Frédéric Hénon has been appointed as Director of the UIC Freight Department, succeeding Sandra Géhénot, who is now UIC Director Europe. 
From 1 December 2023, in addition to its current portfolio, the Freight Department will be responsible for steering and coordinating all UIC activities relating to DAC, the Digital Automatic Coupler, including the EU Rail programme.
 
From 1991 until 2005, Hénon worked for Eurotunnel, where he had the opportunity to help implement the railway system commissioning phase, which saw the start of commercial operations in May 1994. He began as a French Railway Planning Officer, successively having the roles of Train Crew Leader, Duty Operations Manager, and finally Head of Railway Infrastructure Maintenance & Logistics. He then worked for 4 years at Reseau Ferré de France (RFF) as the Operations and Maintenance Manager, and another 4 years at the French National Safety Agency (EPSF), as an Interoperability and Safety Officer, working mainly with the French Transport Ministry and the European Agency for Railways (ERA) to develop EU railway regulations and the 4th Railway Package. During this time, Hénon worked as Railway Inspector for the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission. He then returned to Eurostar for a further 4 ½ years, first as deputy Head of Safety and second as Head of Railway Operations Planning and Performance. 
 
He joined SNCF in January 2017, as Head of Railway System Safety, within the framework of creating a positive safety culture programme within the whole SNCF group. Hénon was an SNCF delegate for external relationships in the context of performance, interoperability, and safety (with partners such as CER, EIM, ERA, and UIC), and head of the Safety System and Operational Performance programme. 
 
He joined UIC in 2020 as Head of Operations and Safety to promote activities and run projects dedicated to the performance of railway operations and safety culture, such as DAC for freight, and RAM + Performance as part of the ERJU programme. His other responsibilities also included the development of a positive safety culture and human & organisational factors (RailHOF digital platform), peer reviews, return of experiences, and so on. 
 
He also has a Mathematics degree, and a Masters in Transportation Economy.