EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
Q . TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CAREER
» I ’ m Kai , I ’ m 51 years old and I started my career as a shipping apprentice at Hapag-Lloyd , where I learned all about container shipping and sea freight . After my army service , I joined BLG LOGISTICS for the first time to work in the business development department . This is when I was introduced to contract logistics and also automotive . I was asked to support a project in one of our warehouses , doing some expert packaging for one of our clients . It was my first time dealing with people directly and managing a warehouse project from scratch , but I never left . After four years I moved over to Kuehne + Nagel , where I started as a solution engineer in contract logistics and automotive logistics – more in the inbound area , supporting plans with justin-time and just-in-sequence methods . I then became Operations Head for all the contract logistics operations of Kuehne + Nagel in Eastern Europe , based in Vienna , and my goal was to streamline , develop implementation capabilities and achieve operational excellence – again , in automotive . At this time Hungary was becoming a hidden champion of the automotive industry , so we gained new businesses there and I was responsible for that as well . But , after many years in various positions , I was asked , ‘ Kai , would you like to come over to BLG again to manage our international businesses ?’. I ’ ve always been an internationallyminded and culturally-aware person , and I thought this would be a highlyinteresting opportunity .
“ I see DP World as a multi-billion -dollar startup ”
So , I took responsibility for business in South Africa , India , Malaysia , the US – and it was great . Naturally , there were a lot of ups and downs given what happens in these countries in the markets , but I was able to focus on different verticals like automotive and healthcare . In 2023 I joined DP World , where I ’ m responsible for building end-to-end solutions for our clients , right from their specialist customer area to the end of the supply chain . We use our company capabilities to build bespoke solutions to help them improve on a global scale .
Q . WHAT SPECIFICALLY WAS IT THAT ATTRACTED YOU TO DP WORLD ?
» I see this company as a multi-billiondollar startup . At DP World I ’ m not only dealing with logistics people , but business people , and because we want to create business we are widening the scope of our services . In my first working week at DP World , I attended the Transport Logistic trade fair in Munich and we had a very prominent booth . The logistics network is quite intense and the community is rather small – you know people from all the competitors . And what I saw was companies sneaking around our booth , wondering ‘ what are these guys doing ?’. The answer then –
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