A major highlight of this year’s General Assembly was the election of the Board of Directors where changes became necessary after the sad and premature death of Mr. Alexandru Capatu and the planned career change of Mr. Manfred Seitz who will become General Director of the Danube Commission as of 1st of July. The decision was made unanimously with following results: Mr. Herfried Leitner was elected to serve as the new Chairman of PDI. He holds a master’s degree (MSc) in Economics and Supply Chain Management and has over two decades of experience in managing major logistics companies. His deputies are Mr. Șerban Cucu, who served for many years as a General Director in the Romanian Ministry of Transport and now represents the Romanian Barge operators and Mr. Peter Wötzinger (MSc), who has extensive experience as consultant in managing international large-scale private and public construction projects.
Mr. Róbert Rafael was elected as PDI’s new General Secretary. Mr. Rafael holds a master’s degree (MSc) in Economics and in Business Law. He initiated and managed several innovative IWT-related projects in the field of RIS, IWT promotion and inland ports (Improvement of the navigability of the Danube); he is member of the European Commission DTLF and DINA working groups and the RIS Expert Group on Notices to Skippers. Mr. Thomas Moser (Danube Logistics) and Mr. Friedrich Lehr (Port of Vienna) were both elected to serve as supporting members to the Board of Directors.