SEKO Logistics has appointed Craig Grossgart and Lisa Johnstone to its Global ocean product leadership team as it invests in growing its service offering and supporting clients dealing with continued turmoil in the international ocean freight market.

In a statement, SEKO said Grossgart will become its global lead for ocean as senior vice president of Global Ocean Product, based in Houston and reporting to Terry Unrein, chief commercial officer, USA, while Lisa Johnstone joins SEKO as director of Ocean Product, reporting to Craig. 

Grossgart it said has over 20 years of experience in the logistics industry and has worked in various senior roles in international operations worldwide, including as CEO of Asia Container Terminal in Hong Kong, VP of Sub-Continent based in Mumbai and VP Emerging Markets at DHL, and VP America’s Ocean at Ceva Logistics.

Meanwhile, Johnstone also brings more than 20 years of supply chain management experience to the SEKO Ocean Product team, joining SEKO from DHL Global Forwarding, where she was Regional Ocean Director – Central.

“Craig and Lisa are well-known and highly respected ocean market specialists and will play key roles in the next stage of our Global Ocean strategy as we deal with the current challenges in the market and help our clients manage and leverage the changes and opportunities which will emerge as the industry returns to some degree of normality in the year ahead,” Unrein said.

“We welcome Craig and Lisa to the SEKO team and are confident that their knowledge, skills, and experience will be a great asset to build on the growth in demand we are experiencing for our Ocean Product.”

New ocean business in 2022

Grossgart, for his part cited SEKO's ability to “think outside the box” and quickly pivot to address trends in the market — which he said could bring new business opportunities for the company.

“This alertness and drive to get clients through even the most difficult market challenges is bringing new business opportunities to the table from clients looking for innovation, Global reach and cost-saving solutions,” he said.

“With worldwide container port throughput forecast to grow by nearly 6% this year, in line with Global GDP ... I expect to see a lot of new ocean business in 2022 and beyond because of what we can offer.”