New assignment for Ken Allen within Deutsche Post Group. As of January 2019, the 63-year-old British-national becomes CEO of the newly created division DHL e-Commerce
Solutions.
Simultaneously, long-time DHL Express board member John Pearson (55) becomes helmsman of DHL Express, following Allen in this position.
It’s a challenging job awaiting him. As of next year, Allen will be responsible for managing the Deutsche Post Group's parcel business abroad. Prior to entrusting him with this task the DP top
deck decided to separate the international mail and parcel business from the domestic German activities, thus creating two units with different areas of focus.
Reshaping of the business
While the national unit will be named Post & Paket Deutschland (PeP), led by Group CEO Frank Appel on an interim basis, the international parcel and e-commerce businesses, called DHL
eCommerce Solutions and headed by Ken Allen, will become a standalone division. By creating this unit, “the Group will be better positioned to leverage opportunities within the booming e-commerce
logistics sector in Europe and around the world,” states DP in a press release.
This puts the pressure on Allen, whose contract was extended until 2022. The manager’s new mandate will include responsibility for the Parcel Europe and eCommerce businesses and for Customer
Solutions & Innovation (CSI). Endowed with these competencies, he will lead the further development of the overall e-commerce strategy for the entire Group.
The home market turned into a problem child
“Ken Allen has successfully shaped the Express strategy and has led the division on an unparalleled growth trajectory by unlocking its revenue and profit potential. With his relentless focus on
the core principles of customer centricity, employee engagement and profitable growth,
Ken established truly world-class processes within the Express division, making it the most profitable division of Deutsche Post DHL Group,” stated Nikolaus von Bomhard, Chairman of the
Supervisory Board of Deutsche Post DHL Group.
This doesn’t apply to the mail and parcel business in Germany, where costs kept rising faster than sales which led to the ousting of the division’s head Juergen Gerdes last June.
Thanks to the new structure DP hopes to get back on track in its home market and attract new business in underserved regions such as Rumania, Bulgaria, but also the UK.
Pearson steps up the DHL ladder
In another personnel decision John Pearson has been assigned to take over the Board mandate for DHL Express. He joined DHL Express in 1986, and served the company as CEO in Asia Pacific, EEMEA
and Europe, as well as leading the global sales, marketing and customer service functions of the DHL Express division as Global Commercial Head.
Heiner Siegmund
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