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UTi reshuffles upper management, launches five-year plan

UTi reshuffles upper management, launches five-year plan

Rancho Dominguez, Calif.-based logistics firm UTi Worldwide announced a major management reshuffle Wednesday.

   The nearly $3 billion-a-year firm said in a release that the executive changes reflect the firm's implementation of a new five-year strategic plan, called 'CLIENTasONE.' The plan, unveiled Wednesday, follows the completion of the firm's previous five-year plan introduced in February 2002.

   * Roger MacFarlane, one of the firm's founders and the current chief executive officer, has extended his employment agreement with the company until Jan. 31, 2010. McFarlane is expected to retire at that time from his day-to-day executive responsibilities as chief executive officer.

   * John Hextall, UTi’s executive vice president and global leader of client solutions and delivery, has been promoted to chief operating officer. All of the company’s operating regions will now report to Hextall in this new role. He will retain his position as executive vice president.

   * Matthys J. Wessels will step down from his role as chief executive officer of the company’s Africa region, but will remain vice chairman of UTi. Wessels will, according to a UTi release, continue to lead certain 'market verticals.' One of the firm's founders, he has also been named as the chairman of the newly created management board.

   * Lawrence Samuels, senior vice president and chief financial officer, has been promoted to executive vice president. He will retain the CFO position.

   * Gene Ochi, executive vice president and global leader of client solutions development, has been named executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

   * Carlos Escario has been promoted from president of client solutions for UTi’s EMENA region to the newly created senior vice president of planning and strategy execution position.

   * Ron Glickman is the firm's new senior vice president of global quality processes and integration. Glickman joins UTi from Cognizant Technology Solutions, where he was responsible for retail and hospitality areas.

   * Walter Mapham, head of senior supply chain engineering and client development for their Africa region, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief information officer.

   * Lance D’Amico, who joined UTi in August as senior vice president and global general counsel, has been given the additional roles of secretary and compliance officer.

   In addition to the staffing changes, UTi has created a management board comprising MacFarlane, Hextall, Wessels, Samuels and Ochi. The management board's purpose, according to a UTi release, is to review and approve acquisitions and other investment opportunities, as well as to focus on issues involving organizational structure, succession planning and executive compensation. The board replaces the current management committee, which originally comprised the company’s four founders and which, most recently, consisted of MacFarlane and Wessels.

   UTi employs more than 17,000 workers operating a global network of freight forwarding offices in 280 cities, and more than 140 logistics centers in 64 countries. The firm also operates in 76 additional countries through some 150 independent agent-owned offices, of which about 131 offices are exclusive freight forwarding agents.

   In addition to their corporate headquarters, located just south of Los Angeles in Rancho Dominquez, the firm operates eight principal support offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, and Columbia, S.C.