Appointments and Departures in the Shipping, Road Haulage, Freight and Logistics Sectors

The past few weeks has witnessed the usual batch of appointments, resignations and retirements in the freight, road haulage and logistics sectors so here is a run down of staff movements within the global cargo community. If you have staff movements to report send in the appropriate information using the Press Release box on the Handy Shipping Guide Homepage and we’ll endeavour to include the details in our next HR review.

EUROPE – Agility has named 11-year company veteran Mike Bible as Chief Executive Officer of its Europe operations, following the decision by Beat Simon to depart the company. The company has also named 28-year company veteran Chris Price as Chief Executive Officer of its fast-growing Asia Pacific operations As CEO of Europe, Mike Bible will succeed Beat Simon, who is departing the company but will continue to serve on the board of Agility Switzerland.

In Europe, Bible will oversee 140+ offices in over 29 countries, and more than 3,000 employees. Before his appointment, Bible was CEO of Agility Americas for five years, and before that, CFO of Agility Americas. Bible played an important role in the company’s Latin American expansion into Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Prior to Agility, Bible held various financially-related positions with a number of companies in different sectors. He assumes his new role in Basel, Switzerland on January 1, 2013.

As CEO of Asia Pacific, Price will oversee 160+ offices in 23 countries and more than 7,000 employees. Before his appointment, Price was CEO of Agility for Area North Europe, a role he had held since 2007. Previous Agility roles included CEO Netherlands for four years and CEO UK and Ireland for five years, and various sales management and operational roles. He assumes his new role in Singapore on January 1, 2013.

UK – WORLDWIDE - Stephen Koller has been confirmed as the full-time CEO of Air Menzies International (AMI), with a brief to grow the trade-only airfreight wholesaler through increased focus on online activities and broadened geographical reach. Koller has worked for 12 years at AMI’s parent, Menzies Aviation plc, and helped propel it to become the world’s second largest ground handler, with sales exceeding US$1 Billion.

Koller first assumed responsibility for managing AMI in late 2010, while continuing in his position as EVP IT for parent Menzies Aviation. He has now relinquished his IT responsibilities, following the appointment of Martin Gallington as SVP IT, and the successful completion of a phased handover. In addition to his post as CEO of AMI, Koller continues as one of the four Executive Directors of Menzies Aviation plc.

UK – Logistics provider the Woodland Group has appointed Paul Arnold as Head of Air Freight at Woodland Global. Arnold has already taken up the position and is tasked with developing routes to North America and exploring opportunities in Asia and other developing markets.

US – Seko Logistics has appointed Joe Bento to its executive management team as Chief Sales Officer, based in North America. Bento joins Seko from CEVA Logistics where he held the positions of President of Global Freight Management, President for the Americas Region, and most recently, Executive Vice President. He had previously been President North America and Chief Marketing Officer for EGL prior to its acquisition by Ceva Logistics Joe will report to William Wascher, CEO of Seko Global Logistics, and Mark White, President and COO, Seko Global Logistics.

US – YRC Freight announced last week that Maynard Skarka will assume a newly created position of Chief Operations Officer of the company. In this position, Skarka will be responsible for strategic planning and lead the day-to-day operations of the network team. He will report directly to YRC Freight president, Jeff Rogers. Skarka was most recently president of transportation logistics company Dynamex, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Previously, he served as president of one of YRC’s previous incarnations, Yellow Transportation, and before that served as division vice president during the 26 years he was with the company.

US –UTi Worldwide named Ricahard Rodick as Executive Vice President -- Finance and Chief Financial Officer. He will report to Eric W. Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer. Rodick is expected to assume his new position in October 2012.

Since 2007, Rodick has served as Senior Vice President, Finance, of Broadridge Financial Solutions, a provider of technology-based outsourcing solutions to the financial services industry. Here Rodick created the treasury and risk management divisions for this newly-formed company that was spun off from ADP, Inc. In addition, Rodick was responsible for investor relations.

US – The Rickmers Group has appointed Robert Sappio to the position of President and CEO of Rickmers Americas. He will report to Ronald D Widdows, CEO of Rickmers Holding, and Ulrich Ulrichs and Rüdiger Gerhardt, Managing Directors of Rickmers-Linie, who are responsible for the global operations of the Group’s heavy-lift and breakbulk business.

Sappio will be responsible for all aspects of Rickmers Group’s business in the Americas including Rickmers-Linie (America) which is based in Houston, Texas, and the Maersk-Rickmers US Flag joint venture, which operates multi-purpose heavy lift cargo ships. A familiar face in Washington DC, Sappio also will be responsible for regulatory matters in the US trades. Sappio has extensive experience in all aspects of containerised ocean and intermodal transport, with particular emphasis on the Asia Pacific and Americas region. He has spent considerable time working with major US exporters and US importers.

US – Worldwide Flight Services has appointed Jay B. Shelat to the post of Senior Vice President, Cargo Terminal Services, North America, based at its North America headquarters in Dallas, Texas. He was formerly Vice President, Cargo of Jet Airways having joined the airline in Mumbai in 2007 and prior to this he spent 12 years with American Airlines Cargo, ultimately as Director, Alliances & Interline in Dallas. Jay originally began his 25 year career in the air cargo industry with World Airways in 1984 and later worked for both Federal Express and Airborne Express in New Jersey until 1995.

DENMARK – Senior Vice President for Group HR Bill Allen has decided to leave the A.P. Moller Maersk Group and return to the USA after seven years in Denmark. His successor will be Lucien Alziari, whom brings a strong track record from major global companies, such as Avon and PepsiCo. British national Lucien Alziari formerly held the position of Senior Vice President of HR and Corporate Responsibility at Avon Products in New York. Prior to that, he led PepsiCo's widely benchmarked talent development program.

