Schenker's Reiner Heiken to be new CEO of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

German 3PL and road freight operator Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced that Reiner Heiken (pictured above) will become its new chief executive on 1 December.

Mr Heiken is currently DB Schenker’s Europe region chief executive, a post he has held since 2016, after 19 years at Kuehne + Nagel.

Hellmann said the appointment coincided with the conclusion of a restructuring programme led by acting chief executive and “restructuring specialist” Thomas Knecht and chief commercial officer Jost Hellmann.

“Its key measures were the establishment of three business units with clearly defined strategic objectives, the change of legal form to an SE [a change in its legal structure from GmbH] and an extremely comprehensive structural, financial and performance-related realignment of the global Hellmann group.

“In addition, the group was successfully refinanced in a structured process resulting in a multi-year loan agreement with a stable banking syndicate,” it said.

With Dr Knecht’s task complete, the company said it would “pave the way for a management team of industry experts”, with today’s appointment of Mr Heiken and the August appointment of Michael Noth as the new chief financial officer, previously CFO of Nordzucker.

The company also said family member Jost Hellmann would be resigning as chief commercial officer at the end of the year, due to his age.

“As a result, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics will be managed from the beginning of 2019 by a board consisting exclusively of external managers,” it said. “However, the global logistics company continues to take benefit of the full support of two family representatives, Jost and Klaus Hellmann.

“The two shareholders will each continue to be represented directly or indirectly with one vote on the supervisory board, but have also brought great expertise for the successful strategic development of the group into the company with five external supervisory board members under the leadership of the former Schenker chief executive Thomas Lieb.”