CEVA Logistics’ Peter Penseel is the Air Cargo Executive of the Year

If you are searching for evidence of just how much the airfreight market has changed from 2019, all you need is to look at how freight forwarders are operating in 2021. The benefit of third-party logistics operations — that forwarders can look to asset operators to move their customers’ cargo — is no longer a given without paying a steep price for limited space, or a staggering price for an aircraft charter. Many of the largest freight forwarders already had regular, limited charter and own-controlled operations, and have built upon those foundations with additional or extended agreements to secure capacity. Others, including France-based CEVA Logistics, rapidly built out own-controlled airfreight networks in support of their customers. CEVA, which ranked at No. 15 in Air Cargo World ’s most recent Power 25 ranking, launched its “Skycapacity” program of fully chartered freighters and passenger freighters in April 2021 and has since expanded on its own-controlled network. Since the launch of Skycapacity, CEVA has continued growing the scope of its airfreight operations and focusing on improvements to its processes. The company acquired Colombian forwarder Cargex in July, growing its footprint in Latin American perishables, and in October launched the Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Lithium Battery alongside the International Air Transport Association. At the helm of CEVA’s airfreight division during this busy year was Peter Penseel, COO of airfreight at CEVA. For his creativity in guiding CEVA Logistics’ airfreight division through the difficulties of the past year, the readers and editors of Air Cargo World have selected Penseel as the Air Cargo Executive of the Year for 2021. Never the same day in logistics Penseel hails from Leiden in the Netherlands and was raised in the Dutch municipality of Den Helder, home of the country’s largest naval base, due to his father’s career in the Royal Netherlands Navy. While Penseel also served in the military for two years, he entered logistics early in his career and fell in love. “Being in a company that deals with logistics, it’s never the same day,” he said. When he was still in his 20s, Penseel was drawn in by the regularly changing needs of customers and the market, and “the constant adaptation of yourself to be sharp” required to meet those needs. “I’m 55 today, but I still go to work [with the same attitude] as when I was 30 years old, I still have that same drive.” Penseel is a recent addition to CEVA Logistics, having joined in mid-2020 after departing from Qatar Airways Cargo, where he was the senior vice president for cargo sales and network planning. His career in logistics has included a mix of roles with third-party logistics companies and airlines, including at MASkargo, the cargo division of Malaysia Airlines, DHL Global Forwarding and at UTi Worldwide, which was acquired in 2015 by DSV . “On the airline side, it’s very important that you design the right network with the assets that you operate, especially when you’re working in an airline that has the privilege of having freighters at your disposal, because the network and its value will determine how successful you can be in the future,” Penseel said. “In general, working on an airline, a lot of people say it’s more like the farming side of the business rather than on the freight forwarding side, the hunting part.” Penseel disagrees with the opposed views of airline and freight forwarding management, however. “I think leadership in every company, it’s the same,” he said. “You have to create a great team, you must have the ability to find good people, then you have to show by example that you're a good leader. Automatically during the years, you start to build an infrastructure of people who also want to work with you, and it is also very important that you let them cherish the successes that they bring, that you don’t steal their successes.” ‘We like to win, but we hate to lose’ Penseel is a fan of football — or soccer, for U.S. readers — and finds parallels between a team sports environment and his career when it comes to working successfully as a group. “It’s very much a driver and how you behave as part of a team and jointly to be successful, because that is what we all like,” Penseel said. “We like to win, but even more, we hate to lose. And if you have that mentality that you hate to lose, I think then you can make steps in sports, but also within the working environment.” The idea of hating to lose helps Penseel hold onto his optimism, which is necessary when facing challenges that arise normally in a logistics career and practically daily in the COVID-19 logistics market. Penseel feels a duty to lead with optimism to set an example for his teams. “I’m always optimistic, my glass is always half full, and that is important because when there are difficulties, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We all know the road toward the end of the tunnel, or when you identify where you want to be within two years, three years, or five years from now, when you’re clear in stating the end goal, you already have a lot of people joining you because you’re clear in what you want to become or what you want to achieve as a company. The road towards it will always have hurdles and there will be storms, there will be ash clouds, whatever will hit our paths that will make you reconsider. But if you know what is the final goal, you will find your way.” That attitude has served CEVA well, as the company has been clear in its ambitions for airfreight logistics and trusted Penseel to arrange its airfreight operations in the way he believes adds the most value. “That was a very important thing for me to bring my ideas to the table, and also that it was allowed to execute like that and build a team that is strong in all the six regions so that you have a real network when it comes to