Anrī Leimanis, an independent Supervisory Board member, nominated by the Latvian shareholder, has been appointed to serve as the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of RB Rail AS, the joint venture of Rail Baltica. Ahti Kuningas and Karolis Sankovski have assumed the positions as Vice-Chairpersons.
Anrī Leimanis, a seasoned corporate governance expert, has been serving on the Supervisory Board of RB Rail AS since June 2019. During his tenure as the Chairperson, Anrī Leimanis will focus on renewing the RB Rail AS corporate strategy and targets, reinforcing the management board with high calibre professionals as well as ensuring effective oversight of management’s performance. Furthermore, the Supervisory Board under the leadership of Anrī Leimanis will reassess organizational structure to align it with the current Rail Baltica project maturity stage, evaluate opportunities to improve risk management system and focus on communication with the member states of the project, the EU institutions, suppliers as well as RB Rail AS staff.
“At the end of 2019 the RB Rail AS Supervisory Board in alignment with the project stakeholders has set the stage for acceleration of the project delivery by approving a significant RB Rail AS budget and headcount increase matching the current project development stage. In 2020, RB Rail AS has been provided with the necessary resources to carry out the detailed technical design of the main line of Rail Baltica and focus on developing effective strategies for the project’s construction phase, including procurement of construction services and construction materials. Rail Baltica project has reached an advanced stage of maturity thanks to the continued support of the national governments and ministries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as the European Commission,” says Anrī Leimanis.
About Anrī Leimanis
In addition to his position at RB Rail AS, Anrī Leimanis also serves as an independent member and Vice-Chairperson of the Supervisory Board at Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT), the leading telecommunications operator in Latvia. As part of his community service activities, Anrī Leimanis chairs the Public Private Partnership Association of Latvia and actively participates in the work of various other NGOs. Before his appointment to RB Rail AS Anrī Leimanis has occupied several senior management positions at Lattelecom Group companies. For 13 years he served as the Chair of the Management Board at the largest private pension fund AS First Closed Pension Fund.
Anrī Leimanis holds a LL.M. master’s degree in Transnational Business Law from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, California, USA and an MBA degree from the Riga Business School in Latvia. In addition, he has conducted a corporate governance research program at St John’s College, University of Oxford. Anrī Leimanis is a graduate of the Professional Board Member (2017) and Chair (2019) education programs at the Baltic Institute of the Corporate Governance. As part of his academic activity Anrī Leimanis is working on his PhD research about international legal framework for Artificial Intelligence.
About RB Rail AS Supervisory Board
The Supervisory Board consists of six members – two nominated by each shareholder for a period of three years. Estonian shareholder has nominated Ahti Kuningas, Deputy Secretary General for Transport at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication of Estonia and Anti Moppel, Advisor to the Deputy Secretary General for Transport at Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia. Latvian shareholder has nominated Ligita Austrupe, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia, and Anri Leimanis, independent member. Lithuanian shareholder has nominated Karolis Sankovski, Chief Executive Officer at AB Lietuvos Geležinkelių infrastruktūra, and Romas Švedas, Chairman of the Board at AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai.