On 14 February, Rail Baltica joint venture RB Rail AS announced plans for an executive search for the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairperson of the Management Board as the former CEO Agnis Driksna stepped down from the position. Executive search will be launched shortly, and, in the meantime, interim CEO duties will be taken over by the Management Board member and Chief Procurement Officer Marko Kivila.
During his 10 years working on the Rail Baltica project A. Driksna was directly involved and responsible for the strategic planning and development, incl. financing, and engagement with strategic partners and society as part of the Rail Baltica project planning phase in Latvia. After being appointed as CEO of RB Rail AS in 2019, he oversaw the development of the Rail Baltica joint venture expanding the team and attracting international-level railway sector experts, implementing strategic project development activities, such as railway subsystem development and consolidated construction material procurements, Connecting Europe Facility financing applications and others.
“Agnis Driksna has greatly contributed to the Rail Baltica project ensuring its position high up among the top priority high-speed railway infrastructure projects in the European Union and ensuring uninterrupted work on project delivery during the Covid-19 pandemic. During his leadership the project has evolved, entering a new level of maturity. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I thank Agnis Driksna for his professionalism and contribution to Rail Baltica global project,” said Ligita Austrupe, Chairperson of RB Rail AS Supervisory board.
Marko Kivila was appointed Chief Procurement Officer and Member of the Management Board at RB Rail AS in November 2022.
Kivila’s background is in contract management, involving activities as general counsel, head of contract management, and in-house legal manager in infrastructure projects and major capex investments in the energy sector, assuming executive roles at Rail Baltica national implementing body in Estonia “Rail Baltic Estonia” OÜ and prior to that in Eesti Energia AS and Enefit Solutions AS (Eesti Energia Tehnoloogiatoostus AS).