airfreight,” he said. While that process may sound straightforward, in practice, strengthening a global airfreight logistics network in the midst of the many challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has presented has been a feat of Olympic proportions. To meet each new challenge as it arises, Penseel has made it a point to not let CEVA’s airfreight operations rest on its laurels. CEVA’s parent company, CMA CGM, has been supportive of CEVA’s airfreight ambitions, and has even pursued its own with the purchase of four A330-200 freighters and the launch of a cargo airline, CMA CGM Air Cargo . The A330F capacity provided by CMA CGM Air Cargo has been utilized by CEVA, but the freight forwarding group has been active in its own right, particularly in building out its global own-controlled network through the Skycapacity program. The network covers 11 airports, with 32 weekly flights connecting the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and provides more than 800 tonnes of airfreight capacity per week. “Selling solutions and bringing solutions to the market was a very important topic when we started this journey together,” Penseel explained. “That’s why you saw Skycapacity, and for me it was obvious. 90% of the passenger aircraft are grounded so we knew that there would be pressure on air capacity, supply and demand would be totally different than in the years before, so we had to create. We also must understand which size of market we were serving and what was the status of CEVA toward the other players in the market, and there we made a decision to create our own capacity.” Still, the more newsworthy business moves are not what drives Penseel the most in his career, he explained. The most rewarding moments for Penseel are winning new business, “and I don’t mean that you have to do huge tonnage of airfreight, but sometimes when you work toward something, and it can be as small as you can think of, but being successful with a team, for me, that’s always the best,” he said. “Sharing that with each other and not sitting on your successes but sharing your successes, putting people in the limelight who were contributors for the general goal that you have as a company — for me, it’s always a very nice moment.” Applying 2021’s lessons to the future When Skycapacity was launched early in 2021, it wasn’t yet clear what the capacity landscape of 2022 would look like. Now in the final month of the year, the landscape is in focus and features many of the same obstacles operators had to overcome during the past two years. “I think the upcoming year will be as challenging as 2021,” Penseel said. Passenger networks are slowly returning, but are already being challenged by new COVID variants, and even the return of passenger flights presents its own difficulties for airfreight. “Now, those passenger aircraft will be used as freighters and that means they are deployed on routes that need cargo,” he said. “When the passengers are coming back, those assets will be deployed on leisure markets, so you will see destinations that are not usually cargo-friendly. That means a decline in cargo capacity. So I think 2022 will still be a challenge and maintaining a deployment of, for instance, our Skycapacity. I would like to see CEVA grow our Skycapacity, be close to the market and inform them of what we see is happening.” The flexible approach to operations that has marked the past two years will need to remain in place for at least another year, and the vaccines that the industry once hung its hopes upon are unlikely to achieve the return to normal aviation once hoped for. “We hoped that the pandemic was a temporary thing because when we thought, hey, we will be vaccinated, the pandemic would be gone,” Penseel noted. “And we are now 20 months later, and we are still in the same position and sometimes it becomes worse. But still, we have to be flexible, and make sure that we have a plan and we have the right leadership in place to guide us towards the successes that are needed to serve our customers.” Leadership in 2022 will also mean addressing the labor issues that have affected supply chains worldwide. Like many industry leaders, Penseel understand the importance of attracting the next generation of talent and helping them understand how fulfilling logistics careers can be. Despite the noise that is sometimes made about the differences between the generations preparing for retirement and those in the early stages of their careers, Penseel noted the younger generation is “very ambitious, the same as we were and still are,” but often looks for more guidance from leadership to understand how to develop their own careers. “They want to know after three years as a trainee, ‘what will be my next step?’ And you have to be clear, ‘these are the steps you can make, but also there are measuring points, and if you are not fulfilling those measurement points, we have to adjust or talk about what you need to do to make that next step in your career,’” he said. “Everybody is fighting for talents,” he said, adding that “it’s not only by giving them a great starting salary — you must give them perspective.” With 30 years in logistics under his belt, Penseel has plenty of perspective on the industry and is optimistic that the next generation of talented leaders will recognize the same rewards available in a logistics career that first drew him toward airfreight. Approaching those employees at the dawn of their careers with authenticity will be key to developing the next generation of logistics leaders, he said. “In leadership, I think it’s important to be genuine,” he explained. “People will see if you’re fake, so don’t be an actor. Actors are educated in Bollywood and Hollywood and not in our industry. I really believe that no matter what career path you are on, in trying to be yourself during the journey. And that is also part of your leadership.”

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