Wabtec names former GE boss Santana CEO, as Betler retires
Written by Staff and newswire report
Wabtec
Wabtec Corp. announced Rafael Santana will become president and CEO of the company, effective July 1, 2019. He will succeed Ray Betler, who is retiring.
Santana was the president and CEO of GE Transportation until that company merged with Wabtec earlier this year. Since the merger, Santana has served as president and CEO of Wabtec’s freight business. The 47-year old is a native of Brazil. Prior to taking the CEO role at GE Transportation, Santana was president & CEO of GE in Latin America.
Betler, who is a Pittsburgh native, started his career in 1979 as a design engineer with the former Westinghouse Transportation Division. He joined Wabtec in 2008 and has served as president and CEO since 2014.
The merger with GE Transportation made Wabtec a Fortune 500 company and a major player in the railway equipment and services market with operations in more than 50 countries.
Santana will be based at Wabtec’s new headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The move comes just weeks after Wabtec announced that Lilian Leroux would become president of the company’s Transit unit, based in Paris.
