SEKO Logistics has appointed Shawn Richard to the newly created position of vice president of global air freight.

According to SEKO, cross-border e-commerce now accounts for 50% of the company’s air freight volumes and customer demand increases for final-mile and traditional international and domestic air freight services.

Richard is responsible for strategically driving SEKO’s international air procurement and for maximizing air carrier utilization globally. He will be reporting to Terry Unrein, chief commercial officer in the Americas.

“This is a great time to be joining SEKO,” Unrein said. Our focus on air freight has never been greater and we are a leader in a part of the market where airlines also see great growth potential, notably cross-border e-commerce. The fact that SEKO has a fast-growing client base of retailers and etailers – as well as in other industries such as automotive, aerospace, energy, medical, technology and tradeshows and events – means we’re looking to build stronger relationships with forward-thinking airline partners that want to talk to us.”

Richard has 30 years of experience in the logistics industry and brings extensive knowledge of carrier management, procurement and cross-border e-commerce. He began his career managing inbound and outbound handling operations for air carriers at New York JFK before joining the predecessor to DHL Global Forwarding in Miami and played an important role in the successful integrations of Danzas, Exel and Airborne Express into DHL. He then moved back to the US with Geodis and was most recently chief operating officer of Worldnet Shipping USA and Northeast regional sales manager at Delta Airlines Cargo.

“SEKO’s roots are in air freight but the real significance today is how it is driving the growth of our cross-border e-commerce business and encouraging us to introduce home delivery products like our new Airfreight+ Final Mile service in North America,” said Unrein. “This comes at a time when our traditional omni-channel and white glove business are increasing our domestic and international heavyweight air freight volumes and exceeding our expectations. This is leading to some very interesting conversations with carriers that can see the growth we’re generating and want to be part of it. 2018 is already on track to be a record year for our air freight volumes so having Shawn leading our global air strategy and developing our airline partnerships is perfect timing given his broad experience and, especially, his cross-border experience, which is key for us.”