8 executive moves that will impact air cargo in 2019

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day… It’s a new CEO? Now that 2019 has arrived, Air Cargo World is looking back one more time to see which of the recent executive moves in 2018 will likely have the greatest impact on the transformation of airfreight logistics in the new year. While some of the faces are relatively new, most are familiar to industry veterans – only the roles, in many cases, have shifted to reflect new goals and strategies. We also said goodbye to some legends who retired – including Cathay Pacific’s “Godfather of Cargo,” Ray Jewell – and some who have passed on ( Southwest founder Herb Kelleher and Hactl’s Mark Whitehead , may they rest in peace). But for our purposes, we focus on what these new roles and strategy alterations will mean for 2019 and the future of the logistics industry. If we missed any, please let us know! CEVA’s hiring, restructuring spree In a year that began with talk of Danish competitor DSV possibly taking over CEVA Logistics (which rejected the offer) and ended with a partnership with oceanfreight firm CMA CGM , its been a busy 2018 at the Swiss logistics firm. During this time, CEVA has also been active in hiring new people and reorganizing its various regional offices. Its most recent move came yesterday, when CEVA appointed Gianclaudio Neri as managing director for its Italy cluster. Neri, who will be based in the Milan office, has more than 30 years’ worth of logistics experience, having worked across a variety of industries with a focus on turning around poorly performing businesses around. In October, CEVA decided to merge its German and Eastern and Central European clusters, and appointed Guillaume Sauzedde , its former director for Eastern and Central Europe, to oversee the combined unit on Nov. 30. Formerly, Sauzedde worked for a decade at Kuehne + Nagel as the managing director for K+N’s Poland operations. By combining the units, CEVA said it plans “to accelerate growth in contract logistics, freight management air, ocean and ground.” Meanwhile, the former managing director of Germany, Christian Wurst , left to join Panalpina and will become CEO of its Europe region in February (see below). In one of the first moves influenced by the CMA CGM deal with CEVA, the company replaced its previous CFO, Peter Waller, in October with CMA CGM’s Serge Corbel , former CFO of the ocean carrier’s APL business. CEVA described Corbel as one of the “key financial architects of the growth of CMA CGM, leading several acquisitions and integrations.” Other CEVA moves in the second half of 2018 include the appointment of Milton Pimenta as managing director of its Australia and New Zealand logistics cluster, moving him sometime this month from his current position as CEVA’s head of contract logistics in South America. Back in June, CEVA also hired Terry Carter, former president of Graebel Van Lines, as senior vice president of transportation contract logistics. Carter also worked in various roles for Brown Integrated Logistics, DHL Express and FedEx. An injection of international youth in DB Schenker’s board Germany’s DB Schenker AG has already made its claim on the future of supply chain logistics, with October’s announcement that it is making a major push to automate its warehouses with IAM Robotics. But on Tuesday, Jan. 1, the company began transforming its management board, as well, to make it more youthful and international with the naming of three new members: Xavier Garijo , Christian Drenthen and Thorsten Meincke . Garijo formerly held management positions at several French, British and American companies, including Reckitt Benckiser, Revlon and Elizabeth Arden, giving the board valuable insight into the customer perspective in logistics. Drenthen has been with Schenker AG since 2015, most recently serving as the head of global land transport. Garijo, who is Spanish, and Drenthen, who is Dutch, assumed their new roles on Jan. 1, becoming the first-even non-German members of Schenker’s management board. Meincke, who is expected to join the board sometime before June 2019, most recently served as head of global oceanfreight at Kuehne + Nagel, has been appointed to serve as board member for air and oceanfreight. Land Transport will become its own division, raising the total number of Schenker’s divisions from six to seven. The new board appointments come on the heels of a statement from Schenker’s parent company – the state-owned rail company, Deutsche Bahn – that it was reviving discussions about possibly selling off parts of Schenker sometime this year, following poor performance in 2016. According to the Financial Times, Deutsche Bahn is €20 billion in debt and is considering a sell-off to raise funds to modernize its rail infrastructure. Subramaniam replaces retiring Cunningham at FedEx Express At FedEx Corp., any big executive move will send tremors through the industry, but few are as big as this one. David Cunningham, president and CEO of FedEx Express, the air carrier subsidiary of FedEx Corp., retired from the company after 36 years of service on Monday, Dec. 31 , and was replaced by Raj Subramaniam, former executive vice president, and chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx. Subramaniam has been with FedEx for more than 27 years and has held various executive-level positions at the integrator, including senior vice president of marketing and communications for FedEx Services. In Hong Kong, he oversaw marketing and customer service for the Asia-Pacific region and later took over as president of FedEx Express in Canada before moving back to the U.S. as senior vice president of international marketing. “Raj’s global vision and broad experience make him uniquely qualified to lead our largest operating company,” said David Bronczek, president and chief operating officer at FedEx Corp. “We look forward to the continued growth of FedEx Express within our global portfolio as Raj takes on this critical role.” Cunningham served as regional president of one of the company’s fastest-growing divisions – Asia-Pacific – from its headquarters in Hong Kong, between 1999 and 2015, before being promoted to the role of chief operating officer and president, international, which he held for two years. Troubled year pushes out Panalpina’s Ulber For the first half of 2019, one of the burning logistics questions surely will be, “who will replace Peter Ulber at Panalpina?” After seeing Panalpina’s stock price plummet by 25 percent over a 12 month period, an “activist investor” in the Swiss logistics giant, Cevian Capital, which owns a 12.3 percent stake, had “run out of patience” with Peter Ulber (pictured), according to Reuters , and demanded that Panalpina remove Ulber from the chairmanship. While Panalpina initially defended its chairman, Cevian’s sentiment eventually prevailed, and Panalpina said in October that Ulber would not stand for re-election at the next AGM, scheduled for May 9, 2019. The company’s Compensation and Nomination Committee is now conducting “a thorough and expeditious search process for a new independent chairman,” the company said. Ulber joined Panalpina in 2013, when he was named president and CEO, and later became chairman in 2016. Before Panalpina, he fulfilled various management positions at rival forwarder Kuehne + Nagel from 1985 to 2011. “This decision is in the best interest of Panalpina and all of its stakeholders,” Ulber said in a prepared statement. “The long-term goals of the company are best served by electing an independent chairman of the board at this time to further improve on a best-in-class governance. This process will strengthen the company on its strategic path forward.” In addition, Panalpina appointed Christian Wurst, formerly at CEVA Logistics (see above), as its new chief executive for European operations, who will assume the new title next month. Panalpina CEO Stefan Karlen said Wurst will “help us reach our ambitious growth targets for 2020.” Wurst began his logistics career in 1997 as a project manager at DB Schenker and later moved to its metals and mining unit in 2000. In 2006, he became CFO and deputy managing director of Schenker’s Russian operations. Previously, Wurst held executive positions at Wincanton from 2007 to 2012, and the RWUTV Group in 2012, before joining CEVA in 2013. Flexport expands, matures with three management additions [caption id="attachment_65086" align="alignleft" width="200"] Sudhanshu Priyadarshi [/caption] [caption id="attachment_65084" align="alignright" width="200"] Huey Lin [/caption] In the last year, online forwarding company Flexport has been one of the fastest-growing businesses in the logistics industry, doubling its staff to more than 1,000 from 2017 to 2018. In November, it continued this maturation process with three executive hires – Sudhanshu Priyadarshi, Huey Lin and Jeff Thomas – who all specialize in handling corporate growth rather than forwarding. Priyadarshi, former vice president of finance for U.S. e-commerce at Walmart, will head Flexport’s finance team. Previously, he was global COO of the Cipla pharmaceutical operation, and has more than 20 years’ experience in e-commerce, retail, pharma and consumer goods across the U.S., Asia and Australia. Lin will take over as president of Flexport’s Asia region. She joins from financial technology company, Affirm, where she was chief operating officer. Prior to that, she helmed the China and Asia-Pacific operations for PayPal. Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen said Lin “will be instrumental in helping Flexport expand its services along the critical trans-Pacific eastbound trade route, one of Flexport’s largest and most critical trade routes.” [caption id="attachment_65085" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jeff Thomas [/caption] Meanwhile, Thomas is set to become Flexport’s chief marketing officer, arriving from Periscope Data, an analytics and business intelligence platform. Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience at various tech companies, including Salesforce. With the new hires, Flexport now has nine global officers and has expanded its services to include trade finance, insurance and customs brokerage. And, according to the careers page on its website, the hiring is expected to continue at a brisk pace in 2019. [caption id="attachment_65073" align="alignright" width="280"] Ulrich Ogiermann [/caption] The return of Ogiermann at CargoLogic Germany After abruptly stepping down from the chief cargo officer position at Qatar Airways Cargo in December 2017 to become senior vice-president for operations at Volga-Dnepr Group and a consultant with its affiliate CargoLogicManagement in July, the industry speculated whether industry veteran Ulrich Ogiermann would take a more active role in helming another cargo carrier. Those rumors were validated in August, when Volga-Dnepr revealed that Ogiermann, who has more than 25 years of experience in air cargo, became managing director of the group’s new German subsidiary, CargoLogic Germany, based at Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ). Similar to the business model of Volga-Dnepr’s U.K.-based subsidiary, CargoLogicAir, CargoLogic Germany will operate as a separate entity from Volga-Dnepr, and is expected to build a fleet of up to nine 737 freighters to handle express services across Europe, which would make the fledgling carrier the only German all-cargo airline to serve this niche. According to our sister publication, Cargo Facts , CargoLogic Germany will lease at least three converted 737-400Fs via U.S.-based Vx Capital Partners, to be delivered either this month or by February. Before joining Qatar Airways Cargo in 2012, Ogiermann served for eight years as president and CEO of Cargolux, which he had joined in 1998. He also served as chair of TIACA from 2009 to 2010. Geodis moves deeper into e-commerce fulfillment Nothing says commitment like the birth of a new department. At Geodis, the creation of a new title – global head of e-commerce solutions – suggested that the French logistics firm is hoping to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon and expand its fulfillment network across Europe. [caption id="attachment_65082" align="alignright" width="225"] Ashwani Nath [/caption] At the end of November, Geodis promoted Ashwani Nath , its global market line director for retail for the previous three years, to head the new e-commerce department. Before joining Geodis, Nath worked for an eight-year stint at DHL Global Forwarding. Today, he reports to Philippe de Carné, the company’s group chief commercial officer, and is responsible for building “end-to-end e-commerce and omni-channel solutions” at Geodis. Under Nath’s leadership, Geodis said the plan is to develop “e-fulfillment infrastructure in warehouses, order management systems for cross-border last-mile and customer service for end-to-end visibility.” “Ash’s deep experience and knowledge of the logistics market make him the real expert to optimize our customers’ supply chains,” de Carné added. Hellmann Worldwide restructures with outside guidance Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has been a proudly family-owned 3PL literally since the unification of Germany in 1871, the same year the firm was founded by Carl Heinrich Hellmann. Today, it is still helmed by the founder’s great-grandchildren, Jost and Klaus Hellmann. [caption id="attachment_65083" align="alignleft" width="220"] Reiner Heiken [/caption] But as the nature of logistics has changed, Hellmann has also changed with the appointment on Dec. 1, 2018, of its new CEO Reiner Heiken , the former CEO of rival DB Schenker’s European region. Before working at DB Schenker in 2016, Heiken served for 19 years at Swiss logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel. The appointment of Heiken is the culmination of a year-and-a-half-long, three-part restructuring program spearheaded by Thomas Knecht, formerly Hellmann’s acting CEO and “restructuring specialist,” along with chief commercial officer Jost Hellmann. Under the plan, Hellmann Logistics has been divided into three business units – Air & Sea, Road & Rail and Contract Logistics – and realigned geographically across the 157 countries in its network. The naming of Heiken as CEO is part of the 3PL’s 2018 strategy of creating a “management team of industry experts,” such as the August hiring of Michael Noth as the new CFO. Noth previously served as CFO of Nordzucker. Heading into 2019, Hellmann Worldwide is now managed by a board “consisting exclusively of external managers,” the company said, “However, the global logistics company continues to take benefit of the full support of two family representatives, Jost and Klaus Hellmann."

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