Doerken ousted as head of DHL

Doerken ousted as head of DHL    German postal conglomerate Deutsche Post said over the weekend that John Mullen has replaced Uwe Doerken, the head of its DHL delivery division, on its management board. Doerken's duties will be split between Mullen and Peter Kruse.
   Mullen, 49, will be elevated to the executive board of the company from his position as chief operating officer of DHL Express Asia Pacific. He will be responsible for DHL Express Americas, Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets. Kruse heads DHL Express Europe.
   The shakeup comes after DHL in September revised its planned losses for 2004 from 300 million euros ($389 million) to 500 million euros ($648 million) amidst a three-year, $1.2 billion investment program in sort centers, vehicles and marketing to increase capacity and service to grow the DHL brand in the United States. A major express delivery company internationally, DHL had a modest presence in the U.S. market until it acquired Airborne Express in August 2003 to compete with FedEx and UPS.
   The Deutsche Post group pushed back its breakeven forecast in the U.S. market to 2006 from 2005, when losses are expected to exceed $300 million euros.
   Doerken, who helped lead the international expansion of Deutsche Post during his 14 years with Deutsche Post, took over as chairman and chief executive officer of DHL Worldwide Express in 2000 and became executive chairman of DHL USA last January.
   In other action, the Deutsche Post Worldnet board of directors renewed the contract of Klaus Zumwinkel as CEO through November 2008.