Conference speakers

Andrea Pigorini is an experienced mining engineer who has been working for more than 35 years in design and construction of major infrastructural projects in Italy and abroad, with specific and extensive experience in tunnelling and underground works.

He formerly worked in construction companies, and he expanded his professional background by working for a leading geotechnical engineering company, where he was in charge of designing and managing several road, railway and metro tunnelling projects.

He has been working at Italferr since 2002, and he has been responsible for Tunnelling Design Department from 2002 to 2015. Since 2015, he has been heading the Infrastructure Engineering Department. From 2011 to 2017 he was also involved in the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel as Project Manager overseeing the supervision of the works of two construction lots.

From 2013 to 2022, he served as the President of the Italian Tunnelling Society and is now its Past President. During his term the Italian Tunnelling Association hosted the WTC 2019 in Naples, one of the most successfully edition ever.

Since September 2022 he has been serving as a member of the Executive Council of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA-AITES), and he was recently elected President for the 2025-2028 term.

He has conducted numerous training sessions on tunnelling and authored several papers on tunnel design and construction topics, published in conference proceeding and journal: he also contributed as co-author to the three-volume book published by SIG in 2022– 2024, titled “Handbook on Tunnels and Underground Works

Christos Karadimas is a Greek Civil Engineer with long-term expertise in the Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) in major Infrastructure Projects in Greece, such as Motorways (Attiki Odos and Olympia Odos), the Rio-Antirio Bridge, as well as the Metro of Athens, serving in both technical and executive roles.

He holds a Degree in Civil Engineering with specialization in Transportation Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (1996) and a Master’s Degree in Engineering Project Management from University of Manchester, UK (1997).

Moreover, he has developed extended O&M experience in Motorway Tunnels, having served as Chief Operations Officer in Olympia Odos Motorway (2012-2025). In parallel, he has also large board governance experience, being Chairman of the Board (2022-24) and Member of the Board (2014-22) respectively of GEFYRA (RIO-ANTIRIO) OPERATION S.A., as well as Member of the Board of Directors of OLYMPIA ODOS OPERATION S.A. (2016-25).

Following the above, he has been recently appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELLINIKO METRO S.A., a company of public interest, with highly scientifically trained personnel, which implements the development of Metro & Tram in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki.