EUROTUNNEL has appointed a new UK public affairs director.

Roy Griffins, 57, joins the Channel Tunnel operator from the Department of Transport where he was director of the Aviation Directorate. He took up his new role at the beginning of February.

Mr Giffins spent 25 years in the Civil Service and is a former director of railways in the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions and a former assistant secretary with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the Department of Transport.

From 1990-1993 he served as a counsellor in the British Embassy in Washington DC where his portfolio included UK/US air services, aerospace trade and shipping policy. Mr Griffins also served as principal private secretary to three consecutive Secretaries of State for Transport.

Mr Griffins studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole National d'Administration in Paris. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2003 New Year's Honours.