DHL selects former K+N exec to run forwarding unit

Deutsche Post appointed Tim Scharwath, who until recently served as head of global airfreight at Swiss-based third-party logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel, as chief executive for DHL Global Forwarding, Freight.    Deutsche Post AG has appointed Tim Scharwath, who until recently served as head of global airfreight at Swiss-based third-party logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel International, to run DHL’s freight forwarding unit.
   The Bonn, Germany-based parcel carrier and 3PL named Scharwath chief executive and member of the board of management for DHL Global Forwarding, Freight (DGF).
   Rumors DGF could be put up for sale by its parent company began to circulate following the failed roll out of a unified information technology platform it called the New Forwarding Environment. Group CEO Frank Appel, however, called those reports “nonsense” at the TPM 2016 conference in March despite DHL taking an 345 million euro (U.S. $375 million) writedown in 2015 related to the NFE system.
   Former DGF CEO Roger Crook resigned in April 2015 for “personal reason” after difficulties implementing NFE caused the company to scrap the projected 750 million euro project and purchase external software products in its place.
   Deutsche Post brought in the former leader of DHL’s ocean and air freight unit, Renato Chiavi, to run the division on an interim basis while Appel assumed executive responsibilities in addition to his role as group CEO. Chiavi will continue to serve with the company in a consulting capacity.
   Scharwath, a 20-year logisitics management veteran with Kuehne + Nagel, will join the group within the next 12 months, and Appel will oversee the division until then. Under Scharwath’s leadership as executive vice president and board member, K+N’s airfreight business grew to become the second largest globally.
   The company said Amadou Diallo will remain in his role as CEO Freight, responsible for road transport.
   “We are very pleased that Tim Scharwath will become a Member of the Board of Management, taking over responsibility for our Global Forwarding and Freight division,” Appel said in a statement. “He comes with an impressive freight forwarding track record, and is ideally placed to continue the encouraging progress we start to see in our forwarding businesses, and which we will steadily grow over the years.”