Michael Chivers will be taking up the position as Head of Maersk Line HR. Chivers, also a British national, has extensive international experience working for the Sony Group since 1990, most recently within the joint venture Sony Ericsson. He comes from a position as Corporate Vice President HR for Sony Mobile, which he has held since 2009, based in Lund, Sweden. Both Lucien Alziari and Michael Chivers are joining A.P. Moller Maersk towards the end of September

DENMARK – SINGAPORE - On 22 October 2012, Ejner Bonderup will take up the position as head of Norden A/S’ Dry Cargo Department. At the same time, he will enter the Executive Management with title of Executive Vice President.

Group Senior Vice President and head of Norden Shipping (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Peter Borup has resigned from his position. Jakob Bergholdt, Director of Accounts & Finance,. will be appointed temporarily as head of Norden Shipping (Singapore) Pte. Ltd

DUBAI – OMAN – UK – At the beginning of the month, the GAC Group has announced key management appointments for its head office and local operations in Oman and the United Kingdom. Group Vice President for Human Resources Jan Farnelid retired on 31st August and takes on a consulting role with the Group until the end of the year. Since 2004, Jan has successfully implemented HR policies and initiatives. One of Jan's most significant achievements during his eight-year tenure was establishing and maintaining the company's first Corporate Academy that provides training and enrichment courses for its 9,000 staff globally.

Taking over Jan's position at the corporate headquarters in Dubai is Patrik Hallden who will continue to formulate and drive HR policies and practices across the Group. Backed by his ten years' experience as the General Manager of GAC Oman and Kuwait, as well as hands-on knowledge of GAC's core business in shipping and logistics over the past 14 years with the Group, Patrik brings proven track record in utilising HR management best practices to deliver strategic value for business growth.

Daniel Nordberg, previously Regional Business Controller for the Africa, Russia and Central Asia region, will assume Patrik's previous position of General Manager, GAC Oman. Over the past 11 years, Daniel has gained a wide range of experience with GAC at corporate, regional and local levels and his in-depth understanding of GAC's business areas, global exposure and Middle East experience will give him a strong grounding to drive GAC Oman's business forward.

Neil Godfrey, Group Sales Director for Shipping Services for the past nine years, will take on a new challenge as GAC United Kingdom's Deputy Managing Director. Whilst having general management oversight, his first responsibility will be for the sales and business development of the fast growing company's shipping and logistics portfolio. Neil brings to his new position over three decades of operational, commercial and management experience gained from his roles in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Eric Barnard moves from Cape Town - where he served as GAC South Africa's General Manager, Shipping, for the past five years - to the corporate head office in Dubai, to take over Neil's position as Group Sales Director, Shipping. A shipping industry veteran with nearly two decades of operational and sales management experience in the region, Eric has been instrumental in expanding GAC South Africa's shipping business significantly since joining GAC in 2006.

ASIA – Pär Östberg, currently Executive Vice President Truck Joint Ventures (JVs) in the Volvo Group, has been appointed Executive Vice President of the holding company Industrivärden with responsibility for investment operations. Pär Östberg’s roles during his 22 years at Volvo have included being Group CFO and President of the former Trucks Asia business area. He has also served as CFO of Renault Trucks and President of Volvo Treasury in Singapore. He will take up his new position on October 1st 2012.

In conjunction with Pär Östberg’s departure from the Volvo Group, Truck Joint Ventures will organisationally become part of Group Trucks Sales & Marketing and JVs APAC, headed by Joachim Rosenberg. As a result of this change, the former Group Trucks Sales & Marketing APAC operation will be renamed Group Trucks Sales & Marketing and JVs APAC.

SAUDI ARABIA – S2S IMI Group has appointed Alvaro Casas-Cobaleda as Integration and Change Manager for its logistics division. He will be based in Jeddah and will report directly to Martin Lyon, Director of Supply Chain and Logistics. Initially, he will lead the change management and development project for S2S IMI Group client AET, supporting integration of the business as part of the new ULG 3PL business model, with particular responsibility for process and ways of working development, as well as preparation and management of the new SAP ERP implementation.

He has worked in Brazil as a Trade Developer for the Spanish Government and Sales Manager for the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade. He has also spent time with Maersk Line as an Import and Export Team Leader and Key Client Co-ordinator. He also worked for two years in Algeria on a major power plant construction, managing logistics and transport

HONG KONG – The U-Freight Group (UFL) has named Steven Wong as Vice President, Sales and Marketing, of its main subsidiaries, U-Freight Ltd and U-Ocean Ltd, in Hong Kong. Wong joined UFL in 2009 as general manager of Rijin International Freight Co, one of the group’s freight forwarding brands - each of which services different trades, or types of industry. Wong will continue to be based in Hong Kong and continue with his responsibilities for Rijin International Freight Co.

NETHERLANDS - Schiphol Cargo, the dedicated cargo management arm of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, has appointed Hendriena Ritsema as Director, Strategic Development. She succeeds Harry Tomesen, who has retired after 30 years with the airport. Ms. Ritsema assumes responsibility include cargo aspects of the airport’s long term development programme, Schiphol SmartGate, and the development of the cargo area at Schiphol Southeast.

LUXEMBOURG – At the beginning of last month, Cargolux announced that Richard Forson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has been named interim President and CEO by the company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately following the resignation of Frank Reiman, the previous President and CEO. Reiman resigned after being appointed as High Commissioner for National Protection by the Luxembourg Government.

Frank Reimen had been closely involved with Cargolux since his nomination in 2004 as Government Advisor with responsibility for the aviation and railway sectors. He became a director of Cargolux in November 2009 prior to being named to the position of President and CEO in January 2011. Forson oversees all company financial matters and will retain his CFO responsibilities during the interim period.