Member States. He is in particular responsible for strategic advice on investments, synergy with other EU funds, cost estimates, transport, and is member of the teams working with Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.

Between 2016 and end 2019, he has been Expert Member of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner for Transport V. Bulc: responsible for the transport investment and financial instruments including the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), and for the Trans-European-Networks policy, the new proposal for Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-27, and cooperation with Eastern Partners, as well as transport policies and investments in Poland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Finland, Sweden Denmark.

Between 2014 and 2016, he was Senior Adviser to the Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s DG Economic and Financial Affairs, working on the design and start-up of the Investment Plan for the Europe – including the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) – to mobilize at least € 500bn by 2020, and on the External Investment Plan to mobilise € 44bn in EU Neighbourhood and Africa by 2020.

He was previously Managerial Adviser and Head of Unit at the European Investment Bank, responsible for the institutional relationship with EU Institutions and other International Financial Institutions on policies and activities outside the EU. He led the negotiations on the new EIB External Lending Mandate for the period 2014-2020, allowing up to EUR 30bn in EIB financing in support of EU external action. He worked on the Mid Term review of EIB external mandate including support to the steering committee of wise persons chaired by M. Camdessus, and the subsequent EU decision. He contributed to the establishment of the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) and other financial instruments blending grants with loans. He has also worked in the Projects Directorate of the EIB on economic and technical due diligence of projects and the quality of internal methods and processes.

He worked for Procter & Gamble in several management positions for 8 years.

He holds an MBA from Vlerick Management School and an Engineering MSc degree from Turin Politechnic University.

He is member of the Board of the “European Foundation for Quality Management” (EFQM) and is the founder of the non-profit foundation “Carano 4 Children” to support children with art & science education.

Maria Luisa De Maio, (PhD in Transport and Logistics Engineering, University of Reggio Calabria 2014), Official at the Italian Transport Regulation Authority in the Directorate Retail Services and Markets. Her main interests are in the field of economic regulation of rail, road, maritime Public Transport and in sustainable and innovative mobility.
During her PhD was visiting researcher at the Institute for Transport Studies, Leeds (UK).

Selin Gundes is a Professor in the Department of Architecture and the head of Construction Project Management Postgraduate Programme at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSFAU) in Istanbul. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture (Yildiz Technical University), a MSc degree in Construction Economics and Management (University College London, the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment) and a PhD in Construction Economics and Management (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Ambiente Costruito). Professor Gundes has taught and currently teaches at several universities including Politecnico di Milano and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She has published numerous research papers in the area of construction economics, project finance, public-private-partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure and the sustainability of the built environment. She has also contributed chapters to a number of books including La Finanza di Progetto, Transport and the City, and Approaches and Perspectives towards Sustainability.

Emanuele Mastrodonato is a chartered Electronic Engineer, he has been working for the railways since 2002 at the Italian Infrastructure Manager RFI (www.rfi.it), then he worked at CER, the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (www.cer.be), and finally he joined the European Rail Freight Corridor Scandinavian Mediterranean (www.scanmedfreigth.eu). For RFI he worked as a Project Manager, taking the responsibility for major construction and maintenance contracts (up to 30 mln € whole life cost). He collected experience in the Technical Department and in the Operation & Sales Department, as well as in the Departments of Investments and Production & Maintenance Department. In 2015, Emanuele joined CER as Senior Advisor on EU Railway Agency issues (ERA) and Digitalisation. He has represented CER in several EU railway working groups in his capacity of CER Responsible for Interoperability and CER Digitalisation Coordinator, covering both freight and passenger transport. In the past, Emanuele had the opportunity to sharpen his multimodal profile having worked for freight on road as Consultant for the Italian Ministry of Transport (2010-2015) and having served as an Officer for the Italian Navy (2001-2002). Emanuele has started in January 2019 as ScanMed-RFC Managing Director achieving very good results in 2019 and 2020 (2019 Increased sales rate Capacity PaPs by 15%, new customers +33%, total customers +17%, 1 st allocation of a new RFC product Terminal Integrated Capacity Offer; 2020: increased punctuality KPIs, user satisfaction reached 84%, allocated capacity increased by 3% reaching 87% of the offered capacity ScanMed North).