On 23rd September 2025, the Supervisory Board of German state railway DB elected Evelyn Palla, proposed by Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder, as the new Chair of the Executive Board. She will take up her position on 1st October 2025. Palla is currently the Chair of the Management Board at DB Regio, DB's regional passenger rail transport division. Her appointment was approved by a simple majority of the Supervisory Board, although the railway and transport union EVG had previously announced that it would vote against her election. At the same time, former DB Netz board member Dirk Rompf was proposed as a candidate for the chair of infrastructure division DB InfraGO. However, following massive criticism from the EVG, Rompf announced on 25th September 2025 that he would not be taking up the chair. The EVG had also announced in advance that it would vote against Rompf, accusing him of sharing responsibility for the poor state of the infrastructure during his time at DB Netz. The current InfraGO boss Philipp Nagl will therefore remain in office. Rompf's appointment had not been agreed within the federal government beforehand and would probably not have found a majority in the supervisory board.
