Please describe yourself and your career so far!

I’m from Oxford in the UK originally. I studied in Kent in the south of England and for some time in Italy in Bologna. I had finished university and I was looking for work and because I was able to speak another language. I was taken into the automotive sector within Exel which was acquired by DHL about 18 months ago and I joined DHL Supply Chain as part of the contract logistics team.

Why did you want to work in the logistics industry?

I never chose to be in logistics. It was something I did in my school holidays and throughout university and it was quite an interesting industry to work in - always changing, never the same and actually quite rewarding. You go away with quite a good sense of job satisfaction.

What does successful teamwork look like when working for DHL?

First of all, creating a team depends on what the end objective is. And it’s important to have elements of tenacity, definitely enthusiasm and a passion for the job together with a healthy element of competition. I think there are different forces at work within a successful team. And particularly in my team I have guys from different countries, different cultures with different ways of doing things - but it’s a success because those guys are working healthily together towards one goal. Having one direction is very important.


What is DHL’s advantage in working with its customers?

Our customers like working with us. The first point that comes up is our global reach and leveraging our scale. We are the biggest logistics company in the world, so that’s obviously a bonus. But it’s also the fact that we’ve got our local expertise and that we have people who are living and working in the countries and who actually understand the culture of doing business which is extremely important as well. The combination of global reach with the local expertise is crucial I think.


Did your career develop like you’ve planned it?

I’ve never really planned my career. I’ve always just gone with the flow. Taking an opportunity when it has arisen, and I think it’s been a good choice. There is a good fit - me and DHL.