Today, Minister of Nieuwenhuizen Wijbenga informed the House that as of 1 December on the nomination of the supervisory board of PRORAIL John Voppen is appointed as chairman of the board of directors of ProRail.

Mr. Voppen has worked at ProRail since 2005, of which since 2016 as chief operational officer (COO) within the Executive Board, responsible for the operation within ProRail. He also held the position of chairman of the board of directors on an interim basis after the departure of Mr Eringa. According to the Minister, Voppen knows ProRail's daily practice like no other. Under his leadership, ProRail will continue to work hard in the coming years to create an excellent track for the growing number of travelers and freight transporters.

As a result of the appointment of Mr Voppen, the position of COO within the board of ProRail has become vacant. With a view to this, Van Nieuwenhuizen has appointed Ans Rietstra as COO on the Executive Board, on the recommendation of the Supervisory Board. She has been Director of Projects of ProRail since 2016.

John Voppen has been COO of ProRail since April 2016. After his studies at the University of Twente, John worked for years as a senior manager at Accenture. He has held various positions within ProRail since 2005. From Manager Control IM to Director of Finance, and from 2011 to 2016 Director of Traffic Control. In addition to his work, John is a member of the Supervisory Board of Deventer Hospital and in his spare time trains a basketball team.

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