Ocean, Air, Customs Brokerage & International Freight Leadership
Freight Forwarding (Ocean & Air)
Executive Search
45+ Freight Forwarding Placements — with an average 95 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
45+
Freight Forwarding Placements
95 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
86%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinLogistics & Supply Chain·Moving the World Forward
Freight-forwarding leadership in India operates across the global freight-forwarding networks (DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors International, DSV Panalpina, Kerry Logistics, Nippon Express, Yusen Logistics Global Forwarding, CEVA / CMA CGM, Maersk Logistics, GEODIS, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Agility, Bolloré, Rhenus, Sinotrans), the Indian freight-forwarders-and-customs-brokers (Allcargo Logistics — including ECU Worldwide and Nordicon, Gati-Kintetsu Global Forwarding, Om Logistics International, Shreyas Shipping and Logistics, GAC-Shipping-India, Seabird Marine Services, Forbes Marshall International, Indo Arya Central Transport, Arya Omnitalk), the NVOCC / Non-Vessel-Operating-Common-Carriers (Allcargo ECU Worldwide, WebCargo-NVOCC-partners), the customs-broker-and-CHA specialists (CHA / Customs House Agents across JNPT, Mundra, Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, Delhi-ICD-Tughlakabad), and the supply-chain-risk-advisory and trade-finance-adjacent players. Leadership requires ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility, customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship, NVOCC-and-carrier-relationship discipline, and the specific freight-forwarding rhythm.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→Global freight-forwarder scaling its India business running Chief-Executive-Officer succession — confidential search across ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility and customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship.
→Indian freight-forwarder-and-customs-broker running Chief-Commercial-Officer succession — search across shipper-and-consignee-engagement credibility and trade-lane-and-commodity-pricing architecture stewardship.
→NVOCC operator running Head-of-Ocean-Freight succession — search across ocean-carrier-relationship credibility and FCL / LCL / NVOCC architecture stewardship.
→Project-cargo-specialist forwarder running Head-of-Project-Cargo succession — search across project-cargo-and-breakbulk credibility and heavy-lift-and-super-heavy-lift architecture stewardship.
Our Freight Forwarding Track Record
Situation:
A global freight-forwarder scaling its India business needed Chief-Executive-Officer succession. The brief required ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility, customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship, global-account-management-and-multi-national-shipper engagement discipline, and the governance rhythm of global-freight-forwarder-India-country-head.
Outcome:
Placed a CEO with prior Managing-Director tenure at a competing global freight-forwarder's India business (with 18+ years of ocean-and-air-forwarding and customs-brokerage leadership) and subsequent President-and-CEO tenure at an Indian freight-forwarder-and-customs-broker. The business's trade-lane-volume, global-account-base, and freight-gross-profit progressed ahead of plan within 18 months.
Situation:
A global freight-forwarder with material Indian project-cargo-and-heavy-industrial-cargo exposure needed Head-of-Project-Cargo succession. The brief required project-cargo-and-breakbulk credibility, heavy-lift-and-super-heavy-lift architecture stewardship, EPC-and-infrastructure-and-oil-and-gas-shipper engagement discipline, and the specific project-cargo rhythm.
Outcome:
Placed a Head of Project Cargo with prior Head-of-Project-Cargo tenure at a competing global freight-forwarder (with 14+ years of project-cargo leadership including oil-and-gas-platform-and-refinery-equipment and wind-turbine-and-power-transformer cargo) and subsequent Senior-Director engagement at a chartering-and-heavy-lift operator. The operator's project-cargo-shipper-base, project-cargo-revenue, and heavy-lift-and-breakbulk execution improved materially within 15 months.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our Freight Forwarding Practice
Freight-forwarding leadership in India operates across the global freight-forwarding networks (DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors International, DSV Panalpina, Kerry Logistics, Nippon Express, Yusen Logistics Global Forwarding, CEVA / CMA CGM, Maersk Logistics, GEODIS, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Agility, Bolloré, Rhenus, Sinotrans), the Indian freight-forwarders-and-customs-brokers (Allcargo Logistics — including ECU Worldwide and Nordicon, Gati-Kintetsu Global Forwarding, Om Logistics International, Shreyas Shipping and Logistics, GAC-Shipping-India, Seabird Marine Services, Forbes Marshall International, Indo Arya Central Transport, Arya Omnitalk), the NVOCC / Non-Vessel-Operating-Common-Carriers (Allcargo ECU Worldwide, WebCargo-NVOCC-partners), the customs-broker-and-CHA specialists (CHA / Customs House Agents across JNPT, Mundra, Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, Delhi-ICD-Tughlakabad), and the supply-chain-risk-advisory and trade-finance-adjacent players. Leadership requires ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility, customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship, NVOCC-and-carrier-relationship discipline, and the specific freight-forwarding rhythm.
