Keynote Speakers

The following impressive line up all spoke at the 2nd Global Distribution Strategies - Europe, held in Brussels on October 6 & 7 2009. 

John Manners-Bell, Chief Executive Officer, Transport Intelligence

John started his working life as an operations manager in a freight forwarding and road haulage company based in the south of England. He has since fulfilled a number of operational, consulting and marketing roles within the logistics industry. Prior to establishing Transport Intelligence, he worked as an analyst in consultancies specialising in international trade, transport and logistics. He also spent a number of years as European marketing manager for UPS Supply Chain Solutions working at locations across Europe including France, Netherlands and Germany.

He holds an MSc in Transport Planning and Management from University of Westminster and is an Associate of King's College London. He is a member of the UK Institute of Logistics and Transport and is an officer of the UK roundtable of the Council of Logistics Management.

Samuel Sidiqi - Director of Strategy Europe, Agility Logistics

Sam Sidiqi (b. 1977) has been Agility Europe's Director of Strategy since 2006. He is responsible for developing the European strategy and setting up processes to ensure its execution. Sam Sidiqi also played a crucial role in the build-up of the new European Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.  

From 2005 to 2006, Sam Sidiqi was GeoLogistics' Director of Growth Initiatives. In Orange County, USA, he was responsible for globally coordinating the sourcing of investment ideas from the business and ensuring proper follow through for the company now known as Agility.

Sam Sidiqi started his professional career in 2000 as an Associate Consultant with Bain & Company in Boston, USA.  He carried through a market entry assessment for a technology/manufacturing conglomerate and a portfolio strategy review and divestiture program for a multibillion dollar global consumer products firm.

Sam Sidiqi completed a BS in Economics, a BS in Political Science and Minor Middle East Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Fulbright Fellow in the Fulbright Program and completed an MBA Major in Strategic Management, as well as an MA in International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. 

Steven Keppens - Supply Chain Director EMEA, Johnson & Johnson

Steven Keppens has over 20 years international supply chain and marketing experience in the chemical and health care sector and worked for CR Bard , Terumo, FMC and Johnson & Johnson. In his current role, he is focusing on defining and implementing network and inventory optimization projects. In his previous position, he lived and worked in Moscow where he was responsible for Johnson and Johnson’s supply chain in Russia and CIS. He has a special interest in the “human aspects of change” and successfully conducted various change management projects in an international context.

Steven holds a university degree in Law (VUB) and a Master in Supply Chain Management (Vlerick Management School)

Sebastien Scholte - Head of Marketing & Special Projects, Cargolux Airlines International S.A.

Sebastien Scholte was born in 1970 in Groningen, the Netherlands. After his studies of Economics and Business Administration at the Rotterdam College, he started his cargo aviation career in 1997 working in Mexico City for Aeromexpress, the cargo division of Aeromexico and Mexicana. From 1998 he was based in Madrid as VP Europe and in this function, oversaw the European cargo operations. During this period he also represented Aeromexpress in the various working groups of the Sky Team to develop the alliance's economies of scale. Based in Mexico City as from 2000, he was promoted to VP Sales, Mexico and Central America, where he initiated new freighter operations and coordinated an alliance with a major Mexican courier.

In 2002 Sebastiaan joined Cargolux Airlines in Sao Paulo in the role of Regional Manager, South & Central America. After successfully restructuring the area, he became Cargolux' Regional Business Development Manager, Spain and Portugal in 2004. He initiated Cargolux' Portugal operations, while at the same time completing a Global Executive MBA at the IESE Business School.

Since 2006 Sebastiaan is Head of Marketing & Special Projects, based at Cargolux' headquarters in Luxembourg.  In this current function he is leading and coordinating various strategic projects, marketing analysis and commercial communication.

Peter Best - Outbound Transportation Manager, Nike

Peter started his working life in the Minerals business as a Mechanical Engineer. After various roles in the engineering of mining hardware and process development, he moved to General Management and Mineral Logistics. Based in the UK he worked as Planning Manager for IMERYS Minerals overseeing European Storage infrastructure and related operations. In 2001 Peter moved to Belgium to take an opportunity at the Nike European Logistics centre. He now holds the position of Outbound Transportation Manager for the Nike Brand in Europe – the scope of this role is the direct responsibility for Selection and performance management of transportation partners for the European Region. There is a keen focus on contributing to Nike corporate goals in relation to Sustainable Logistics through the positive support of flexible multi modal transport solutions.

Peter is Chairman of the FESI ( Federation of the European Sporting goods Industry) Supply chain committee and retains his passion for engineering being a chartered engineer and a committee member of the Benelux branch of the I.Mech.E

Robert Srumf, Director global Inbound Logistics and global LSP management NOKIA

Dipl. Kfm. Robert Srumf studied business management (production, manufacturing & logistics). After working for a consultancy company, he started 1995 in Nokia Networks and implemented ERP system in Germany. He was responsible for the logistics in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, managed several efficiency and On-time-delivery programs.

