In his previous role Dr May led the development of a centralised inbound logistics structure that brought greater flexibility and faster reaction times to the carmakers inbound flows. The changes made by his team helped BMW avoid supply chain problems and production downtime following catastrophes such as the Japanese earthquake and Thai flooding.
Dr May also worked for some years as head of BMW’s German retail outlets, which he told Automotive Logistics magazine was “a perfect fit” as the retail network faced similar pressures to its inbound logistics network.
“As in logistics, there was a decentralized organisation in the sales network with some 55 different sites,” he said last year. “The great challenge was to get those coordinated and put standard processes across them. We also had to replace a 30-year old dealer management system. When the job was done, our management wanted me to go back to logistics to manage the growth.”
He will now have the opportunity to extend that network expertise on the outbound movement of vehicles.
Roland Gentsch, who was previously in the role May has occupied, is taking over responsibility for Production Control, Logistics Controlling at BMW’s Regensburg plant in Germany.
Craig Jasienski, formely CEO at United European Car Carriers (UECC), is now the CEO of Eukor Car Carriers. He replaces Sjur Galtung at Eukor, who has ended his current contract. Galtung took up the position in May 2010.
UECC is owned 50% by Wallenius Lines and 50% by NYK. Eukor is owned 40% each by Wallenius Lines and Wilhelmsen Lines and 20% by Hyundai.
Jasienski started his career at Wilhelmsen Lines in his home country Australia, and held various management positions in Wilhelmsen Lines and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) until he started at UECC in 2005 as director of Commercial Management. He was appointed CEO there in 2007.
Glenn Edvardsen has replaced Jasienksi as CEO at UECC. He moves from a 15-year career as master and captain of the Crystal Serenity, part of cruise company Crystal Cruises.
Reinhard Lange will step down from his role as CEO of logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel in May because of health reasons. He will remain in a consultancy role with the company until the end of his contract at the end of the December this year.
Lange has been at Kuehne + Nagel for 40 years, starting his career with the company in Bremen Germany. He was member of the management boards in the Asia-Pacific region and in Germany, before he became managing director of the organisation in Canada. In 1999 he was appointed to the Management Board of Kuehne + Nagel International.
“The successful development of the seafreight business – Kuehne + Nagel is the worldwide leader in this industry segment – is largely due to Reinhard Lange,” said the company in a statement.
Kuehne + Nagel said it is now looking for a new CEO but in the meantime a management team has been set up to take over Lange’s tasks under the leadership of Karl Gernandt, chairman of Kuehne + Nagel International.
Gernandt and the company’s main business unit heads will be streamlining regional management as part of a widespread restructuring within the company. Horst-Joachim Schacht (Seafreight), Tim Scharwath (Airfreight), Stefan Paul (Road and Rail Logistics) and Dr Detlef Trefzger (Contract Logistics) will work with Gernandt.
The company said it was changing its regional structure, beginning in July this year with a merger of the its units in Central, Northwest and Southwest Europe, into one unit dubbed West Europe. East Europe will remain the same.
Business units in Africa and the Middle East/Central Asia will also be consolidated and two regional teams are being set up in the Asia Pacific region. The national companies in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau will be organized under the region North Asia as of 1 July this year. The region South Asia will represent South Korea and Japan, with headquarters in Singapore.
North and South America regional units will remain unchanged.
