Rafael Santana

Rafael Santana is President and CEO of Wabtec, a leading global provider of equipment, systems, digital solutions and value-added services for freight and transit rail. A native of Brazil, Santana brings roughly 25 years of commercial, product management and executive leadership experience to this post, including more than 10 years in the transportation industry. He has a proven track record of transforming businesses, while delivering top- and bottom-line growth. Most recently, he served as President and CEO of GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric company.

Prior to that role, he was president & CEO of GE in Latin America, where he helped transform the market into one of GE’s largest and fastest-growing regions. A respected global and business executive, Santana also served as president and CEO of the Turbomachinery Solutions Business of GE Oil & Gas, where he drove significant margin improvement and growth in a contracting marketplace. Prior to joining GE in 2000, Santana worked for six years at ExxonMobil and British American Tobacco.

Santana has a degree in engineering from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil and will be based at Wabtec’s new headquarters in Pittsburgh, starting this fall.