Paris, Amsterdam, 13th July 2010
Freight Management specialist Geodis Wilson has named Alain Chimene as Regional Vice-President Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) – a newly-formed region poised to offer cohesive solutions to customers across a diverse range of countries.
EMEA, along with the Asia-Pacific and Americas Regions, delivers a unified Geodis Wilson offering globally to markets as they emerge from a trade downturn and seek user-friendly and effective freight management solutions.
Alain Chimene, age 50 and based in Paris, joined Geodis Wilson in 2001. For the past seven years has been based in Hong Kong, becoming Regional Vice-President of the Asian region in 2007, and gaining a reputation for building a strong business organisation for Geodis Wilson – a success that he is keen to extend to the new EMEA region.
Having stated his career in the freight services industry with Africa specialist Transcap International some 25 years ago, followed by nine years’ experience with forwarder Ziegler, Alain Chimene now oversees Geodis Wilson’s largest region. EMEA is accounting for 60 percent of the company’s turnover and 2,600 people – almost half its total staff. ”Although many European markets are considered mature, there remains ample growth potential for the Geodis Wilson global network, through internal and external growth. Alain’s key priority will be development of the business at a rate that outpaces market growth while balancing that with cost-conscious improvements in productivity”.
In rising to the challenge Alain himself said, “This is what I call the efficiency of developments combined with the development of efficiencies. This will be achieved through building team spirit at every level. There are many operational advantages in this region, not least the skills of its people and a well-balanced airfreight and sea freight global activity. I believe that these attributes can be honed to provide our customers with real advantages through our EMEA organisation which will enable us to respond in a speedy and flexible way, particularly in terms of requests for quotations and tenders.”
ENDS
About Geodis Wilson and the Geodis Group
Geodis Wilson is a leading global freight management company. With 5,700 employees in more than 50 countries the company delivers tailor-made, integrated solutions to customers enabling them to operate as ‘best in class.’ Geodis Wilson manages cargo across five continents by sea and air, making supply chains transparent and flexible to manage. Geodis Wilson is the freight forwarding arm of Geodis Group which became part of the French rail and freight group SNCF in 2008. With its 46.000 employees in 120 countries ‘SNCF GEODIS’ ranks among the top seven companies in its field in the world, is no.4 in Europe and no. 1 in France.
Geodis Wilson’s EMEA region comprises four clusters: Southern Europe (France, Spain and the Maghreb countries of North Africa) under the management of Jean-Pierre Ennebick; Nordics under Peter Vallenthin; Central Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, UK and Germany) under Matthias Hansen; and Italy, Middle East (including Qatar and Dubai) and South Africa under Alain’s direct responsibility.
www.geodiswilson.com – www.geodis.com
For further information, please contact:
Michael Zuchold
Communications Manager Geodis Wilson
Tel.: + 49 174 909 8788