As a specialist CEO mandates in freight forwarding, our practice also covers CFO placements in freight-forwarding operators, our practice also covers Logistics & Supply Chain practice overview, and as a source for Logistics — warehousing & fulfilment.
The Freight Forwarding Landscape Today
India's freight-forwarding market crossed ₹2.3 lakh crore by late-2025 — across ocean, air, rail, and multi-modal-forwarding. India's merchandise-exports ($470-510B range 2023-25) and imports ($680-720B range) drive the forwarding-market. Ocean-freight dominates export-volumes (~80-85% by volume) with JNPT / Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Kamarajar-Chennai, Cochin, Vizag, Kolkata as major container-ports; Adani Ports group handles ~28% of India's container-traffic. Air-freight dominates high-value-exports (pharma, gems-and-jewellery, electronics, perishables) with Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata airports. The DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors, DSV are global-forwarder-leaders in India; Allcargo is the India-headquartered global player (acquired ECU Worldwide, Nordicon). Post-COVID freight-rate-volatility (2020-23 surge followed by 2023-25 normalisation) has reshaped forwarder-economics. The Red-Sea-Suez crisis 2023-24 has further impacted trade-lane-economics. The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) operational through 2024 has improved rail-freight-forwarding economics. The National Logistics Policy 2022, PM Gati-Shakti, and the Customs-turnaround-time-reduction architecture have accelerated trade-facilitation.
Key Leadership Challenges in Freight Forwarding
Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director succession at freight-forwarding operators requires ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility, customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship, NVOCC-and-carrier-relationship discipline, and the governance rhythm of freight-forwarding operators.
Chief Commercial Officer / Head of Sales succession requires shipper-and-consignee-engagement credibility, trade-lane-and-commodity-pricing architecture stewardship, and the specific freight-forwarding-CCO rhythm.
Head of Ocean Freight / Head of FCL-LCL succession requires ocean-carrier-relationship credibility, FCL / LCL / NVOCC architecture stewardship, and the specific ocean-freight rhythm.
Head of Air Freight succession requires air-carrier-and-charter-relationship credibility, IATA-compliance-and-air-cargo-architecture stewardship, and the specific air-freight rhythm.
Head of Customs Brokerage / Head of CHA Operations succession requires customs-brokerage-and-compliance credibility, EDI-and-ICEGATE architecture stewardship, and the specific customs-brokerage rhythm.
Chief Financial Officer succession at freight-forwarding operators requires working-capital-and-trade-finance-architecture credibility, freight-rate-and-yield-management stewardship, and the specific freight-forwarding-CFO rhythm.
What We Look For in Freight Forwarding Leaders
Across mandates, freight forwarding leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The Freight-Forwarding Chief Executive Officer
Senior logistics-business-leader with ocean-and-air-freight-trade-lane-management credibility, customs-brokerage-and-compliance architecture stewardship, NVOCC-and-carrier-relationship discipline, and the governance rhythm of freight-forwarding operators.
The Freight-Forwarding Chief Commercial Officer
Commercial leader with shipper-and-consignee-engagement credibility, trade-lane-and-commodity-pricing architecture stewardship, global-account-management discipline, and the specific freight-forwarding-CCO rhythm.
The Head of Ocean Freight / Head of FCL-LCL
Ocean-freight leader with ocean-carrier-relationship credibility, FCL / LCL / NVOCC architecture stewardship, container-allocation-and-freight-buying discipline, and the specific ocean-freight rhythm.
The Head of Air Freight
Air-freight leader with air-carrier-and-charter-relationship credibility, IATA-compliance-and-air-cargo-architecture stewardship, air-charter-and-perishables-and-pharma-cargo discipline, and the specific air-freight rhythm.
The Head of Customs Brokerage / CHA Operations
Customs-brokerage leader with customs-brokerage-and-compliance credibility, EDI-and-ICEGATE architecture stewardship, HS-code-and-classification discipline, and the specific customs-brokerage rhythm.
