Concurrently Thauvette is appointed CEO of DB Schenker Rail UK, will serve as a member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail, and is President of Euro Cargo Rail France (ECR), the French subsidiary of DB Schenker Rail.The Region West also includes the companies Transfesa and Euro Cargo Rail Spain.

The 54-year-old Thauvette, who is currently serving as Director-General of ECR France, will take over from Keith Heller, who will retire at the end of January 2010.

Change of leadership: Alain Thauvette (l.) and Keith Heller.

In 2004, Heller was appointed Chief Executive Officer of English Welsh Scottish Railway Ltd. (EWS – now DB Schenker Rail UK), the largest rail freight company in the United Kingdom. In 2007, it was acquired by DB to help establish a European rail freight network. It was Heller who entrusted Franco-Canadian rail manager Thauvette with setting up ECR in France. With a current market share of approximately 10% in France, the company is the second largest French rail freight operator, having started services with one train in 2006.

"Despite the difficult economic situation and fiercely competitive market environment, Alain Thauvette put the start-up company Euro Cargo Rail on the right track for lasting success. By entrusting him with the management of Region West, we are clearly demonstrating our great confidence in his management skills, entrepreneurial creativity and extensive international experience," said Dr. Alexander Hedderich, CEO of DB Schenker Rail. 

Dr. Karl-Friedrich Rausch, the Deutsche Bahn Management Board Member for Transportation and Logistics, thanked Keith Heller for his untiring and successful commitment to developing the DB Schenker Rail European network: "Keith Heller has proved his management quality through both good and bad times and is one of our best people. For the benefit of our customers he played an essential role in opening the European rail freight market." Hedderich also thanked Heller for his continuing cooperation with the business. "In more than 40 years of work in the railway business, which Keith Heller began with Canadian National in 1966, he has acquired unique expertise. We are delighted that we shall continue to have access to that wealth of experience, as he has agreed to assist DB Schenker Rail as an adviser in the future."