FedEx, UPS, Hermes, DPD and bpost have made senior managerial appointments during August.
At FedEx, Dr. Udo Lange has been named the executive vice president and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of FedEx Trade Networks, the freight forwarding and customs brokerage arm of global shipping giant FedEx Corp. In his new position, Lange is responsible for overseeing all global air and ocean freight forwarding and customs brokerage operations for the company.
Lange has more than 20 years of experience in the international trade industry with expertise in global freight forwarding and logistics. Prior to joining FedEx Trade Networks, Lange held executive leadership positions with leading international transportation providers where he led successful operational excellence and corporate quality initiatives centered on continuous improvement.
“I am excited to be a part of a company whose culture highly values its team members as much as FedEx does. When you base an operating philosophy on cultivating a talented team that provides outstanding service, there are a lot of opportunities to grow relationships with customers,” Lange said. “I look forward to continuing the company’s current momentum to provide best-in-class FedEx Trade Networks freight forwarding solutions to customers around the globe.”
At UPS, Thomas Zeller (41) has been appointed as the new Country Manager for Austria and Slovenia. Originally from Switzerland, he will be responsible for the operational and business development as well as the strategic focus of both markets. Zeller is succeeding Rick Fletcher who has switched to UPS UK.
Zeller started his career at UPS in 2002 as Marketing Director for Switzerland in Basel. In January 2005, he took on his new job as UPS Europe Region Products and Technology Portfolio Manager in Brussels. In 2008, Zeller was named UPS Global Business Planning and Reporting Manager and moved to the UPS headquarters in Altlanta, USA. In 2010, he moved back to Europe for his new position as UPS Benelux Marketing Manager in Diegem, Belgium. In 2014, Zeller was promoted to Director Marketing Eastern Europe for UPS Europe, responsible for 28 markets.
In Eastern Europe, Marcin Krzak has been appointed as the new UPS Country Manager for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine, based in Prague.
Hermes Fulfilment, the e-commerce unit of the Hermes Group, has appointed Max Niclas Bense (35) as the new director for sales and account management. In his new function, he will be mainly responsible for winning new customers and taking care of the existing online retailers who order e-commerce services with Hermes Fulfilment such as web shop creation, financial services, warehousing, distribution and return management. For both customer groups, the focus will be on developing and implementing international e-commerce solutions.
Bense has been working for Hermes Germany, based in Hamburg, since 2008. He started out as Key Account Manager to be promoted to International Business Development Manager in June 2011. In January 2014, he took over the lead of the International Account Management division. Over the last few years, he gained valuable experience in cross-border e-commerce, above all.
“I see the biggest growth potential especially in cross-border online trade and internationalisation of fulfillment services. The most important factor is to offer both the retailer and the customer an optimal service,” Bense commented.
At DPD France, Karim Gozzi (47) has been appointed as the new Human Resources Director and will be responsible for continuing the company’s growth strategy. Gozzi has been working at DPD France since 2014 and previously ran his own IT services company.
At bpost, Koen Beeckmans has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer as of 1 November, 2015, succeeding Pierre Winand while Kurt Pierloot, currently heading the Mail Services Operations (MSO) division, will take on the responsibility for the domestic Parcels division. Philippe Dubois, currently Operations Director MSO, will become responsible for the MSO division. All of them now form part of bpost’s Management Committee.
Beeckmans (44) has previously worked at Deloitte, Tractebel, and, as CFO, at GDF Suez Energie Nederland and Cofely Nederland (part of GDF Suez).
Pierloot has been heading bpost’s Mail Service Operations (MSO) successfully over the last seven years and will from now on take care of Domestic Parcels, an important growth area in bpost’s strategy. He will continue to be responsible for the International activities and transfer his responsibility for the MSO division to Dubois.
Dubois (47), formerly with ArcelorMittal Steel Belgium, joined bpost in 2008 as Manager of Liège X to become later that year national sorting director and member of the MSO executive board. In 2010, he became process & transformation director and MSO Region South director in 2014.
