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By Alex Lennane
Speculation over who will be the next secretary general of TIACA has ended with the announcement that Vladimir Zubkov will take over from Doug Brittin in January.
Vice president of Volga-Dnepr Group Mr Zubkov, who has been a member of TIACA’s board since 2011 and has more than 20 years’ experience at ICAO, has been welcomed.
“He is very competent and I think genuinely nice,” said one senior insider. “He is a good presenter and seems to understand the business well.
“The only issue I see is turning from being a board member to secretary general. How will the board see him? How will he see the board? But all in all, I think he is a good choice.”
Mr Zubkov has plenty of industry body experience – he is chairman of TIACA’s Industry Affairs Committee and a member of the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group and IATA Industry Affairs Committee.
One senior air cargo executive said it would be good for TIACA to take a different direction under his helm.
“He is a reasonable choice, and at least he brings something other than TSA knowledge. Just pushing US-centric issues such as TSA has damaged TIACA’s credibility.
“Training and recruitment, e-commence and transparency have all been ignored and these are the real concerns, as well as belly versus freighters and how to address low yields caused by overcapacity.”
Other concerns at TIACA are over its weakened financial state. While past secretary general Daniel Fernandez was known for his commercial abilities and the financial success of the association’s main event, the Air Cargo Forum, in recent years TIACA has turned its attention more to industry affairs.
This has led, according to some sources, to a fragile financial condition.
The insider said: “It seemed to me that TIACA needed a guy with conference experience to make ACF a success. Vladimir’s role inside VD was more corporate, so I am not sure what real commercial experience he has.”
However, last year’s appointment of Warren Jones as director for membership and sales removes some commercial responsibility from the secretary general’s plate.
“Between him and Warren, it should be ok,” said a source. “The finances of TIACA are related to the industry’s perception of its relevance.”
Mr Zubkov promised to respond to questions from The Loadstar later today, but in a press statement said about his role: “We recognise that TIACA needs to grow its engagement in territories where it is under-represented, such as the Far and Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and we will focus on recruiting more members in those areas.
“We must also continue to push for the modernisation of the industry, championing e-commerce and e-freight penetration and talking convincingly to the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), regional development banks and relevant regional organisations to form new alliances in order to drive faster and more complete adoption of e-freight.”
Comment on this article
Enno Osinga
November 16, 2016 at 4:18 pmExcellent appointment. Having worked with Vladimir over many years his dedication to the logistics chain and specifically Air Cargo has always been clearly present.
TIACA is growing beyond the old model of the ACF to a true voice of the entire industry which is where the future is. Vladimir, with his experience and knowledge plus his extensive network is the right man for the job.
Kester Meijer
November 16, 2016 at 4:28 pmMany congratulations to Vladimir. Over the past years I have seen him at various venues and served on some of his panels. Always well prepared, understanding the issues and challenges, and adding a touch of humor to make serious topics interesting to a wider public. He has always supported the inclusion of many industry special interest groups like Cargo iQ. I am confident that in his new role he will build bridges between the relevant stakeholders and connect the regions of the world. If we want to improve and innovate our industry we need to work together, there is no other way. With Vladimir at the helm I am sure he will continue to steer TIACA in the right direction. A choice well made!
Rob Jervis
November 16, 2016 at 4:40 pmDear Alex
It’s a great choice I think. TIACA represents a broad church and Vladimir will add new insight and skills to existing expertise. I also think that the obvious success of ACF in Paris highlights the fact that TIACA has upped the stakes with regards to its events. I’m really looking forward to working with Vladimir, Warren and the TIACA team on ACF 2018 and Multimodal Americas 2018
Best regards
Rob
Brandon Fried
November 16, 2016 at 5:37 pmThe Airforwarders Association looks forward to working with Vladimir and his new team. TIACA is the one organization covering all elements of the air cargo supply chain and it’s good to have a leader with an international regulatory focus at its helm. We wish him the best of luck and hope he will not hesitate to call upon us for assistance.
Brandon Fried
Ariaen Zimmerman
November 16, 2016 at 6:20 pmWe look forward to work with Vladimir, who indeed seems to be a very fitting choice to take TIACA ahead into a solid future.
Neel Jones Shah
November 17, 2016 at 7:53 pmI really like the selection of Vladimir as the next Secretary General of TIACA. He has a solid policy background and a great deal of experience coming into this job since he has been on the board for several years. He will be able to continue the solid foundation that Doug has laid and with Warren taking on the commercial side of the association, TIACA should be in good hands for the next several years. Both Vladimir and Warren are committed to the air cargo industry and more importantly have strong support from the air cargo community at large. I wish them both the best of luck as they move to the next phase of TIACA’s development.