EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Freight-Forwarding Network

The mandate

A freight-forwarding network has lost reliability through a succession of individually rational decisions. New lanes were added around customer demand, capacity was secured through different assumptions and local teams created workarounds when schedules failed. The result is a portfolio whose complexity now obscures which services create value and which consume scarce operational attention. The new EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will turn the recovery from a collection of initiatives into a coherent network choice.

The remit influences approximately 1,450 employees and material partners across the Netherlands, Rotterdam and a wider international operating region. It joins trade-lane strategy, portfolio allocation, capacity choices, customer commitments and transformation governance. The executive will work onsite in Rotterdam and report to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive-committee sponsor.

Service recovery cannot be separated from economics. A lane may appear profitable before exception handling, premium capacity, claims and working capital are properly attributed. Conversely, a difficult route may be strategically valuable because it anchors customer flows elsewhere. You will establish a fact base that exposes those relationships and enables explicit investment, repair or exit decisions.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned new appointment rather than an incumbent replacement. The board wants a dedicated portfolio owner before the next network and capital cycle. Existing executives retain their operational accountabilities until the role is activated, allowing the successful candidate to begin with evidence rather than inherit an announced answer.

What you will own

You will define a network thesis covering customer segments, trade lanes, products, partners and capacity. Each element should have a clear role in the portfolio and measurable conditions for continued investment. Strategy must connect demand, yield, service, cost, cash and risk; market attractiveness alone cannot justify capacity.

The reliability baseline needs rebuilding. You will reconcile promised and actual transit, missed connections, exception causes, claims, premium recovery cost and customer impact. Measures should follow shipments across organisational boundaries instead of rewarding local milestones. Operations, commercial and finance leaders must agree the same facts before portfolio choices reach the board.

Capital and resource allocation will use explicit gates. You will identify lanes to stabilise, scale, partner, redesign or leave and quantify the consequences for customers and the rest of the network. Decisions need owners, milestones and leading indicators. Initiatives that do not support the selected network should stop, even where sunk cost or local sponsorship makes that uncomfortable.

Strategic partners are part of the operating model. You will assess their capacity, data, service and recovery contribution, distinguishing relationships that extend advantage from those masking weak internal choices. Contracts should reflect shared outcomes and escalation, while concentration and switching cost remain visible.

The strategy function itself must become decision-oriented. Develop leaders who can combine market insight with operating evidence, and embed them in live choices rather than parallel analysis. Scenario planning should show what changes under demand, disruption, pricing or capacity shocks and which decisions remain robust.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, validate the portfolio and reliability baseline. Follow representative shipments, meet major customers and partners, inspect distressed lanes and test the assumptions behind current capital. Assess the leadership team and bring the executive committee a small set of immediate containment actions, decision gates and unresolved strategic choices.

From months four to nine, implement the chosen lane priorities, reallocate capacity and discontinue activity that cannot meet its threshold. Establish one performance review connecting service and economics. Demonstrate an early recovery on a material flow through fewer failures, clearer ownership and improved contribution rather than temporary expediting.

By year end, the network should have an understood portfolio, a reliable forward plan and capital directed towards evidence. Present the next annual plan and a three-year scenario showing customer, capacity, technology, cash and talent consequences. Downside actions must be executable before disruption forces them.

What the board will measure

The first-year case should remain within 10% of approved financial and service outcomes, with prospective explanations for variance. Three successive forecasts must reconcile volume, yield, cash, capacity, service and workforce. The principal reliability constraint should improve quantitatively from a verified baseline.

Priority execution issues need closure by their governance dates with proof that remedies hold through subsequent cycles. At least 90% of critical talent should remain and ready-now cover should exist for 70% of direct reports. Severe network escalations cannot remain undecided beyond 30 days.

The person

You are likely an EVP Strategy, network portfolio leader or senior operating strategist with 22–28 years in logistics, freight forwarding or a comparable international network. You have converted complex market and operational evidence into capital and portfolio choices, and can show what you stopped as well as what you scaled.

Your record includes service recovery across multiple geographies, direct executive governance and leadership of large employee and partner populations. You can quantify changes in reliability, contribution, cash and customer outcomes. References must distinguish your decisions from cyclical freight improvement.

Compensation and terms

The indicative package is EUR 285,000–390,000 base plus annual incentive and long-term participation, calibrated to final scope and current mix. Standard performance and vesting terms apply to long-term awards. The permanent appointment is onsite in Rotterdam and supports regular enterprise-governance exposure.

Confidentiality

The organisation, customers, lanes and performance evidence remain confidential. Identifying information will follow confirmed mutual interest under a suitable undertaking; published facts are deliberately blended.