Neel Jones Shah takes top air freight spot at Flexport

Neel Jones Shah, formerly chief of Delta Cargo, has resurfaced as global head of air freight and senior vice-president at Flexport, a San Francisco-based forwarder.

Mr Shah also serves on the board of Amerijet International and is a senior adviser for Boston Consulting Group.

Flexport launched in 2013 and calls itself a “full-service freight forwarder and customs broker built on modern technology”. It has raised some $94m from venture capital firms.

The company is also advertising for a “chief of staff”. In its job advert it notes: “You’ll be at the centre of managing key aspects of the CEO’s day-to-day engagements and driving larger cross-functional initiatives forward. You thrive in high-velocity, unstructured environments and possess the acute business judgment and communication skills needed to collaborate with a variety of people and job functions. You’re outrageously organised and thorough, anticipating potential issues before they become a problem. You have an interest in technology and global trade and are hungry to learn what it takes to grow and manage a pre-IPO company.”

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen last week made the keynote speech at the CNS conference in Florida, noting that the industry was stuck in the 1990s and that technology should be used to stop the race-to-the-bottom on price.

Flexport says it will be in the top 50 forwarders by the end of this year.