UIC Vice Chairman

Biography

Born in 1965 in Ankara, Turkey, Mr. İsa APAYDIN graduated from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering of Istanbul Technical University in 1987. He received his master degree from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering of Sakarya University in 1996.

Starting work as an engineer at the Directorate General of Turkish State Railways (TCDD) in 1987 and assigned different positions, Mr. Apaydın worked as Deputy Director General and Member of the Board in TCDD between 2005-2015.

Mr. Apaydın took office of Chairman of the Board and Director General of TCDD on 13 May 2016.

Mr. Apaydın exercised many tasks and responsibilities during his tenure of Deputy Director General. Many projects in the fields of “National Train Project”, improvement of structure for Research-Development and training etc. were carried out under the responsibility of Mr. Apaydın for the construction and commissioning of Ankara-Eskişehir, Ankara-Konya and Ankara-İstanbul high speed and rapid railway projects, maintenance and rehabilitation of the existing conventional railway lines and establishment of domestic railway industry. Mr. Apaydın has held the following high level positions:

• National Train Project Execution Group Administration,
• Member of General Assembly for the European Railway Research Council,
• Chairman of the Organising Board for the 1st International Railway Symposium, Chairmanship of Organising Board together with International Railways Union (UIC) for the 2nd International Railway Symposium and Exhibition and 1st Global Conference on Train Management and Control Systems,
• Chairman of Anatolian Railway Transportation Systems Cluster (ARUS).

On the other hand, Mr. Apaydın led the development of the railway domestic industry and established cooperation between University-Industry by ensuring the establishment of the Railway Research and Technology Centre (DATEM) in which the studies regarding localisation and development of the products with high technology are being carried out; contributed to conducting 8 Research-Development projects and development of the existing infrastructure of TCDD within the scope of the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme; was the coordinator of the National Competency System Project in the Railway Sector funded by the European Union. Within the scope of the project, he ensured the preparation of 18 railway occupational standards and competencies.
He actively supported the clustering activities regarding the development of the railway industry in Ankara and Eskişehir, the cities of railways.
He also personally initiated the certification processes for the railway occupations for the first time in our country by establishing the RAYTEST Certification Centre.

Mr. Apaydın is actively involved in international railway cooperation as Vice President of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Chairman of the Regional Assembly of the Middle East (RAME).