At Jas, Jeffress said he has the freedom to develop a core competency group and is benefitting from the operating climate and “family atmosphere” of a privately-owned company, something that saw the company recruit during the economic crisis at a time other providers were faced with redundancies.
“A person like Conway fits perfectly into a company like this because he has the freedom to look outside of the box,” added Jas key account manager for Germany, Robert Gulyas.
Jas was founded as Jet Air Services in Milan, Italy in 1998 by a former country manager of Schenker and quickly built its businesses on inbound shipments in the retail and fashion industry from Asia. In 2006 it moved headquarters to Atlanta Georgia. Its success in retail allowed it to gain experience in the handling of valuable goods according to Gulyas, something that led it into hi-tech and, in turn, to adapt process for the automotive industry.
Jeffress has experience from OEM, tier one and freight forwarding perspectives – he worked for Eagle and Ceva prior to Panalpina – something he said gave him a good perspective and the understanding to build an industry vertical in automotive.
Looking forward Jeffress said he was eager to diversify the company’s customer base by bringing in more clients to the automotive vertical.
Meanwhile, Greg Henninger has left Tesla Motors and taken up a new position with Panalpina as vice-president global corporate key account manager – Automotive. Henninger was previously global director of logistics and containerization at Tesla and, before that, GM’s global manager – North America Inbound Logistics Purchasing and Safety.
Henninger will be working on Panalpina’s account with parts supplier Delphi and will be based in Detroit.
As part of widespread senior management appointments at Nissan Motor announced this week, Hiroto Saikawa, executive vice president, Purchasing and chairman of the management committee for Asia, Oceania and Japan, has added the newly created role of chief competitive officer to his responsibilities. From the beginning of April he will now also oversee manufacturing, supply chain management and R&D, as well as customer satisfaction. Executive vice president Hidetoshi Imazu, who leads manufacturing and supply chain management, will now report to Saikawa.
Amongst the other moves Anthony Laydon has been appointed corporate vice president, Global Supply Chain Management.
“These appointments are the second phase of changes we have made in recent months to strengthen both our global and regional management teams,” said Carlos Ghosn, Nissan president and CEO.
Ceva Logistics has appointed Jacob Moe as the its managing director for South China, replacing Connie Tang, who takes on a new role as vice president of Strategic Development in China. Moe moves to Ceva from Damco, where he was combined chief commercial and chief operations officer for the company’s Africa and the Middle East region. Prior to that he worked for AP Moller Maersk.
Moe has been in the industry for 14 years and held positions within key account management, country management, operations and sales, focusing on logistics. He previously spent four years working in Hong Kong and Shanghai and has also held positions in New Zealand, Indonesia, the Netherlands and South Africa.
"I am delighted to join Ceva and I look forward to leading our experienced South China team. We will continue to focus on delivering value to our customers' supply chains," said Jacob.
Martin Thaysen, executive vice president for Ceva in China, added: "I am very confident that Jacob's talent, experience and track record will be a valuable addition to the China leadership team. Our focus on how we service and develop our customers, along with our initiatives around organizational development is a great match with Jacob's capabilities. I look forward to working closely with him to accelerate the growth of our business in South China."
Moe’s responsibilities include Hong Kong and Taiwan regions and he is based in Hong Kong.
