Ligita Austrupe possesses twenty- year experience in the administration of EU funds, including supervision and audit of the EU funded projects.

Her professional career in the field of the EU funded projects’ monitoring and management, Ligita started as an internal auditor with the Rural Support Service and improved her auditing skills as a trainee at the Internal Audit Unit of the Directorate General of Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission.

In year 2002, Ligita joined the Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA), which, since 1997 is responsible for the administration of the EU funded projects in Latvia. In her capacity of the Deputy Director of the CFCA, Ligita gained an extensive experience in the financial and strategical planning of both – EU funded projects and the institution itself.

Since 2013 Ligita has worked at the Ministry of Transport of Latvia on the planning and implementation of the transport sector investments in Latvia. As a Deputy State Secretary Ligita is responsible for the EU affairs, the financial and strategical planning and investment policy of the Latvian transport sector.

Since 2018 Ligita holds the position of the Head of the Responsible Authority of the administration of the EU funds in Latvia and till recent was holding the position of the Head of the Connecting Europe Facility’s Managing Authority in Latvia.

Various transport infrastructure development projects have been implemented in Latvia under the supervision of the Responsible Authority of the EU funds administration and Connecting Europe Facility Managing Authority, including large scale infrastructure projects in the various transport sectors – ports, airports, roads and railways.  As the Head of the Connecting Europe Facility Managing Authority in Latvia, Ligita has ensured monitoring of the implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia.

Ahti Kuningas has been the Deputy Secretary General for Transport for over four years since 2015. During this time he has coordinated and lead the Estonian aviation, maritime, railway, road and public transport infrastructure and service development daily, having a wholesome and coherent view on the transport sector as a whole.

Ahti has  long-term experience in contributing to the well being of organisations, having been in the Supervisory Boards of seven organisations, which have operated in the maritime, aviation and railway industries. With his experience and a birds-eye view of the transport sector, he brings the needed know-how to create a multi-modal transport infrastructure for Rail Baltica.

Ahti Kuningas has obtained a master’s degree in Economics at the University of Tartu. Additionally he has gone through the Executive Education of Professional Board Member trainings in the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance.

Romas Švedas has an extensive experience in international economic relations and development of international energy and transport infrastructure projects, corporate governance and work of international institutions, like the EU and UN.

In addition to his duties at RB Rail, R.Švedas is Associate Professor of Practice at Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, Board Member at AB Lietuvos geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), Head of Management at the Public Institution Governance Coordination Center, Board Member of NGO European Movement Lithuania.

Švedas has been a civil servant for 20 years and from 2011 an Independent Expert. He is the former Vice-minister of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania, Director of Economic Security Policy Department and Director of Economic Relations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; former Deputy Permanent Representative (Coreper I) of Lithuania in European Union in Brussels and Counsellor at Lithuanian Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva. Romas Švedas was a member and the Chairman of the Boards of AB Klaipėdos nafta (Oil and LNG terminal), AB Litgrid (electricity TSO), AB Lietuvos dujos (gas company), VĮ Ignalinos atominė elektrinė (nuclear power plant). 2014-2020 Romas Švedas was a member of the Implementation Committee of UN Espoo Convention (where 2017-2020 was the Chair).

During posting in Brussels he took part in the early stages of the Rail Baltica project. Being Vice-Minister of Energy, he was in charge of development of power interconnections Lithuania-Sweden (NordBalt) and Lithuania-Poland (LitPolLink), LNG terminal (Independence), shut down and decommissioning of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and development of new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, liberalization of power and gas markets in Lithuania while transferring the EU 3rd energy package into Lithuanian legislation.

Romas Švedas is a lawyer and graduate of the Professional Board Member (2010) and Chair (2017) education programmes at the Baltic Institute of the Corporate Governance (BICG).

Arnis Kākulis is an experienced executive with extensive international experience. He holds a master’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, United States of America. After 15 years of diverse professional experience in the USA, in 2007 A. Kākulis returned to Latvia with his family to contribute his professional experience to the growth of the business environment of the Baltic region.

Previously Arnis Kākulis was the director of AECOM’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and India regions. For many years he has worked as the director for the Baltic region and participated in the evaluation of the early stages of the Rail Baltica project. His main field of activity is attracting business sector clients to complex projects in the field of strategic planning and design management.

He was the president and board member of American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, headed the transport working group at the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) and participated in the Diaspora Advisory Council. Arnis is an active member of several global professional organizations – CoreNet Global and Urban Land Institute.

Sandor Liive is an energy executive and startup entrepreneur. Sandor is a co-founder of the GridiO, a virtual power plant platform, co-founder and Chairman of the Fermi Energia, a project development company for the deployment of the first small modular nuclear reactor in Europe, Member of the Supervisory board of Nordecon, a publicly listed construction company,   Member of the Supervisory board of Tuleva, a social startup managing members’ pension assets.

Prior to founding GridiO, Sandor Liive was the CEO of Eesti Energia for nine years, which he turned from a local monopoly into an international energy business. Before becoming CEO, Sandor was CFO of Eesti Energia for seven years. Before joining Eesti Energia, he was CFO of the Port of Tallinn.

Sandor started his career in the early nineties as an entrepreneur and was involved in establishing the first Estonian fund management company, a real estate brokerage, and a venture capital and investment advisory company.

Arenijus Jackus has obtained Master’s Degree in Transport Engineering Economics and Management at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.

He is currently holding the position of Director of Rail Baltica Coordination Department in LTG Infra. He started working at the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 1997 and during his 14 years of service in the public sector he has had an opportunity to be involved within the Rail Baltica project implementation since its very beginning. He has previously held director position in various strategic departments at the Ministry of Transport and Communications responsible for strategic planning and finances, EU investment administration and project implementation as well as international relations and EU affairs. He has also been the Chairman of the Management Board of “Kaunas airport” SE, Member of the Supervisory Board at LTG Infra, Member of the Management Boards of “Klaipėda State Seaport Authority” SE, “Oro navigacija” SE and “Rail Baltica statyba” UAB.

Likewise, he has worked as a Deputy Director at Central Financing and Contracting Unit, Deputy Head of Marketing Division at Lithuanian National Radio and Television, Assistant and Lector at several universities: Kaunas Technology University, Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.