Panalpina appoints new executives on board for air, ocean freight

Sep 07, 2018: Panalpina has declared that it is planning to enlarge its executive board, to include its three core products, viz., air freight, ocean freight and logistics. The company has confirmed two of the new roles for air and ocean, and will make a further announcement on logistics at a later date.

Lucas Kuehner, 46, an 18-year Panalpina veteran, is being promoted to executive vice president, air freight, effective January 1, 2019. He has been working at Panalpina since 2000 and has been the global head of air freight and a member of Panalpina’s executive committee since 2012.

Peder Winther, 55, new to Panalpina, is to become executive vice president, ocean freight. He will join Panalpina on February 1, 2019. He has nearly 30 years of international experience in the freight forwarding and transportation industry. Winther joins Panalpina from Kuehne + Nagel, where he most recently served as president and regional manager Western Europe.

“Our company has ambitious growth targets for the coming years and a clearly defined plan for reaching them. Our three products will be the critical drivers accelerating Panalpina’s growth, and that is why we need direct engagement in the decision-making process at the highest management level,” said Panalpina CEO Stefan Karlen.

“We’ve successfully turned around contract logistics and also established logistics manufacturing services (LMS) as an innovative, industry-leading offering and an important differentiator for Panalpina. Our focus is now on improving top-line growth so as to firmly establish logistics and manufacturing as the third strong product in the long-term. Currently, we are further developing the growth strategy and refining the positioning for this part of our business,” he stated.