Singapore – DHL Global Forwarding, the freight specialist arm of DHL Group, has announced three strategic leadership appointments in Asia Pacific: Karsten Michaelis as the new president and representative director of DHL Global Forwarding Japan; Edwin Pinto as managing director of DHL Global Forwarding India; and Praveen Gregory as the new SVP Ocean Freight of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific.
The new appointments are in line with the upcoming retirements of Kelvin Leung, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific, and Charles Kauffman, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding North Asia and South Pacific (NASP). He will step down from his role after more than five decades of valued service to the group.
Kaufmann will hand over country responsibility for Japan to his successor, Karsten Michaelis, while continuing to look after the cluster until the end of the year.
Michaelis will take over Kauffman’s role as president and representative director at DHL Global Forwarding Japan. In his new role, Karsten will be based in Japan and report to Charles Kaufmann.
Michaelis carries with him an extensive career spanning over two decades in the logistics sector. He has been based primarily in the Asia-Pacific region, in locations such as Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Australia, and Singapore. Since joining the group in 2011, Karsten has taken on several managerial roles for Ocean Freight in Asia Pacific, including his most recent position as SVP, Ocean Freight DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific, in 2017.
On the other hand, Edwin Pinto’s appointment as the new managing director for DHL Global Forwarding India comes after the promotion of Niki Frank as the new CEO at DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific. He is set to assume his new role by September 2023 in India, and he will report directly to Niki Frank.
Pinto is currently serving as the head of sales and marketing at DHL Global Forwarding in Thailand and Indochina. He joined DHL in 2001 in India and has since worked in several management roles across DHL Global Forwarding.
Working for the automotive sector, Pinto gained experience across various positions until being named sector director DGF for the South Asia, Pacific, and Africa region in 2010. As of 2012, he was promoted to head of key account management at DGF India. Prior to his current role, Edwin relocated to Thailand in 2014, working as Director of Commercial and Customer Program Management at DGF.
Meanwhile, Praveen Gregory will also assume his new position as SVP Ocean Freight at DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific by September 2023.
In his new role, Praveen will be based in Singapore and will report directly to Niki Frank, with a dotted line to Casper Ellerbaek, the EVP Global Ocean Freight at DHL Global Forwarding.
Before joining DHL Group in Dubai Ocean Freight Operations in 2008, Praveen had worked for Maersk. In 2010, he relocated to Germany and held several roles in market intelligence and strategy and product development. He moved to Hong Kong in 2018 to take on regional management roles in Ocean Commercial Center and Account Management ISC. In 2022, he assumed his current position as VP Order Management Solutions Asia Pacific.
Speaking on the appointment, Niki Frank said, “With Kelvin and Charles retiring this year, it has opened up a few key positions that we had to fill, and I am glad that we could do so with candidates from the network. This goes to show that we can nurture and retain talent while providing the right opportunities for growth to our employees.”
“All of them bring the right experience, the required expertise and will provide a fresh perspective to these roles,” he added.
