The Weekly Staff News Starts with Three Big UK Industry Association Changes

UK – Peter Ward, CEO of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA), has announced his intention to step down after six years at the helm of the sector’s leading trade organisation. His successor will be named shortly.

Ward joined the Association in 2015, having held a series of major industry roles at Director level with prominent companies within the sector. During his tenure, UKWA membership has continued to grow strongly – even over the last twelve months, as the global pandemic and the impact of UK’s exit from the European Union created arguably the most challenging period since the Association’s inception during the Second World War.

UK – Rachel Morley has succeeded John Stubbings as the elected National Chair of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) for a two-year period. Morley, Regional Manager Western Europe at BIFA member company, OIA Global, who has been Vice-Chair for the past two years, was appointed a Director of BIFA in 2017 and Chairs the trade association’s Midlands region.

Alongside Morley will be Charles Hogg, Commercial Director of Unsworth, who has been elected as Vice-Chair. Hogg is currently Chair of BIFA’s Maritime, Road and Rail Policy Group.

Stubbings becomes Immediate Past Chair for a two-year term, and Sir Peter Bottomley, MP, remains as BIFA president.

UK – At its recent AGM, members of the Road Haulage Association (RHA) elected their youngest ever Chair, Moreton Cullimore of long-standing RHA member company Moreton C Cullimore and Sons. He takes over from McCulla Transport‘s Ashley McCulla who held the role for two years.

UK – Yusen Logistics (UK) has appointed Paul Simmonds as Head of Air Freight Forwarding and Pete Bagnall as Head of Ocean Freight Forwarding. Simmonds has an extensive Air Freight Forwarding career spanning more than 30 years, and joined Yusen Logistics (UK) in July 2019 as Branch Manager at Egham.

Bagnall joined Yusen Logistics (UK) as an analyst in 2001 and has since held several first-line management and operational management roles including UK Ocean Freight Forwarding operations.

UK – Rhenus has appointed Harry Wheelhouse as its new European Sector Manager, following the acquisition of its fourth warehouse on Magna Park in Lutterworth. Wheelhouse joined the commercial team at Rhenus Warehousing Solutions in March.

NORWAY – Mintra has appointed Kevin Short to the role of CEO. Short, who has been Chief Commercial Officer since 2018, takes over the leadership role from Scott Kerr following his decision to join the firm’s Board of Directors. Short was previously CEO of Atlas Knowledge, a company acquired by Mintra in 2018.

GERMANY – Elatec has named Denis Kim as its new Corporate Vice President, EMEA and Japan, effective since June 1. He reports directly to CEO Robert Helgerth.

GERMANY – SINGAPORE – The Supervisory Board of Schenker AG has appointed Christa Koenen as the new Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer (CIO/CDO). She will take up her new position on September 1. Most recently she worked for the IT subsidiary DB Systel, initially as CFO from 2014 and as CEO since 2015. In addition, Koenen has served as CIO of Deutsche Bahn AG since 2018.

Koenen succeeds Markus Sontheimer, who left the company on his own accord on May 31

DB Schenker has also announced Aditi Rasquinha as the new Head of Ocean Freight for the APAC Region. She will join DB Schenker from Kühne + Nagel, where she has held several senior management positions since 2014, most recently as Director Seafreight for the Netherlands.

Rasquinha will join DB Schenker on July 1 and will be based in DB Schenker’s APAC Regional Head Office in Singapore.

ASIA – US – Lloyd’s Register (LR) has promoted Sung-Gu Park to President, responsible for the North East Asia region, including South Korea and Japan and has appointed Kevin Humphreys as its new Marine and Offshore President for the Americas.

Park has worked at LR since 2007 and has held a variety of technical and strategic marketing roles across China, Korea and the UK. Most recently, Park has led the Busan Technical Support Office in Korea, and succeeds JT Lee, who is moving into a new role as LR Ambassador.

Humphreys joins from Wärtsilä where he was General Manager for Market Innovation and Global Merchant Shipping Sales. He succeeds John Hicks, who has taken up the role of LR Strategic Implementation Director.

US – Autonomous delivery services company Starship Technologies has announced Alastair Westgarth as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Westgarth has more than 30 years’ experience and was most recently CEO at Alphabet’s Loon, which started as part of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory and focused on bringing internet access to unserved and underserved communities around the world via a network of balloons operating on the edge of space.

Westgarth takes over the CEO role from Ahti Heinla, the company’s Co-Founder who keeps the responsibility of Chief Technology Officer.

US – Asuccini, a logistics transportation management software company, has announced the election of Jim Vrtis to its Board of Directors. Jim will join as the Vice Chairman.

US – United Airlines has announced that Chief Customer Officer Toby Enqvist has taken up the additional role as the airline's newest Executive Vice President, effective immediately. 

SAUDI ARABIA – Ports Development Company (PDC), the owner and developer of King Abdullah Port, has announced the appointment of Jay New as the CEO of the port. He most recently served as the CEO and General Manager of IPS/Hutchison Ports Dammam a multi-purpose deep-water facility situated at the King Abdulaziz Port Dammam.

NEW ZEALAND – Ports of Auckland's CEO Tony Gibson has announced that he will step down at the end of June 2021 after months of ‘persistent and sometimes personal attacks’ on him as CEO. Deputy CEO and CFO Wayne Thompson will be Interim CEO until a new CEO is appointed.

The Ports of Auckland have recently faced criticism over three fatalities in the last years as well as delays in cargo traffic which led to Maersk taking the decision in January this year to skip one of its regular services for 11 weeks.

Calls for Gibson’s resignation grew after the release of a damning health and safety report in March.

Photo: Outgoing UKWA boss Peter Ward.