Ceva Logistics has promoted Jérôme Lorrain (pictured) to chief operating officer (COO) of freight management. The move involves taking on responsibility for air and ocean freight in addition to his existing role as COO of the ground business, which he took up in January last year.

Lorrain takes over the air and ocean freight business from Helmut Kaspers, who has left the company. Lorrain will remain based in Houston, Texas, and continue to serve on the executive board at Ceva.

As part of the company’s global reorganisation into regional clusters, Lorrain was simultaneously managing director of North America, looking after freight management and contract logistics. That role will be taken up in January by Michael O'Donoghue, currently managing director of the UK, Ireland and Nordics cluster. A replacement for his current position has yet to be announced.

"I would like to congratulate Jérôme and Michael on their well-deserved promotions. They are two exceptional individuals with wide-ranging business skills which make them ideally suited to their new roles," said Ceva’s CEO, Xavier Urbain. "At the same time, I would like to thank Helmut Kaspers for his contribution to CEVA’s transformation and wish him well in his new endeavours."

Before joining Ceva, Lorrain was CEO of Wallenborn Transports and also spent nearly a decade at Kuehne + Nagel in a number of executive positions.

Helmut Kaspers joined Ceva as COO of Global Air and Ocean in 2015, having previously worked at Logwin, Kuehne + Nagel and DB Schenker. He also established Kaspers Consulting + Investment, an international logistics consultancy.