Maersk Line’s Asia-Pacific regional CEO Thomas Knudsen has been appointed regional head of Damco’s Asia business as the supply chain service positions itself for the “vast opportunities” in the region, particularly in Southeast Asia.
Knudsen assumes his new role at Damco effective July 1 and will be responsible for executing the company’s day-to-day business operations for the Asia region, comprising North Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
“The diversity of markets and customer needs in Asia creates vast opportunities for Damco to partner with stakeholders in terms of supply chain management and freight forwarding,” said Knudsen. “For example we anticipate growth of sourcing activities in Southeast Asia with the increased shift of manufacturing out of China, and regional free trade agreements are also opening up new, exciting opportunities for logistics players like us.”
Besides providing end-to-end supply chain management, Damco is also looking to increase customers’ use of its freight forwarding, warehousing, and distribution services.
The company recently put up its first container freight station warehouse in Myanmar, “reinforcing our first mover position in this emerging market,” it said in an official release.
It also plans to “ramp up our business presence and open 14 new commercial offices in Asia this year, in locations which have been selected to match pockets of growth in the global economy.”
Knudsen will be based in Singapore, reporting directly to Hanne Sorensen, CEO for Damco, which together with Maersk Line is part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk group.
With a Masters degree in supply chain management, Knudsen brings with him more than 20 years of experience within the Maersk group.
Prior to his previous post as Maersk Line’s regional head of Asia Pacific, he had held leadership, commercial, trade, and route management roles in Maersk Line in the Middle East, North America, Europe, and Asia.
He also had a year’s experience in 2006 heading the then Maersk Logistics in France, overseeing France, Tunisia, and Algeria.
Meanwhile, Marc Gijsbrecht, Maersk Line’s regional CEO for West Central Asia, has been named concurrent interim chief executive of the container line’s Asia-Pacific operations and will hold the post until a new executive head for Asia-Pacific is hired.
In other news, Rolf Habben Jansen, who has been a member of German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd’s executive board since April 1, has assumed the position of CEO effective July 1.
Jansen succeeds Michael Behrendt, who left Hapag-Lloyd’s executive board as scheduled on June 30, as did chief operations officer Ulrich Kranich.
The new COO is Anthony J. Firmin, who joined the executive board July 1 after 19 years at the company. Peter Ganz continues as chief financial officer, a position he has held since April 2009.
