The supervisory board of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has appointed Jens Drewes as its next chief executive, effective August 2024.

He will succeed Reiner Heiken who has decided to retire next year.

Heiken has been chief executive of Hellman since 2018 and has successfully developed and realigned the company, resulting in Hellmann being able to significantly expand its market position in – both through organic growth and acquisitions – and to achieve another record result in 2022 with revenues of €5 billion.

In order to continue this successful corporate development in the long-term, Heiken established a new ‘Hellmann Promise’ corporate culture a new corporate strategy ‘4ward27’ was adopted, the implementation of which he will hand over to Drewes next year.

Chairman of the supervisory board, Dr. Thomas C. Lieb, said: “Mr. Heiken has succeeded in repositioning the company in recent years and setting it up strongly for the future.”

Drewes will bring a wealth of experience in the logistics industry with a track record spanning over 30 years, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region and lately in Europe. Since the late 1990s, Drewes has worked for Kuehne+Nagel where he was most recently responsible for the European business.

Starting at Hellman in August 2024, Drewes will take on the chief executive role encompassing the company’s five regions, HR, sales and marketing, corporate development as well as corporate communications.

Speaking on behalf of the board and shareholders Jost and Klaus Hellmann, Lieb said: “We are convinced that we have found the right successor to Reiner Heiken with the appointment of Jens Drewes as CEO. With his many years of international logistics experience and his strong ability to lead teams and inspire customers, Jens Drewes will continue the successful development of the company and open up new growth areas within the scope of the ‘4ward27’ strategy.”

Furthermore, Hellman states that to meet the growing demands of IT and digitalisation and to reflect the company’s new strategy, the supervisory board has decided to expand the management board by appointing Stefan Borggreve as chief digital officer.

Borggreve will start on January 1, 2024, to oversee the existing functions IT and digital as well as the new functions innovation and sustainability – both important pillars of the corporate strategy ‘4ward27’.