Sebastiaan Scholte will step down as chairman of The International Air Cargo Association following his departure as chief executive officer of Jan de Rijk Logistics on July 1, 2019.

According to TIACA’s bylaws, board members must be trustee members of the association. Scholte will no longer be able to serve after leaving Jan de Rijk to pursue new opportunities.

“It was a great honour to have served as chairman of the TIACA board,” said Scholte. “The organization is financially healthy again and is strategically on the right track. Moreover, we have a great team of board members and management. I would like to thank all members, staff and board members for their faith and support over the years. TIACA remains the only organization that truly represents the interests of the whole air cargo supply chain.”

Scholte has headed up the TIACA board since 2017, taking over after two and a half years as vice chairman.

Since January 2018, Scholte has been working with the current vice chairman, Steven Polmans, head of cargo and logistics at Brussels Airport Company, on a new vision for the association.

“We very much regret that Sebastiaan is leaving, but of course respect his decision,” said Polmans. “I ran for vice chairman of TIACA in close cooperation with him and with a clear interest to work closely with him. Together we came up with a clear strategy and four-year action plan for the association and I am proud to be able to take over a healthier and stronger TIACA. I am determined to continue working with the board, the chairman’s council, and our members to deliver the action plan we started at the beginning of Sebastiaan’s chairmanship.”

Polmans will take up the chairmanship on July 1, a few months earlier than planned, at TIACA’s annual general meeting in Budapest in November.

“Sebastiaan and Steven have done an admirable job to turn around TIACA against the odds and stabilize the organization," said Ram Menen, a founding member of TIACA, as well as past chairman and member of the association’s chairman’s council. “We are very pleased because it is an important association representing all sections of the air cargo industry, and it is an organization that the industry needs.”