2003 he focused on After Sales Service Market and took over the global responsibility for Hardware Services Operations Management in Nokia Networks.

Global Hardware Services (HWS) operations of NOKIA Networks included the whole supply chain from customers to the repair centers, including reverse and repair operations (failure report handling, distribution network, material management, planning of global inventory levels, management of internal and outsourced repair centers, development and implementation of the operational model as well as global processes and tools).

2006 he was responsible for the integration of HWS business from former Nokia Networks and Siemens Communication and continued to be responsible for global Harware Servive Operations in Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)

Since 1.5.2008 at NOKIA responsible for global Inbound Logistics and Logistics Service Provider Management. In addition Chairman of global Nokia logistics collaboration group which secures maximum LSP synergy effects across whole Nokia including all business Units.

Responsible for global Inbound Logistics model and performance, this is the global logistics between all suppliers and all factories worldwide as well as selection, management and benchmarking LSP performance and price levels on global level.

Target is to secure worldwide leading logistics solution.

Tim Bett - Director Europe, Bisham Consulting

His challenge is to grow Bisham’s business in Europe from his base in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. Tim is building on over 20 years of senior line responsibility in multinationals, having held supply chain director roles in Life Sciences (DSM) and Specialty Chemicals (Rohm and Haas) as well as senior logistics roles in the Minerals and Paper industries.

Tim’s qualifications include an MBA from INSEAD at Fontainebleau, France and he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Tim is also a Director of ELUPEG

Robert Bowman - Strategic Account Exective, Penske

Robert Bowman has spent his logistics career within the Automotive and Industrial sectors with such companies as Daimler and later DaimlerChrysler AG, EXEL and due to the merger with DHL. While he was with EXEL he worked on the development and expansion of the Lead Logistic Provider Concept for Automotive customers. After the Merger with DHL, he transferred to Global Customer Solutions where he worked with the top 100 customers and developed the initial LLP proposal from DHL to Airbus. In the beginning of 2009 he left DHL to Join Penske Logistics as a Strategic Account Executive to further develop the neutrality of a true customer oriented service provider.

Pascal Gielen - EMEA Transport Sourcing Manager Land Transport, Philips Lighting

Pascal Gielen was born in 1975 in Venlo, the Netherlands and lived most of his youth abroad (Germany and the US). After his study business engineering in Eindhoven he graduated at the Royal Military Academy to become a commissioned logistics Officer at the Royal Netherlands air force. In 2003, after various assignments in the air force and an expatriation / deployment during the second gulf war, he became operations manager and deputy general manager at a warehousing site of Norbert Dentressangle and in 2006 he moved towards Vos Logistics for the position of business unit manager in Helmond, the Netherlands. This Vos site employed 140 people and was active in warehousing operations, freight management and an own transport fleet.

In 2008 he was asked to join Philips Lighting as European commodity manager Land transport and was promoted in April 2009 to EMEA Transport Sourcing Manage where he is responsible for the development and deploying of the commodity strategy and for the strategic purchases of all land transport related activities in the region.

Peter Kauschke - Transportation & Logistics Business Development Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers 

Peter started his professional career in 1994 as a research associate at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in Dortmund (Germany); in 1999 he was promoted to group manager. He led and executed several research and consulting engagements for logistics and manufacturing companies as well as business associations in the areas of sustainability and environmental management, planning of logistics systems (waste disposal logistics) and material flow systems.  

Peter holds a university degree and a Ph.D. in engineering. He studied at the Universities of Dortmund (Germany) and Limerick (Ireland).

Ken Lyon - CEO, BitLogistics 

Ken Lyon is presently the Chief Executive of BitLogistics, an Anglo-Dutch venture headquartered in the UK.

Ken is one of the pioneers of informatics development and supply chain collaboration within the logistics industry. He has been directly involved in many of the pivotal events that have helped shape the use of computer based communications within the industry. He played a significant role in the conception, design, development and implementation of port community systems in the UK during the early 1980s. This involved pioneering experiments focused on developing computer communications links with Customs authorities, which were noted by the media as 'ground breaking'. 

Ken was previously with United Parcel Service for nine years, the last five years as Information Services Director and then Vice President for Information Services with the UPS Logistics Group (now UPS Supply Chain Solutions). 

Ken has established a reputation as one of the innovators in the use of data networks to manage logistics operations.

Jef van Doorslaer - Associate Partner, Head of Research, Cushman & Wakefield 

Jef Van Doorslaer is responsible for the Cushman & Wakefield Research Department in Brussels. This function focuses on providing market information for commercial real estate in Belgium, in a way that it provides real added value to external and internal customers.