The Freight-Forwarding Chief Financial Officer
Finance executive with working-capital-and-trade-finance-architecture credibility, freight-rate-and-yield-management stewardship, receivables-and-carrier-payment-architecture discipline, and the specific freight-forwarding-CFO rhythm.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
Freight-forwarding activity sits at the intersection of the Customs Act 1962 and the Customs Tariff Act 1975 (governing import-export-customs architecture with the Indian Customs EDI System / ICES, e-Sanchit, ICEGATE, and the Faceless-Assessment architecture), the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations 2018 (CBLR — governing CHA / customs-broker licensing, examinations, and responsibilities), the Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act 1993, the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1925 and Bill of Lading Act 1856, the Merchant Shipping Act 1958 (with amendments through 2023), the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act 2017, the Marine Insurance Act 1963, the Hague-Visby Rules / Hamburg Rules / Rotterdam Rules (applicable via treaty-architecture), the Carriage by Air Act 1972 with the Montreal Convention 1999 and the Warsaw-Hague-Protocol (for air-cargo liability), the IATA Cargo Agency Rules and Dangerous Goods Regulations (IATA DGR), the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) architecture including FTP 2023, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (with FEMA Current Account Transactions Rules, FEMA Export Rules, Authorised-Dealer-Bank architecture for trade-settlement), the Goods and Services Tax Act 2017 (with IGST architecture for international-trade), the Special Economic Zones Act 2005 (for SEZ-freight operations), the Free Trade Warehousing Zones architecture, the Central Warehousing Corporation Act 1962, the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act 2007, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notifications and schemes (RoDTEP, RoSCTL, MEIS legacy), the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) rules, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules for air-cargo, the Bureau of Immigration architecture for air-crew, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA), and the DPDP Act 2023. The 28+ Free Trade Agreements / FTAs (including India-UAE CEPA, India-Australia ECTA, India-EFTA TEPA 2024, India-UK-FTA in negotiation) shape tariff-and-origin architecture. The SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies) licensing architecture applies to dual-use and sensitive cargo.
Compensation Architecture
Freight-forwarding leadership compensation mixes substantial base-and-bonus with commercial-and-trade-lane-linked-incentive architecture and (at PE-and-listed-platforms) ESOP. Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director at freight-forwarding operators ranges ₹3.5-9 crore fixed + ₹1.5-4 crore annual bonus + ESOP / equity architecture (at listed-platforms typically 0.3-0.8% ESOP; at Indian-majority-family-owned operators typically retention-bonus architecture). Chief Commercial Officer compensation ranges ₹2-5.5 crore + ₹1-2.75 crore annual bonus + trade-lane-and-new-account-linked-incentive architecture. Head of Ocean Freight / Head of FCL-LCL compensation ranges ₹1.5-4 crore + bonus + freight-volume-and-yield-linked-incentive architecture. Head of Air Freight compensation ranges ₹1.5-3.5 crore + bonus + air-freight-volume-and-yield-linked-incentive architecture. Head of Customs Brokerage compensation ranges ₹1-2.75 crore + bonus + customs-clearance-volume-linked-incentive architecture. Chief Financial Officer compensation ranges ₹1.75-4.5 crore + ₹75 lakh-2.25 crore annual bonus + ESOP architecture at listed-platforms. Trade-Lane-Head compensation ranges ₹1.5-4 crore + trade-lane-P&L-linked-incentive architecture.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for Freight Forwarding
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director searches at freight-forwarding operators.
Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Sales searches.
Head of Ocean Freight and Head of FCL-LCL searches.
Head of Air Freight searches.
Head of Customs Brokerage and Head of CHA Operations searches.
Chief Financial Officer searches at freight-forwarding operators.
Trade-Lane-Head searches (US, Europe, APAC, Middle East, Africa, Latin America).
Head of Project Cargo / Head of Breakbulk searches.
Organisations We Serve
Global freight-forwarders and their India operations (DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors International, DSV Panalpina, Kerry Logistics, Nippon Express, Yusen Logistics Global Forwarding, CEVA / CMA CGM, Maersk Logistics, GEODIS, Hellmann Worldwide, Agility, Bolloré, Rhenus, Sinotrans).
Indian freight-forwarders and customs-brokers (Allcargo Logistics including ECU Worldwide, Gati-Kintetsu Global Forwarding, Om Logistics International, Shreyas Shipping, GAC-Shipping-India, Seabird Marine Services).
NVOCC operators (Allcargo ECU Worldwide, WebCargo-NVOCC-partners, independent NVOCC operators).
Customs-broker and CHA specialists at JNPT, Mundra, Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, Delhi-ICD-Tughlakabad, and other major gateways.
Shipping-line-affiliated forwarding and logistics-arms (Maersk Logistics, CMA CGM-CEVA, Hapag-Lloyd integrated-logistics arms).
Project-cargo and breakbulk forwarders (for EPC, infrastructure, and heavy-industrial cargo).
Supply-chain-risk-advisory and trade-finance-adjacent operators.
Indian import-export merchants and shippers scaling global-trade operations.
Freight Forwarding leaders assessed on the Logistics “VELOCITY” framework
Seven dimensions calibrated for logistics and supply chain leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for freight forwarding mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Logistics & Supply Chain
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