Lee Schoeman has been appointed to the newly created position of general manager seafreight, based in Johannesburg, at independent groupage operator CFR Freight. His broad experience spans the full spectrum of the logistics industry, having started his career in the clearing and forwarding sector in 1996 where he was involved in sales for various freight forwarders. Five years later he joined a depot operator, taking on a business development role before joining a global e-commerce portal supporting the shipping industry where he was responsible for expanding its footprint into East and West Africa and the Middle East. During his seven years with the company he was also directly involved in, among others, the creation of a portal for NVOCC operators, the expansion and development of an online shipping schedule platform, and an electronic invoicing platform which would minimise administrative challenges posed by the processing of paper invoices. “While the appointment of a seafreight manager is a logical development based on company growth,” says managing director Martin Keck, “Lee’s extensive industry know-how, with particular insight into the benefits of e-commerce, which is where the industry is headed, is a perfect fit for us.” “The future,” says Schoeman, “will be e-commerce-focused and technology-driven, extracting as much benefit as possible for the business and the clients from technology. “And while the existing systems at CFR are far advanced, there is room for better utilisation of the current system,” he told FTW. E-commerce will clearly continue to be used as an efficiency-enhancing tool, but Keck makes it clear that CFR will always be a people-orientated company, leveraging the benefits of technology in its own and its customers’ best interests. In his new role, Schoeman will be responsible for engaging with suppliers and customers and representing the company within the World Wide Alliance agency network. CAPTION Lee Schoeman … ‘The future will be e-commerce-focused and technology-driven.’
