U-FREIGHT RESTRUCTURES NORTH AMERICA OPERATIONS

U-Freight, the freight forwarding and logistics services group, is restructuring its organization in North America under a five-strong executive management team.

Following his transfer from his position as U-Freight’s General Manager in Europe, Rick Keller is now President and CEO of U-Freight America Inc, based in San Francisco. Previous President and CEO, Gene Boyer is now Chairman of U-Freight America Inc.

The other four members of U-Freight America’s executive management team are: Anna Lok, Senior Vice President – Sales; Clara Chui, Senior Vice President – Logistics; Keeven Sze, Senior Vice President – Air Freight; and Terence Tsang, Senior Vice President – Ocean Freight.

Prior to his reassignment, Mr Keller had been responsible for coordinating U-Freight’s expansion and promoting harmonisation of the company’s network and activities in Europe. Prior to that, he was station manager at
U-Freight’s Chicago office, so his appointment marks a return to North America.

Anna Lok is in her 20th year with U-Freight having joined the company after graduation. She has held a variety of senior positions in a wide range of company activities most recently management of U-Freight’s two Los Angeles facilities.

Clara Chui joined U-Freight in 1986. Over the last 20 years, she has helped implement the company’s ground-breaking AFSA information and communications system throughout the network and assisted in the development of the company’s warehouse operating systems. Most recently, she was Vice-President, Logistics, targeting new business for shippers requiring customised solutions for their total supply chain management requirements.

When U-Freight America was originally established in 1979, Keeven Sze became the second employee on the company’s payroll and cut its first airway bill out of the USA. Throughout the 1980s, he worked in a senior operations role the company’s HQ in San Francisco, before transferring to head-up U-Freight’s operations in Shanghai. He returned to U-Freight America in 2005 as VP of Operations.

Terence Tsang joined U-Freight when the company bought a majority stake in specialist ocean freight company, Comax. He became Vice President of the U-Ocean USA Corp subsidiary in June 2006.

Four of the five members of the new executive management team are long-standing U-Freight managers whose promotion is a reflection of the valuable contribution that they have made to the company’s development. They bring more than 100 years of combined experience to the company’s Cooperative Regional Strategy for North America which is now being implemented.

That strategy will see U-Freight consolidate its operational activities at a number of stations in Canada and the USA, with each station ceasing to operate as an individual profit centres and being managed as a coherent network to better serve the needs of customers and to take advantage of current market trends.

Staff are being assigned to specific roles within the company’s airfreight, oceanfreight and logistics product lines with all sales activity centrally directed.

The new sales team covers the whole of North America including Canada, allowing leads to be managed by the same team member, regardless of shipment lane or product line.

Monitoring and problem-solving has been divided into East and West Coast sectors, giving customers a more centralised point of reference for any queries, in two different US time-zones.

Comments Simon Wong, Chief Executive Officer of U-Freight Group: “U-Freight has always had a firm belief in promoting from within and I am very pleased that we have been able to create a very strong executive management team in North America from within our own resources.

“Given their collective experience, I’m sure that they are more than capable of driving forward our organization in North America. The reorganization presents U-Freight with many opportunities in North America. We will be able to streamline our corporate structure, enhance various business processes such as sales, accounting and information systems, save costs, strengthen our company culture and improve customer service.”

Adds Rick Keller: “Working together, we will build an organization that will operate without artificial boundaries and allow us to offer even better services to customers.”

In business since 1968, U-Freight has satisfied the shipping needs of its clients for over 37 years. The company takes pride in providing a professional and award-winning portfolio of freight forwarding and logistics services that are reliable, time-sensitive, cost-conscious and tailored to the unique requirements of each individual customer.

Ian Matheson/Jane Finlay
Impress Communications Ltd
Tel: 44 (0) 1689 860660
e-mail: info@impresscommunications.org

This release was published on openPR.