For over a century now, the Federation has been led by men, by company managers who, through their strategic vision and their determination, have brought progress to the railway system. Some of them in particular, through their leadership qualities, have left indelible memories.

•    Robert Pinot dared say « No »!

First General Secretary of the Federation in 1899, he is renowned for his firmness of purpose and tenacity. He is the first leader to tackle the incumbent Government head-on and win the day defending the interests of sector professionals. Former graduate from the Open Political Science University, one-time Director of the Social Museum, he instilled in railway industry professionals respect, trust, determination and faith in a common defender. In 1901 he was named first General Secretary of UIMM.

•    Pierre Sudreau and the birth of the FIF

In October 1962, Pierre Sudreau resigned from his post of Minister in the government led by General de Gaulle. Over lunch one day with his friend Louis Armand, then Chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC), the latter said this to him 'You Pierre took an active part in the battle of the railways during the last war: just remember that the battle is not over yet…', and in the same breath urged him to become « ambassador for French railway technology”, a role which Sudreau readily assumed for three years. As Sudreau recounted later : 'I accepted the presidency of a gathering of all the stakeholders - industrial leaders, SNCF and others – with the ambition of working to conquer Europe and open-up fresh prospects for the future…And being an inveterate enthusiast, I stayed 30 years in the job...'. Soon afterwards, the French railway industry, then regrouped solely within federations, laid the foundations for restructuring the representativeness structures of the industries concerned, culminating in the birth of the French Railway Industries Association on 1 October 1963.

•    Louis Nègre and the will to go further forward

The arrival of Louis NEGRE at the helm of the Association in November 2009 heralded the dawn of a new era marked by the deepening of Franco-German railway cooperation, the necessary coalition of all Sector energies in Europe so as more effectively to tackle growing extra-European competition. 'How to cross the railway Maginot line ', is the new slogan that underpins FIF strategic thinking.