4PL Control-Tower Commercial Reset Leader — Industrial Distribution

The mandate

The control-tower head was dismissed after three large customers challenged gain-share invoices and an internal review found carrier surcharges passing through without contracted validation. The business acts as a 4PL integrator, orchestrating multiple 3PL warehouses, 2PL carriers and customs providers without owning transport assets, but its data and commercial decisions no longer produce one defensible service-and-margin truth.

The interim must start within three weeks for ten months, spending three days in Copenhagen, two remotely and travelling fortnightly to Hamburg or Rotterdam. A permanent search begins after customer economics are restated in month four, with five weeks of overlap planned. Extension is possible only for a successor notice delay, not unfinished remediation.

Handover requires every strategic account to have reconciled cost-to-serve, accepted billing logic and a governed provider baseline; service exceptions must route through one tower with measured recovery; and the successor must chair a customer review and quarterly carrier allocation. Two closes within one percentage point of validated account contribution margin are also required.

The leader may suspend disputed charges, rebalance approved carrier volumes, replace temporary account leads and settle claims within DKK 3 million. Contract repricing, provider termination above DKK 20 million, permanent hiring and customer exits require committee approval; the interim cannot commit owned fleet or warehouse capital.

ERP replacement, network-footprint redesign and warehouse automation are excluded. The remit is the commercial and decision layer that makes a 4PL accountable across providers, not execution of each 2PL or 3PL operation.

Why this seat is open

Margin leakage and contested invoices destroyed confidence in the previous control-tower leadership. Account teams cannot independently arbitrate carrier, customer and internal data. The board needs temporary executive authority to restore facts and decision discipline before appointing a durable leader.

What you will own

• Reconstruct account contribution from shipment, warehouse, accessorial, claims and contracted gain-share data, with traceable exceptions.
• Decide which invoices are released, corrected or credited and present material settlements with supporting economics.
• Redesign carrier allocation around landed cost, reliability, capacity, carbon and recovery performance rather than headline tender price.
• Establish a tower exception taxonomy with decision deadlines, financial exposure and named provider or customer owners.
• Renegotiate operating scorecards so each 2PL and 3PL partner is measured on controllable outcomes and reliable source data.
• Reset strategic-customer governance through reconciled baselines, benefit ledgers and escalation rights tied to contract language.
• Transfer pricing logic, provider decisions, account risks and the operating calendar through two successor-led reviews.

Candidate qualifications

• Led a multi-country 4PL control tower with commercial authority across independent carriers, warehouses and customs providers.
• Can evidence recovery of disputed gain-share or open-book logistics economics using shipment-level cost and contract data.
• Reallocated provider volume during live operations without breaching capacity, customer or competition constraints.
• Governed control-tower data lineage across TMS, WMS, carrier invoices and customer order systems.
• Faced executive customers over failed service or unsupported billing and secured a documented commercial resolution.
• Handed a repaired logistics P&L and governance cadence to permanent leadership after a time-bound intervention.

Non-negotiables

• Available within three weeks for the Copenhagen and provider-travel pattern.
• No financial interest in incumbent carriers, 3PLs or logistics technology vendors.
• Will expose unsupported margin rather than preserve disputed revenue recognition.
• Has held enterprise director or CXO-1 authority in a true asset-light 4PL model.

1. 49 words maximum. State your earliest start date and the largest 4PL account economics reset you personally led.
2. 49 words maximum. Which source records proved a gain-share or pass-through invoice was wrong?
3. 49 words maximum. Describe one carrier allocation you changed despite its apparently lower tender price.