After research work for the K. University of Leuven, Jef worked for Xerox from 1983 till 1996. He started as Analyst Information Management and was promoted to Market Research Manager in 1990. In 1997 he joined Bandag EMEA as Market Research Manager, putting up a pan-European regional model of the transport and logistics sector for the truck tyre business. In 1999 Jef moved to Ubizen, a Belgium based international internet security solutions company. Beginning of 2002 he joined Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker as Head of Research.

Leading companies that Jef has undertaken projects for recently include Redevco, Zara, Robelco, Hennes & Mauritz, Foruminvest, Flanders Institute for Logistics and BMW. Apart from his employment experience, Jef spoke at different seminars and institutions on the topic of market intelligence and real estate.

Alan Braithwaite - Chairman, LCP Consulting

Alan is a recognised expert in international supply chain management and logistics. He is a visiting Professor at Cranfield School of Management, is widely published and presents at conferences around the world.

Alan is the Executive Chairman of LCP Consulting, one of the leading independent supply chain management and logistics consultancy. LCP has its head office in the UK and advises major organizations around the world on strategic, design and implementation solutions. The consultancy is known for its 'fact based' diagnostics to solution identification.

Alan has consulted for organizations from the retail, manufacturing, energy, logistics and government markets. His direct clients include such companies as: TESCO, ExxonMobil, Shell, UK Government, MerckSerono, syngenta, Harrods, Maersk and Premier Foods. 

Eelco Dijkstra, Managing Director, Europhia Consulting BV

Eelco Dijkstra, is Managing Director of Europhia Consulting which provides international executive search, training and consultancy services to the logistics sector. Eelco has been involved in logistics for more than 15 years. Over the last 7 years, he has accumulated specific B2C distribution related expertise by working in the high-tech sector. Whilst working at TNT Express, he served in various commercial management functions at Corporate Head Office developing B2C related distribution concepts. His work and acquired expertise in this specific area of parcel/express distribution within an e-Commerce environment has become a personal interest area.

Ingrid Willems, Teleroute Chief Marketing Officer

Ingrid Willems joined Teleroute in January 2004 as Product Marketing Manager of Teleroute Belgium bringing with her a wide, international experience in managing e-business and software products for the Transport & Logistics market. In July 2007 she was appointed Chief Marketing Officer.

Before joining Teleroute, Mrs Willems was a Project Manager e-Procurement of FreeMarkets Inc. in Brussels, where she managed global e-sourcing projects across different commodities for transport, automotive and blue-chip industry.

Ingrid Willems holds an MBA in General Management.

Franz-Joseph Miller - CEO, time:matters Holding GmbH

Franz-Joseph Miller is CEO and founder of time:matters Holding GmbH, located in Neu Isenburg, Germany. As an international expert for courier, sameday and emergency logistics as well as for time-critical spare parts logistics, time:matters offers worldwide customized and last-minute logistics solutions for particularly urgent or complex special logistics assignments.

Franz-Joseph Miller joined Lufthansa Cargo AG in 2001 to take charge of the "top speed" courier services business, which he spun-off into time:matters GmbH in 2002. In 2007 the management together with growth investor Aheim Capital GmbH acquired a majority stake and partnered with Lufthansa Cargo as a shareholder.

In 2006 Miller started the internationalization of time:matters with currently 12 international offices across Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2007 the company established Germany's only courier & express terminal at Frankfurt Airport and developed its time-critical spare parts distribution business, which serves some of the leading European companies. Today time:matters is one of the leading providers of Special Speed Logistics and one of the global experts in this market. On average the company has grown by more than 30% annually since 2002, growing to more than 60 Mio EUR in revenues in 2008.

Prior to joining time:matters Franz-Joseph Miller gained extensive management experience within various international companies. He founded his own fashion company and was responsible for Marketing & Sales at the internet company Jamba! AG. 

Goos Kant, Managing Director Logistics for Ortec

Goos Kant is professor in Operations Management at the Tilburg University and TiasNimbas. His main research and lectures area is in transportation and distribution optimization. Goos is also Managing Director Logistics and partner at ORTEC. ORTEC is market leader in Advanced Planning Systems. Goos is globally responsible for the solutions in Retail, Transport and Logistics.

Joel Ray, Head of Consultancy, Transport Intelligence

Joel has extensive experience within the express, mail and logistics industry. After graduating with a degree in Business Administration he joined a specialist logistics consultancy firm where he spent a number of years developing its Mergers and Acquisition business, as well as leading a number of strategic consultancy projects. He relocated to Ireland in 1998 to take up the position of Strategic Analyst / Manager with An Post (the Irish Post Office) where he was responsible for analysing organic and acquisition growth opportunities. He joined Transport Intelligence after establishing and running an internet based warehousing exchange.

Keep up to date with all new announcements by subscribing to Global Distribution Strategies e-Updates.