Rail Baltic CEO announces resignation due to personal reasons

TALLINN – Timo Riihimaki, RB Rail AS chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of the management board, on Monday announced his resignation due to personal reasons.

Riihimaki will carry out his duties until Dec. 19, 2019, RB Rail AS said in a press release. 

Karolis Sankovski, chairman of the RB Rail AS supervisory board said: "We are saddened that Timo Riihimaki has resigned, but we respect his decision. On behalf of the supervisory board, I would like to thank him for his hard work and wish him all the best in the future."

Sankovski said that smooth further operations of the joint venture will be assured by other members of the management board as well as the whole RB Rail team during the period of search and recruitment of the new CEO. The team will also be shortly strengthened by the chief program management officer who will be head-responsible for acceleration of the Global Project critical path activities.

"I regret to leave Rail Baltica due to personal reasons. I experienced Rail Baltica as an exciting project to work for, and I would like to thank the entire RB Rail AS staff, stakeholders, international partners and Supervisory Board for their cooperation and support,"  Riihimaki said.

During his tenure that started in March, Riihimaki ensured substantial progress in the project by kicking-off design works on 411 kilometers of the Rail Baltic main line as well as launching the design procurements for additional 236 kilometers. In addition,  Riihimaki further improved the company structure by introducing a Program Management Division to strengthen the project’s capacity towards a successful implementation of the design and construction phases. In addition, the role of the procurement division at RB Rail AS was reinforced within the company to ensure a more efficient procurement process.

RB Rail AS is the central coordinator for the Rail Baltic project. RB Rail shareholders include the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian railway companies, UAB Rail Baltica Statyba, SIA Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas and Rail Baltic Estonia OU.

Rail Baltic is a double track, European standard 1,435 mm gauge electrified railway for passenger and freight transport to be built from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border. The overall length of the railway will be 870 kilometers.